Hello all!
On the blog today, a 1971 Japanese special card of all-time great Shigeo Nagashima to keep things super interesting:
Nagashima put in 17 seasons with Yomiuri alongside the great Sadaharu Oh, with Oh batting third and Nagashima clean-up.
Over
that time he was a part of eleven champion teams, while taking home the
Rookie of the Year Award in 1958, as well as five Central League MVP
Awards, eventually having his #3 retired.
By the time he
retired after the 1974 season, he finished with 2471 hits, 444 home runs
and 1522 runs batted in, hitting .305 over 2186 games, five times
topping 100 RBI while hitting 20+ homers thirteen times.
Incredibly, he won the "Best Nine Award" every single year he played, seventeen times (equivalent to the All-Star team here).
Right
after his playing days were over, Nagashima went on to manage the Tokyo
Giants for 15 seasons, 1975-1980, 1993-2001, guiding the team to five
first-place finishes and three titles, winning 1034 games against 889
losses for a .538 winning percentage.
I love inserting some
legends of the Japanese League from time to time here on the blog,
something that would have been so cool for Topps to do throughout their
card sets so we could learn more than just Sadaharu Oh.
