"You are not going to get anywhere unless you've got the horses," is one way this is expressed among baseball people. So whenever key players are injured, a manager has a ready-made excuse.
But just as injuries to a team's big names provides an artless answer to a manager's critics, they also create opportunities to experiment. As often as not, teams lack the talent they need to be much more competitive because the organization lacks the vision or creativity to see what it's players can actually do.
Take the Seibu Lions.
With injuries to both of their big home run hitters, Alex Cabrera and Scott McClain, and their star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Lions could be forgiven for falling out of the pennant race, but they haven't. Manager Haruki Ihara, in his first year as skipper, apparently has been too busy looking for solutions to worry about the guys who can't play.
Kazuo Matsui, their star shortstop and leadoff hitter, has been a big reason, hitting a ton, getting on base and hitting for power to keep the Lions' offense ticking. But one player doesn't make a team.
Ihara, who had less playing time in the PL or CL than any other recent manager except former Fighters and Braves skipper Toshiharu Ueda, apparently knows a thing or two about hungry players.
His Lions are blessed with some talented veterans, but look around the roster and you'll see a bunch of guys contributing who have resumes like Ihara's.
For years, the Lions have motored along without a regular left fielder or second baseman. There have been plenty of candidates and platoon combinations, but the Lions were no closer to filling the two weakest spots in the lineup last October than they were in April 1999.
And then Ihara showed up. He gave Hiroyuki Takagi, who has been building himself up while getting a first-hand view of the Lions' revolving door at second base, the job at second base. In left, Ihara told his No. 3 catcher, Kazuhiro Wada, to practice his fielding in the outfield and just keep hitting.
Although Hiroyuki Takagi is just a singles hitter, he is hitting .292 and has drawn 14 walks, giving him a .352 on-base percentage, third best among the Seibu regulars.
Wada, 30, is a regular for the first time, hitting for power and average.
Toshiaki Inubushi, another 30-year-old catcher, has filled in as a DH and been very productive in part-time play (41 games of the Lions' first 60)--his first real playing time in 12 pro seasons.
To give Ihara even more to work with, the Lions front office has brought in two new players: Taiwan right-hander Chang Chih Chia and Tom Evans, a 27-year-old with the Hanshin Tigers after hitting .242 with two homers for the Tigers a year ago. Both players have made an immediate impact.
Chang has won two of the four games he's pitched in. His fastball hits 140 kph and has good movement. He also has an excellent forkball and an occasional curveball.
Evans--although he went through a nightmare stretch in a three-game set with the BlueWave this week, when he struck out 10 times in three games--is hitting .321 and has doubled his home run output from last year.
After missing his best shot at the majors due to bad timing, it looked like Evans would get a shot to show his stuff this year when Hanshin asked him back.
But when the Tigers changed managers during the winter, Evans found himself riding the bus from one Western League stop to another.
"This is perfect," Evans said of the trade that brought him playing time with the Lions. "There is some adjustment (to the new league) but you want a chance to play."
He, and a lot of his unheralded teammates are eager for a chance, and Ihara seems happy to give his hungry Lions a chance to feast on the rest of the Pacific League this summer.
The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The
Daily Yomiuri .