He had been playing for Kawai Instruments in the corporate leagues when he was drafted in the fifth round of the 1966 draft by the Hankyu Braves. He quickly became the Braves' starting shortstop and won the PL Best 9 award at shortstop every year between 1968 and 1971. He also led the PL in steals in 1969 and made the All Star team each year from 1968 to 1971.
I don't know this for sure, but I think the misplay in the 1971 Series cost him his future with the Braves. Hankyu and the Giants had split the first two games when Braves ace Hisashi Yamada took the mound for Game Three. Yamada pitched a great game, holding the Giants to only two hits and no runs over the first eight innings. Giants pitcher Shitoshi Sekimoto also pitched well, giving up only five hits and one run to the Braves. With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Yamada walked Isao Shibata, his first free pass of the day. After Toshiro Yanagida flew out for the second out, Shigeo Nagashima stepped to the plate. Nagashima hit a slow ground ball a little to the left of up the middle that Sakamoto could not quite get to - it rolled into the outfield with Shibata going all the way to third. Sakamoto apparently had taken a step in the opposite direction when the ball was hit which prevented him from reaching the ball. Sadaharu Oh was the next batter and he drove the ball into the right field stands at Korakuen Stadium for a sayonara three run home run. Oh's shot is considered the turning point for the Giants who went on to win the next two games 7-4 and 6-1 and win the Series 4 games to 1.
You can see the play (along with a bunch of Calbee Braves cards) in the middle of the following video:
Regardless of whether or not Hankyu blamed Sakamoto for the Series loss, he wasn't a Brave anymore after that season. He was traded with Koji Okamoto and Seigo Sasaki to the Toei Flyers for Masayuki Tanemo and Yutaka Ohashi. He made the All Star team in 1972. The next year the team (now called the Nittaku Home Flyers) moved him to third base and he shifted to second base two years later (when the team was now the Nippon-Ham Fighters). While he was the first player to bat as a designated hitter in 1975 he spent most of his time that season in the field - according to his stats at Baseball Reference he played at second base in 94 of the 96 games he appeared in that year.
He was dealt a second time after the 1975 season - the Fighters sent him along with Kenichi Yaezawa to the Kintetsu Buffaloes for Toshikazu Hattori and Yozo Nagabuchi. After three years with the Buffaloes he again switched teams - this time going to the Nankai Hawks (not sure if there was a trade, a sale or if he was released by Kintetsu). He spent two years with the Hawks - the last one as player-coach - and retired following the 1980 season. He spent a couple years as a commentator before coaching for Kintetsu from 1984 to 1996.
Somehow there are almost no baseball cards of Sakamoto that were issued during his career. I only know of four and three of those (the Broder "JY4" and "JY6" sets from 1975 and 1976 respectively and the 1979 TCMA set) were American issues. His only card actually issued in Japan was a game set issued with the July 1976 issue of the "Elementary School 3rd Year" magazine that used a caricature of him rather than an actual photo. He does not have any Calbee, Takara or Yamakatsu cards that I'm aware of. He has appeared in a number of BBM OB sets - the 2009 Hankyu Braves Memorial set, the 2011 Legend of Bs set, the 2013 The Trade Stories set and the 2021 Orix Buffaloes History set - as well as the 2017 Epoch Hankyu Braves Greats set. Here's all the cards I have for him - I've arranged them in chronological order of the teams he played on:
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| 2009 BBM Hankyu Braves Memorial #25 |
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| 2011 BBM Legend Of Bs #40 |
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| 2021 BBM Orix Buffaloes History 1936-2021 #18 |
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| 2013 BBM The Trade Stories #08 |
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| 2011 BBM Legend Of Bs #69 |
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| 1979 TCMA #3 |
2 comments:
Its kind of amazing that a guy in Japan back in the 70s could play so long and never get a regular baseball card.
I'd never heard of that misplay and was wondering if it was a Bill Buckner type of thing, but looking at the Youtube clip there it wasn't anywhere near that egregious and (I guess) wouldn't have even been scored as an error. Gotta feel sorry for the guy being remembered for that!
The play was not scored an error - it and Oh's home run were half the hits Yamada gave up that day. I think the egregious part of the play isn't visible in the video - from what I've read it sounded like Sakamoto stepped towards third originally and had to reverse direction - although clearly this could stem from a poor Google translation.
But yeah, it's kind of sad that this is what gets mentioned in his obituary and not that he was the first DH. It is odd he didn't have any cards (especially since he didn't play for Lotte) but I should point out that his best years, the years he made the All Star team and won Best 9 awards, were all before Calbee started doing cards.
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