Former Lions and Fighters pitcher Yasumitsu Shibata passed away from arrhythmia yesterday at the age of 65. Shibata played for a couple of industrial league teams after graduating from high school. He was the second round pick of the Seibu Lions in the 1978 draft, the first ever draft by Seibu. He spent the next five seasons with the Lions, working mostly out of the bullpen. He got into one game in the 1982 Nippon Series against the Dragons but didn't pitch against the Giants in the 1983 Series. Following the 1983 season, the Lions sent him and Hiroshi Kimura to the Nippon-Ham Fighters in exchange for Yutaka Enatsu.
On the advice of Nippon-Ham coach Katsumi Kanayama, Shibata started throwing with a three quarter sidearm delivery which greatly improved his control. He went from averaging between 3.2 and 6.3 walks per nine innings in his first six seasons to between 1.9 and 2.6 over the remainder of his career. He worked as both a starter and reliever for the Fighters for several years although he became almost exclusively a starter over the last five years or so of his career. He was elected to three All Star teams (1985-86 and 1991). His big claim to fame is that on April 25th, 1990, he pitched what was not only the first no-hitter ever in the Tokyo Dome (and therefore the first indoor no-hitter ever in Japan) but also the first no-hitter of the Heisei Period. He suffered a heart attack prior to the 1994 season and was advised by his doctor to retire from playing baseball. He coached for the Fighters for a couple years in the late-90's and did some TV work with J-Sports.
Shibata's first card was in the 1982 Takara Lions set, He appeared in a Takara set every year after that until (and including) 1994. He had a couple of Calbee cards in the 80's before appearing in every set from 1990 to 1994. He also appeared in the first four BBM flagship sets (1991-94) as well as both Tomy sets (1993-94). He didn't appear on any cards after he retired in 1994 until 2010 but he's been in about seven sets from either BBM or Epoch since then. Here's a small sampling of his cards:
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| 1982 Takara Lions #12 |
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| 1991 Calbee #15 |
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| 1994 BBM #177 |
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| 2012 BBM No-Hitters #66 |
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