June 3 (UPI) — Japanese sports icon Shigeo Nagashima, known as the country’s “Mr. Pro Baseball,” died from pneumonia Tuesday, Tokyo’s Yomiuri Giants announced. He was 89.
The Giants said Nagashima died at 6:39 a.m. local time Tuesday at a hospital in Tokyo. The team plans to establish a memorial Wednesday and Thursday in the main square of Giants Town Stadium.
“We offer our heartfelt condolences,” the Giants said in a statement.
Nagashima, who played third base, signed his first professional contract in 1957. He helped the Giants win nine-consecutive Japan Series titles from 1965 to 1973, while scooping up batting titles and MVP awards.
He hit .305 with 2,471 hits and 444 home runs over his 17-year playing career, and he was inducted into Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.
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Several MLB clubs attempted to lure Nagashima to the United States, but were unable to purchase his contract. He later became the Giants’ manager and then worked as a TV commentator, but eventually returned to the dugout to help the Giants win two Japan Series crowns. He was made the Giants’ lifetime honorary manager because of his dugout success.
“Hearing the tragic news, I cannot find words to express my feelings,” Giants owner Toshikazu Yamaguchi said in a statement issued to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. “In my childhood, the Giants meant a team with Mr. Nagashima. That sentiment still has not changed.
“He was a man with a burning spirit who was difficult to defeat, and he had a bright personality like the shining sun. He was a superstar who physically symbolized the age of rapid economic growth. He was ‘Mr. Pro Baseball,’ who led the nation’s baseball world.
“Even after he began suffering from the illness, his passion for baseball never waned and he encouraged managers, coaches and players. His aims will surely be carried on by his junior fellows.”
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Japan Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani were among others who praised Nagashima. Ishiba told reporters that Nagashima was “like the shining sun and a symbol of hope to everyone.”
Ohtani posted several pictures of himself alongside Nagashima on his social media accounts.
“May your soul rest in peace,” Ohtani wrote.
