RIP Morimichi Takagi

Morimichi Takagi, the Hall Of Fame second baseman for the Chunichi Dragons, has passed away at age 78.  Takagi signed with the Dragons in 1960 after graduating from Gifu Commercial High School.  He homered in his first NPB at bat - the fourth player to ever do that.  He became the Dragons' regular second basement starting in 1963 and held that position until the late 70's.  He retired following the 1980 season. 

He led the Central League in steals three times (1963, 1965 and 1973), was named to the Best 9 team seven times (1963-67, 1974 and 1977) and made the All Star team four times (1966, 1967, 1973 and 1979).  He's a member of the Meikyukai, getting his 2000th hit in 1978.  He was elected to the Hall Of Fame in 2006.

He only played in one Nippon Series - 1974 against Lotte - but he made the most of his opportunity.  He hit a two RBI double off of Choji Murata in the bottom of the ninth of Game One of the Series to turn a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 walk off victory.  He led off Game Four with a home run but had to leave the game later when he fractured one of his feet by hitting a ball off it.  He sat out Game Five but came back two days later for Game Six.  The Dragons lost the Series in six games but Takagi went 8 for 22 (.364) and won the "Fighting Spirit" award.

He started coaching for the Dragons in 1978 while he was still playing and continued after he retired as a player.  He was a defensive coach with the ichi-gun team in 1981-83, managed the farm team in 1984 and 1985 and returned to the ichi-gun ranks in 1986.  He took over as the interim manager of the team that season when Kazuhiro Yamauchi stepped down in early July but ended up leaving the team when Senichi Hoshino was named manager for the 1987 season.  He ended up replacing Hoshino in 1992 and managed the team for the next few years, narrowly missing the Central League pennant in 1994.  The Dragons started slowly in 1995 however and Takagi resigned as manager at the beginning of June (and after a couple of interim managers that year Hoshino ended up returning to take the helm of the team again for a few seasons).  Takagi would return to manage the team again for a third (second official) stint in 2012, taking over from Hiromitsu Ochiai.  He led the team to a second place finish that year and nearly upset the first place Giants in the Climax Series - losing three straight games after being just one game away from the Nippon Series.  This was the most recent time the Dragons made the Central League playoffs.  He was dismissed after a fourth place finish in 2013.

Takagi's first baseball card appears to #66 in the 1967 Kabaya-Leaf set but the bulk of his cards from his playing days are from Calbee between 1973 and 1980.  He has modern cards from both BBM and Tomy from his two stints as manager and has appeared regularly in OB sets from both BBM and Epoch.  Here's a selection of his cards, first from his playing days, then as manager (with his interim stint from 1986 represented with a 2011 Epoch Managers card), and finally a couple cards from OB sets:

1973 JCM 15b

1974/75 Calbee #77

1975 Pepsi Menko

1979 TCMA #74

2011 Epoch All Japan Baseball Foundation Managers #11

1993 Tomy #295

2012 BBM 1st Version #163

2009 Epoch All Japan Baseball Foundation 15th Anniversary #14

2006 BBM Dragons 70th Anniversary #31