Shigeo Nagashima, Japan’s most celebrated baseball player and a linchpin of the storied Tokyo Yomiuri Giants dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s, died in a Tokyo hospital on Tuesday. He was 89.
He died of pneumonia, according to a joint statement released by the Giants, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper and Nagashima’s management company.
A star from the moment he signed his first professional contract in 1957, Nagashima instantly made a splash with his powerful bat, speed on the basepaths and catlike reflexes as a third baseman. He notched numerous batting titles and Most Valuable Player Awards, and he was a key member of the Giants’ heralded “V-9” teams, which won nine consecutive Japan Series titles from 1965 to 1973.
More than any player of his generation, Nagashima symbolized a country that was feverishly rebuilding after World War II and gaining clout as an economic power. Visiting dignitaries sought his company. His good looks and charisma helped make him an attraction; he was considered Japan’s most eligible bachelor until his wedding in 1965, which was broadcast nationally.
The news media tracked Nagashima’s every move. The fact that he played for the Giants, who were owned by the Yomiuri media empire, amplified his exploits. He wore his success and celebrity so comfortably that he became known as “Mr. Giants,” “Mr. Baseball” or, sometimes, simply “Mister.”
“No matter what he did or where he went there was a photo of him — attending a reception for the emperor, or coaching a Little League seminar, or appearing at the premiere of the latest Tom Cruise movie,” Robert Whiting, a longtime chronicler of Japanese baseball, wrote about Nagashima in The Japan Times in 2013. “People joked that he was the real head of state.”
None of that celebrity would have been possible had he not excelled as a ballplayer. Along with his teammate Sadaharu Oh, Japan’s home run king, Nagashima was the centerpiece of the country’s most enduring sports dynasty. He hit 444 home runs, had a lifetime batting average of .305, won six batting titles and five times led the league in runs batted in. He was a five-time most valuable player and was chosen as the league’s top third baseman in each of his 17 seasons. He was inducted into Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.
In his first season, 1958, he led the league in home runs and was second in stolen bases and batting average, earning him rookie of the year honors. And then, early in his second season, he made history in the first game attended by a Japanese emperor, Hirohito, and an empress, Nagako. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Nagashima hit a 2-2 pitch into the left field stands for a game-winning home run, considered one of the most dramatic sports events in Japanese history.
One of Nagashima’s trademarks was his work ethic, a character trait that was particularly celebrated during Japan’s postwar rise. Under the guidance of manager Tetsuharu Kawakami, Nagashima practiced from dawn to dusk, enduring an infamous 1,000-fungo drill that required him to field ground ball after ground ball. In the off-season, he trained in the mountains, running and swinging the bat to the point of exhaustion. He bought a house by the Tama River in Tokyo so he could run there, and he added a room to his home where he could practice swinging.
He was often the Giants’ highest-paid player, showered with hefty contracts and bonuses. By the early 1960s, word of his talents had reached the United States. Bill Veeck of the Chicago White Sox tried unsuccessfully to buy Nagashima’s contract, as did Walter O’Malley of the Los Angeles Dodgers, now home to the Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani. (Ohtani offered his condolences on Instagram, posting photos of himself with the aging icon.)
After ending his playing career in 1974 (his number, 3, was retired), Nagashima became the team’s manager at just 38. He was far less successful in that role, at least initially. He pushed his players — some of whom were his former teammates — to work as hard as he did. “Bashing the players this year cultivates spirit,” Nagashima told The Japan Times.
In his first season, the Giants finished in last place for the first time. The next two years, they won the Central League pennant but lost the Japan Series. The Giants failed to win their division for the next three years, and Nagashima was let go in 1980.
Shigeo Nagashima was born on Feb. 20, 1936, in Sakura, in Chiba prefecture. His father, Toshi, was a municipal worker and his mother, Chiyo, was a homemaker. Nagashima grew up rooting for the Hanshin Tigers, the Giants’ archrival. He took up baseball in elementary school, but because of wartime shortages, he made a ball from marbles and cloth and used a bamboo stick as a bat. After graduating from high school, he entered Rikkyo University, where he started at third base. Rikkyo, typically an also-ran, won three college tournaments.
After graduating from Rikkyo, Nagashima signed a then-record 18 million yen (about $50,000 in 1958) contract with the Giants. As his star rose on the field, speculation about his marital status grew. In 1964, he met Akiko Nishimura, a hostess at the Tokyo Olympic Games who had studied in the United States and spoke fluent English, which were considered marks of status and education. Their wedding was the most-watched television broadcast in Japan the following year. She died in 2007.
Their oldest child, Kazushige, played sparingly for the Giants when his father managed the club and now works in television. Nagashima’s second son, Masaoki, is a former racecar driver, and his daughter Mina is a newscaster.
After Nagashima’s first stint as a manager, he worked as a television commentator. His affable style was matched by his occasionally incomprehensible chatter. But his charisma made him an irresistible target when the Giants were looking for a new manager in 1993. Then 56, Nagashima debated whether to return to the dugout.
“My wife and I were looking forward to a quiet life playing golf, and it was hard to decide to throw myself back into the fight,” he told reporters. “But I was raised as a Giant, and if I have the strength, I will do whatever it takes for the Giants.”
Mellowed by age, Nagashima was easier on his players this time around. He also had the good fortune to manage Hideki Matsui, the team’s cleanup hitter and one of the most fearsome sluggers of the 1990s. (Nagashima would later criticize Japanese players, including Matsui, who joined the Yankees in 2004.) The Giants won two Japan Series titles, in 1994 and 2000, during Nagashima’s nine-year tenure. In his 15 years as a manager, his teams won 1,034 games, lost 889 and tied 59 times. The Giants made him a lifetime honorary manager.
As he was preparing to manage the Japanese team at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, Nagashima, then 68, suffered a stroke that partly paralyzed the right side of his body. Though he was seen less in public in the years that followed, he was no less adored. In 2013, he and Matsui were given the People’s Honor Award by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Eight years later, they were torch bearers at the opening ceremony at the Tokyo Games. Matsui walked slowly, holding Nagashima, as his old teammate, Oh, held the Olympic torch.
