Japanese Baseball Cards: RIP Junro Anan

Former Carp and Buffalo infielder and one time Carp manager Junro Anan passed away last week at age 86. Anan joined the Carp after graduating from high school in 1956. He was Junichi Anan then as he didn't change his name to Junro until 1964. He spent most of his time with the Carp as a utility infielder as his weak hitting caused him to lose the few starting opportunities he had. He moved to the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 1968 and was their starting third baseman for the next two seasons. He hit less than .200 in 1970 though and retired at the end of that season.

He coached for the Buffaloes for a couple years after retirement but was invited back to Hiroshima by former teammate Katsuya Morinaga in 1974. He coached with the farm team initially but was promoted to the ichi-gun team the following year when manager Joe Lutz abruptly left the team 15 games into the season and was replaced by Takeshi Koba. Anan would remain a coach for the Carp under Koba for another ten years. He became the Carp manager when Koba stepped down after the 1985 season and led them to the Central League pennant in his first season. Hiroshima lost to the Lions in the 1986 Nippon Series and finished third in both of the following seasons. Anan retired as manager after 1988 and was replaced by Koji Yamamoto. He doesn't appear to have coached or done any broadcasting after his managerial career ended which seems somewhat surprising considering he would have only been 52 at that point.

Anan does not appear to have had many baseball cards. He only had one card during his playing career - from the 1960 Sakai Gum set (JF 49). He's appeared in several OB Carp sets over the past 15 years though - 2009 BBM Carp 60th, 2014 Epoch The First Victory 40th Anniversary, 2015 BBM Carp Legends, 2018 Epoch Carp Stars & Legends, 2020 BBM Carp History 1950-2020 and 2021 Epoch Carp Stars & Legends. He's also in the 2011 Epoch All Japan Baseball Foundation Managers set. Here's the cards that I have for him: