Catching up on some tragic news from last week when I was on vacation...
Former Chiba Lotte Marines pitcher Yoshihiro Itoh was killed in a motorcycle accident last Monday in Fukuoka. He was 43 years old.
Born in Fukuoka, Itoh attended Higashi Fukuoka High School (where he pitched in the 2000 Koshien Tournament) and Kokugakuin University before joining the JR Tokai corporate league team. He was taken by the Marines in the fourth round of the college/corporate league phase of the 2007 NPB draft.
He was a fixture in the Marines' bullpen for his first couple seasons, mostly in middle relief. He appeared in over 50 games in both 2008 and 2009 and over 60 games in 2010.
What was probably the highlight of his career happened in that post-season. The Marines made an improbable run in the Climax Series, becoming the first third place finisher to make it to the Nippon Series where they took on the Chunichi Dragons. The two teams split the first two games in Nagoya, with Itoh pitching a perfect eighth inning with two strikeouts in Game One (won by the Marines 5-2). Lotte won Game Three back in Chiba but Chunichi evened things up in Game Four where Itoh gave up the game winning run in the top of the eleventh inning. After Lotte won again in Game Five, the Series moved back to Nagoya. Game Six was a grind - tied 2-2 after nine innings, it would ultimately end in a tie after 15 innings when neither team scored again. Itoh pitched a scoreless ninth in the game, striking out two Dragons.
With the tie, the Dragons would need to win Game 7 to force a winner-take-all Game 8. Early on, it looked like that might happen as Chunichi led 6-2 after three innings. But the Marines battled back, scoring a solo run in the top of the fourth and three runs in the fifth to tie the game up. They took the lead in the top of the seventh and looked to close out the game and the Series with their closer, Hiroyuki Kobayashi on the mound. However, Kazuhiro Wada led off the bottom of the ninth with a triple and Tony Blanco brought him home with a game tying sacrifice fly. For the third time in the Series, the game would go into extra innings. Itoh would relieve Kobayashi in the eleventh inning and retire the Dragons in order. Toshiaki Imae walked to lead off the top of the twelfth, bringing Itoh to the plate. With the bullpen stressed due to the previous day's marathon, the Marines had no real option to pinch hit for him. He laid down a sacrifice bunt, successfully moving Imae to second where he would score on Yoshifumi Okada's triple two batters later. Itoh pitched another perfect inning in the bottom of the twelfth to win the game and the Series.
It looked like 2011 was going to be a continuation of the previous few seasons, with Itoh again working in middle relief and appearing in 50 games. His season ended on September 1st, however, when he suffered a horrific injury in a game against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Chiba. With one out in the seventh inning, Daikan Yoh hit a soft line drive to shortstop. Itoh had turned to watch the ball and didn't see that Yoh's bat had shattered and the barrel of it was heading straight towards him. The sharp end of the bat slammed into the back of his left leg and Itoh staggered off the mound before collapsing on the ground, clutching his leg. He needed to be carried off the field. (There's video of the incident here - H/T one of the commenters on this NPB Reddit thread.) I'm not entirely sure but I think the bat damaged his calf muscle.
He wasn't the same pitcher after the injury. He was compensating for his injured left leg and ended up developing issues with his right shoulder and elbow as well as his side and back. Injuries and ineffectiveness limited him to only six games with the top team in 2012, 17 in 2013 (with an ERA of 10.61), five in 2014 and seven in 2015.
After making no appearances at the ichi-gun level in 2016, Itoh was released by the Marines at the end of the season. He hoped to continue playing and attended the 12 team tryout in November but he didn't draw any interest from any teams. He announced his retirement in December and went back to school to get his Master's degree in Physical Education and his teaching license. He became a teacher at his alma mater and also coached the baseball team. He left the school last summer and opened his own sports academy - "Pitch+" - last month.
His first card was #50 from the 2008 BBM Rookie Edition set. He also had rookie cards in BBM's 1st Version (#287), Marines (#M19) and Rookie Edition Premium (#RP24) sets in 2008 as well as Konami's Baseball Heroes Power Up Version (#C08B025). He'd kind of have his first Calbee card in 2009 as he appeared in the Iron Arms box set associated with Series Three that was sold on Calbee's e-commerce site. His first Calbee card that came with potato chips was in the 2010 Series Three set (#277). He appeared in a number of Konami and Bandai Owners League card game sets but all the cards I have of him are from BBM:
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2008 BBM Rookie Edition #50 |
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2008 BBM 1st Version #287 |
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2010 BBM Nippon Series #S08 |
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2011 BBM 2nd Version #494 |
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2015 BBM Marines #M15 |