Prospect Retrospective: Jae Weong Seo

Jae Seo Photo by Harry How/Getty Images After managing the Norfolk Tides, the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in 1995, manager Bobby Valentine left to manage the Chiba Lotte Marines, a team in Nippon Professional Baseball’s Pacific League. With a 55-73 record in 1994, the Marines ended the season in second-to-last place, in front of only the Nippon Ham Fighters. Manager Soroku Yagisawa was fired mid-season and replaced for the 1995 season by Valentine. The second gaijin to manage an NPB team, Bobby V led the team to a 69-58 record, second only behind the Orix Blue Wave. Though he had a two-year contact, he was fired after just one season. According to Marines general manager Tatsuro Hirooka, Valentine was let go “because he didn’t understand Japanese baseball,” though the Marines’ record and the adulation the fans showed Valentine said otherwise.

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