Baseball: Fighters to stick with Shinjo as skipper in 2024

Despite heading for their second straight last-place finish under Tsuyoshi Shinjo, the Pacific League’s Nippon Ham Fighters announced Wednesday that they have extended the popular manager’s contract for a third year through 2024.

“I am willing to take off this uniform if our results look like this year’s,” Shinjo told a press conference at the Fighters’ Es Con Field Hokkaido, just outside Sapporo.

“I want to compete while developing players and will fight to the death to do so.”

Outfielder Chusei Mannami has blossomed under Shinjo’s management. In his fifth pro season out of high school, Manna...