Shigeo Nagashima

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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. Actor and former Giants player Kazushige Nagashima is his son.

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 commented, "Shigeo would become a great opponent to me so I did my best to defeat him." Shigeo's first game was not a good indication of how his career would be. He played for the Giants for 17 years and received many awards. He led the league in batting average six times, home runs twice, runs batted in (RBI) five times, and was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) 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 has been retired by the Giants.

After retiring as a player, he became the manager "Kyojin" of the Giants and led the team to several 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. Baseball", "Mr. Giants", and "Mr. Proyakyu", 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.

[edit] Statistics

YEAR	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	TB	RBI	SB	BB	SO	AVG
1958	130	502	89	153	34	8	29	290	92	37	41	53	.305
1959	124	449	88	150	32	6	27	275	82	21	74	40	.334
1960	126	452	71	151	22	12	16	245	64	31	70	28	.334
1961	130	448	84	158	32	9	28	292	86	14	89	34	.353
1962	134	525	69	151	38	5	25	274	80	18	56	61	.288
1963	134	478	99	163	28	6	37	314	112	16	89	30	.341
1964	133	459	81	144	19	6	31	268	90	13	101	34	.314
1965	131	503	70	151	23	5	17	235	80	2	52	42	.300
1966	128	474	83	163	31	3	26	278	105	14	61	39	.344
1967	122	474	65	134	25	3	19	222	77	2	38	37	.283
1968	131	494	80	157	21	4	39	303	125	8	69	40	.318
1969	126	502	71	156	23	2	32	279	115	1	40	58	.311
1970	127	476	56	128	22	2	22	220	105	1	40	52	.269
1971	130	485	84	155	21	2	34	282	86	4	61	45	.320
1972	125	448	64	119	17	0	27	217	92	3	64	34	.266
1973	127	483	60	130	14	0	20	204	76	3	38	35	.269
1974	128	442	56	108	16	1	15	171	55	2	29	33	.244
Total	2186	8094	1270	2471	418	74	444	4369	1522	190	1012	729	.305