Former Mainichi/Daimai Orions pitcher, long time coach and one time Nippon-Ham Fighters manager Yoshinobu Uemura passed away at the age of 88 a few weeks ago (just after I went on vacation). Uemura was a star pitcher at Ashiya High School, leading the team to victory in the 1952 Summer Koshien tournament. He signed with the Orions in 1953 and apparently originated the tradition of teams assigning the uniform number 18 to Koshien winning high school pitchers turning pro. He made his debut with the Orions that season, getting into nine games and going 1-5 with a 4.45 ERA. His playing time increased dramatically the following season when he got into 46 games as both a starter and a reliever and went 9-15 with a 2.25 ERA. He had his two best seasons after that, going 17-10 with an ERA of 2.13 in 1955 and 19-5 with a 2.01 ERA in 1956. He made the All Star team in 1955 and led the Pacific League in winning percentage in 1956.
In his Opening Day start in 1957 he tied Eiji Shibata for the NPB record for fewest pitches in a complete game with 71. His numbers declined some in 1957 and 1958 but he bounced back with a 14-8 record with a 2.92 ERA in 1959, making the All Star team a second time. Injuries limited him to just 11 appearances in 1960 and he did not appear in the Nippon Series that year (where his Orions were swept by the Taiyo Whales). After a similarly injury plagued season in 1961, he retired. He was just 26 years old.
Uemura then embarked on a coaching career that would have him spend eight stints with five different teams over much of the next 39 years. He spent 1962 to 1973 with the Orions (who went by Mainichi, Tokyo and Lotte during that stretch) before spending five years with the Hankyu Braves and one year with the Yakult Swallows. He joined the Fighters as a coach in 1980 and reluctantly became the team's manager in 1984 at the recommendation of Keiji Ohsawa, who had just stepped down as manager to join the team's front office. It didn't go well. Apparently Uemura wanted to play an aggressive style of offense called "Goro-go" that had been utilized by Hankyu when he was a coach with them in the 70's under Toshiharu Ueda. That style of play didn't suit the Fighters however (probably because they didn't have a speedster like Yutaka Fukumoto) and the team floundered. Uemura resigned as manager at the end of June with a 21-37-9 record and was ultimately replaced by Ohsawa. The team didn't do much differently under Ohsawa, going 21-36-4 and finishing dead last.
Uemura sat out the 1985 season before rejoining the Braves as a coach for their final three seasons under Hankyu. He then rejoined Lotte for their final three seasons in Kawasaki before moving on to the Giants for another three year stint. After a two year gap he re-rejoined Lotte for one final coaching stint from 1997 to 2000, after which he became an advisor for the team.
I only know of three cards for Uemura. Two of them are from his playing days - from the quite rare 1952/3 "Calbee or Matsuo Caramel Short" (JF 62a) set and the 1956 "Tobacco Menko Sized" bromide (JBR 29) set. The other card is the only one I have of his, from the 2011 Epoch OB Club Managers set (#31):
2 comments:
He's a pretty good example of a guy with a reasonably succesful career that landed in an awkward period for baseball cards, resulting in so few of his existing.
It doesn't help that all of the OB team sets for the Orions/Marines have pretty much only included the Lotte era players.
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