— apologies: this post was supposed to go out Tuesday night along with a database table showing the top shortstops in Japanese pro baseball history, but my relationship with my database table software is not a happy one, and that is still working…
Hall of Famer Yoshio Yoshida died Monday, Feb. 3 of a cerebral infarction, multiple media outlets reported Tuesday. Yoshida is the only man to manage the Hanshin Tigers three times, with his second stint producing the 1985 Japan Series championships, the Tigers first and only one until 2023.
Because most of us only remember him as the Tigers manager, it is easy to understand why most of Tuesday’s headlines lead with Hanshin’s Japan Series triumph, which at the time was a huge deal.
After all, of the 12 franchises to play 5,000 or more games, the Tigers’ winning percentage since league play began in 1936 is .517, fourth best after the Giants, the Hawks and the 1950 expansion Lions.
Yet, in 1984, the Giants had won 17 Japan Series, the Lions five, the Hawks three and the Tigers none. At that time, the Kintetsu Buffaloes where the only other remaining NPB franchise without a Japan Series title.
So it is easy to see how the one championship thrust Yoshida into the spotlight in 1985, although he was managing skills were frequently criticized by his players.
But because of the Japan Series title, it is easy to overlook the fact that Yoshida was one of the greatest shortstops Japan has ever produced. He burst onto the scene in 1953, when he set a Central League record for double plays by a shortstop with 94, a mark that would stand for 28 years — that’s longer than Babe Ruth’s single season home run record lasted.
The data that was supposed to go here would show that of all the shortstops with 1,000 or more games played, only three created more defensive value per game — as measured by Bill James’ Win Shares.”
The top 10 in win shares per 100 career games (with one win equal to three win shares):
- Kiyoshi Yamada 山田 潔: 1938-1956, 5.19
- Makoto Kosaka 小坂 誠: 1997-2007, 5.11
- Chusuke Kizuka 木塚 忠助: 1948-1959, 5.10
- Yoshio Yoshida 吉田 義男: 1953-1966, 5.06
- Saburo Hirai 平井 正明: 1948-1956, 4.81
- Hayato Sakamoto 坂本 勇人: 2007-2023,4.78
- Kenji Koike 小池 兼司: 1961-1974, 4.76
- Sosuke Genda 源田 壮亮: 2017 ~ 2024+, 4.74
- Kazumasa Kono 河埜 和正: 1972-1986, 4.35
- Kazuo Matsui 松井 稼頭央: 1995-2013, 4.23
Sakamoto’s last year where short was his primary position was 2023, and Matsui’s 2013.
From 1989 to 1995, Yoshida lived in Paris and was manager of France’s national team. He was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992 alongside his longtime rival Yomiuri Giants shortststop Tatsuro Hirooka, who quit his post as Seibu Lions manager after Yoshida’s Tigers defeated the Lions in the Japan Series.
Unlike the acerbic Hirooka, who has spent much of his life trying to elevate his doctrine of kanri yakyu into a fundamentalist baseball religion that would allow heretics to be publicly flogged, Yoshida always had a smile on his face and a kind word for everyone.
I’m not going to tell you that Yoshida was twice the shortstop that Hirooka was. Hirooka didn’t object much people compared him to the Ozzie Smith of his day, but according to Win Shares, Yoshida was only 150 percent the shortstop Hirooka was.
Hirooka was voted the CL’s best shortstop in 1954, and after that it was Yoshida every year from 1955 to 1965 with the exception of 1961 and 1963. In 2014, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s first pro league, an all-time Best Nine was selected, with Yoshida at shortstop.
How’s that for a career?
