Kimiyasu Kudo almost became the manager of the DeNA BayStars during the 2011 offseason. The BayStars, though, didn't want to cede as much control over running the team as Kudo wanted, so the parties went their separate ways.
The BayStars instead hired Kiyoshi Nakahata, who lost at least 75 games in each of his four seasons in charge. Kudo moved on as well, eventually going into TV before becoming manager of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in 2015.
The move paid off handsomely for both Kudo and the Hawks.
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