Shigeo Nagashima
|
|
Shigeo Nagashima (長嶋茂雄 Nagashima Shigeo, born February 20, 1936) is a famous Japanese baseball player in Japan. He is famous for his ability and unique character. He played for the Yomiuri Giants for thirteen years. After that he was the head coach of the Yomiuri Giants, also known as the Kyojin.
He went to Sakura High School No. 1 in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture, and after graduating he went to Rikkyo University. During his school days he played baseball and left remarkable results. In 1958 the Yomiuri Giants signed him to a contract and everyone was looking forward to seeing him play. In his debut game, he was struck out four times in a row by legendary 400-game winner Masaichi Kaneda. Later after the game Kaneda made a comment on Shigeo and said that "Shigeo would become a great opponent to me so I did my best to defeat him." Shigeo's first game was not good but after that he started to make great records as he used to. He played for the Giants for 17 years and was awarded many titles. For example he led the batting average for six times, home run king for two times, run batted in (RBI) king for five times and was the most valuable player five times. While he played for the Giants he led his team to the league pennant 13 times. His glory put him in the Japanese baseball Hall of fame and his uniform number 3 was retired by the Giants.
After retiring as a player he became the manager of the Kyojin and led the team to severla pennants. Frequently criticized for failing to win despite the high-salaried players provided to him by the Yomiuri Group, he was fired as Giants manager in 2003 and became the head coach of the Olympic baseball team of Japan. His participation in the Olympics as manager was cut short when he had a stroke in March 2004, leaving fellow former Giant Kiyoshi Nakahata to coach the squad.
Nicknamed "Mr. Giant," Nagashima was considered without peer in popularity during his career from 1958-74. Upon his retirement, thousands of fans cried. He has enjoyed his retirement as a beloved figure in Japan.ja:長嶋茂雄 zh:長島茂雄