Tag Archives: Sadaharu Oh

Nagashima: A giant among Giants

Japanese baseball’s most popular player ever, Shigeo Nagashima, passed away last week at the age of 89, and across Japan, ballparks began flying their flags and observing moments of silence for the man credited with boosting the pro baseball’s popularity.

Stories about Nagashima’s playing career and his on-field charisma are legend, but I remember him only as a manager in his second and more successful stint, when he was adored by the public and players and simultaneously mocked for his ridiculous statements, idiosyncracies, and tactics.

As a player, Nagashima was a true great, with the fifth most productive career ever by a Japanese player, and the greatest who didn’t turn pro straight out of high school. For the first four years of his career, from 1958 to 1961, Nagashima was the Yomiuri Giants’ most productive player, when he was surpassed by teammate Sadaharu Oh, who remains the greatest player born in Japan to ever play baseball.

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Ichiro Suzuki: the ultimate throwback

Ichiro Suzuki had an outsized impact on baseball in Japan and the United States, and on Thursday, after he was announced as one of the four newest members in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, he subtly reminded us of what he has meant.

In Japan, Ichiro’s effort to be the ultimate player in the traditional Japanese style, restored a zest and unpredictability to pro baseball that a generation of big thinkers had gone a long way toward erasing.

When he came to the United States, Ichiro was a player like few remembered seeing, someone who lit up every game he played whether he was at bat, on the bases or in the field. He was a player who could dominate play with the same non-stop action that had made the game popular in America before anyone had ever heard of Babe Ruth.

In my limited experience with him, Ichiro has two kinds of press conferences, those he manages with pre-arranged questions for his prepared answers mean to display his skill with language and imagery, and those where he takes whatever questions he gets and is starkly honest and open with his answers. These latter ones are feasts.

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