The Seibu Lions announced Thursday the appointment of farm team manager Hisanobu Watanabe as skipper of the Pacific League club's top team, taking over for Tsutomu Ito, who resigned last weekend. Watanabe, a 42-year-old former Seibu pitcher, has agreed to a two-year deal carrying a ¥50 million signing bonus and the same amount in an estimated annual salary. "I accepted this offer out of gratitude to the team that gave me an opportunity to get my career started," Watanabe told reporters at a Tokyo hotel. "I'll try to be a manager that can take care of the players by keeping the same kind of mind-set as them." A first-round pick in the 1983 fall amateur draft, Watanabe compiled a 125-110 record with 27 saves and a 3.67 ERA in his 15-year playing career through 1998, including a one-year stint with the Yakult Swallows. He later served as player-coach in Taiwan before joining the coaching staff of the Seibu organization in 2004. He pitched mostly as a key rotation starter in the heyday of the Lions, who won six Japan Series titles in seven years between 1986 and 1992, while becoming the winningest pitcher in the Pacific League three times.
