TOKYO, Jun 3 (Kyodo/APP): Japanese baseball legend Shigeo Nagashima, a People’s Honor Award recipient who rose to stardom for his on-field exploits during the country’s era of rapid economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s, died Tuesday due to pneumonia, the Yomiuri Giants said. He was 89.
Nagashima, who was a key player on the Giants team that won nine consecutive Central League and Japan Series titles from 1965 to 1973 and later managed the club, was a charismatic figure whose popularity transcended sports.
Together with teammate Sadaharu Oh, or “O-N” as the pair were nicknamed, Nagashima became a household name at a time when the country’s economy was booming and is fondly remembered by many middle-aged and older Japanese with nostalgia for those times.
His retirement from playing in 1974 made the year’s top 10 news stories, while the speech he gave at his retirement ceremony, in which he said “My Giants are forever immortal,” has become part of Japan’s popular lexicon.
Over his 17-year playing career, Nagashima won the Central League batting title six times, was home run king twice and RBI leader five times. He was also a five-time CL MVP.
He played in 2,186 games during his storied career, with a .305 batting average, 2,471 hits, 1,522 RBIs and 444 home runs.
“I’m really shocked to hear the sudden obituary,” said the 85-year-old Oh, whose 868 home runs is the Nippon Professional Baseball record.
“I’m really disappointed that Mr. Nagashima, who shines brightly in the history of Japanese baseball, has departed after a long bout with illness. He taught me lots of things. I’m grateful to have been able to play with him.”
Known as “Mr. Giants” — often shortened to “Mister” — Nagashima was a flashy fielder with a flair for game-breaking batting heroics. His signature moment was his game-winning, sayonara home run in the first pro game attended by a Japanese emperor on June 25, 1959.
Nagashima is credited with helping pro ball surpass Japan’s traditional university game as the nation’s most popular brand of baseball.
When Yomiuri engineered his hiring as Japan’s manager for the 2004 Olympics, players flocked to his banner. Japan swept through Asian qualifying but he was scratched from Olympic duty when he was felled by a stroke in March 2004.
As Giants manager, he won five pennants, including two Japan Series titles, over 15 seasons. Although he was eventually named the Giants “Manager Emeritus,” Nagashima’s first tenure as manager was a rocky one.
When his offense hit the skids in 1974 and the Giants just missed out on a 10th straight CL pennant, Yomiuri management jettisoned the team’s most successful skipper ever, Tetsuharu Kawakami, to make room for Nagashima.
In 1975, the rookie skipper led the Giants to their only last-place finish. Nagashima won CL pennants in 1976 and 1977, but not the Japan Series and was fired after the 1980 season.
Nagashima returned as manager of the Giants in 1993, while a free agent system introduced at the time allowed the team to secure a steady flow of veteran front-line talent.
In 1994, he won his first Japan Series pennant with a team powered by his young batting disciple and now fellow Hall of Famer, Hideki Matsui, who later joined the New York Yankees.
Nagashima got the better of his old teammate Oh when the pair faced each other as managers in the 2000 Japan Series with Yomiuri prevailing 4-2 against the Pacific League-winning Daiei (now SoftBank) Hawks in the best-of-seven series.
Despite being better known for wacky phrases that caught the public’s attention than his communication skills, Nagashima still had a way of getting the best out of his players.