Japanese baseball was in RIP mode Friday, when news came that a pair of Hall of Fame pitchers, had died, Shigeru Sugishita, at the age of 97, and Manabu Kitabeppu, just a month shy of his 66th birthday. We had a closer milestone, a PL pitcher being a difference maker with his batting chops.
In other news, there was a neat story today in Kyodo News about a Canadian educator, the cofounder of the fan club Ohtani Canada, is using Shohei Ohtani to help teachers teach character building to elementary school kids, and make the world a better place.
RIP Shigeru Sugishita
I talked to Sugishita once at the Hall of Fame, when the late great Senichi Hoshino was inducted, and he struck me as a guy who cared about young pitchers, because he expressed his enthusiasm that high school baseball’s introduction of pitch limits might keep more youngsters from blowing out their arms early. I knew he was the “God of forkballs” and if it’s because of him that the pitch gradually became so popular in Japan, then maybe he was the Godfather of forkballs, too, which would be an even greater legacy.
Sadaharu Oh, whose 1959 rookie season with the Giants came after Sugimoto’s final CL season in 1958, said he’d heard Sugishita was a chess player on the mound.
“You can’t tell the story of Japanese baseball without Sugishita,” Oh said.
RIP Manabu Kitabeppu
When I came to Japan in 1984, Kitabeppu was the ace of the Hiroshima Carp at a time when they had a trio of big pitchers. He was a grumpy-looking guy who didn’t throw hard, and who by all accounts was a loner within his own team. Despite that, when he was a member of the annual Sawamura Award selection committee — generally a group of seven guys convinced no pitcher today could ever be as good as they were – I found Kitabeppu to be humblest member of the group, who always had positive things to say about the candidates.
Kitabeppu’s legend is that he joined the Carp in the spring of 1976 right after they’d won their first Central League pennant, took one look at the speed that ace pitcher Yoshiro Sotokoba and decided his future lie in pitching to contact, and that his command was based on lower body strength honed by bicycling every day from his home to his high school, a 40-kilometer round trip.
Friday’s games
Carp 2, Lions 0: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, lefty Hiroki Tokoda (6-1) threw a five-hit shutout, and with fans in the stands wearing or waving Carp shirts with Kitabeppu’s No. 20, Shota Suekane and Shota Dobayashi shot one of Chihiro Sumida’s best games as a pro to hell when they hit back-to-back home runs to open the fifth. Sumida (2-6), the Lions’ top draft signing from 2021, struck out eight, walked one and allowed six hits over six innings.
Continue reading NPB news: June 16, 2023
