tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7480658377503163749.post5601425748356967945..comments2024-03-28T08:23:39.263-04:00Comments on Japanese Baseball Cards: Card Of The Week September 19NPB Card Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01178497208404127283noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7480658377503163749.post-2481671048113855252010-09-20T08:54:58.449-04:002010-09-20T08:54:58.449-04:00I updated the text to make it clear that he's ...I updated the text to make it clear that he's the only current manager with NPB experience. Thanks for the information on the other coaches.NPB Card Guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01178497208404127283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7480658377503163749.post-32333407712950386682010-09-19T20:56:26.483-04:002010-09-19T20:56:26.483-04:00That should read that he is the only current Tokyo...That should read that he is the only current Tokyo Big 6 manager to have played in the pros, just to be clear. I am sure there must have been former pro players managing in the past, though I'd have to look it up.<br /><br />Bizarrely, two others out of the current crop of Tokyo Big 6 managers were DRAFTED, but didn't actually turn pro. Hosei's Koji Kanemitsu was a first-round draft pick out of college by Kintetsu in 1977 but didn't sign. And this is an even weirder coincidence but Waseda's Atsuyoshi Ohtake was a 3rd-round pick out of high school by Kintetsu in 1976, and didn't sign because he wanted to go to Waseda for college, and after college he wasn't drafted and instead went to the industrial leagues. A neat tidbit about Ohtake is that he and Atsuya Furuta were the two catchers on Japan's olympic team in 1988. <br /><br />But a lot of people don't like Ohtake because he's apparently a very strict jerk. At least that is what I've uniformly heard from everyone involved in Big 6...Deannahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11951797747122213407noreply@blogger.com