RIP Yukihiko Machida

This past Monday former Kokutetsu Swallows slugger Yukihiko Machida passed away from bile duct cancer at age 91.  Machida had signed with the Swallows in 1952 after graduating from high school in Nagano.  He moved into the lineup as a regular in 1953 and hit a team leading 20 home runs in 1954.

He had his best and most memorable season in 1955, hitting a career high .280 while leading the Central League in home runs with 31.  At 21, he was the youngest home run leader in Central League history.  It sounds impressive until you realize that 1955 was only the sixth season ever for the Central League.  But the record held until 2021 when Munetaka Murakami tied it*.  In addition, he had been tied with Futoshi Nakanishi and Kazuhiro Kiyohara for most home runs by a 21 year old although Murakami now has that record with the 39 he hit in 2021.

* I'm not sure there's been a determination of which player was actually younger when they won the home run crown.  Both are simply listed as 21 years old.

Much was expected of him in 1956 but injuries limited him to only 57 games.  He bounced back in 1957 to hit 21 home runs but that would be the last time he had 20 or more in a season.  He'd remain healthy enough to get over 400 plate appearances per season the next four seasons but his power disappeared for some reason, hitting at most ten home runs in a season (which he did twice - 1959 and 1960).  His playing time started to fall off in 1962 with him eventually only getting 128 at bats in 81 games in 1964.

The Swallows were sold to Sankei in 1964 and the team took it upon themselves to "remove players with low contributions and high salaries".  Machida and a number of other players were released.  Machida joined the Yomiuri Giants for the 1965 season, which could have been a great opportunity for him to cash some Nippon Series checks.  He struggled at the plate, however, hitting just .095 in 27 games before calling it quits.  He ended his career at age 31 with a .233 average and 133 home runs - the most ever for a player from Nagano prefecture.  He had won a Best 9 award in 1955 and was selected to three All Star teams (1955, 1957 & 1961).

He spent much of the next 25 years or so as a coach, first for the Giants (1967-79), then the Swallows (1980-82) and finally back to the Giants (1983-91).  He also coached for the Uni-President Lions of the CPBL from 1995-97.

Machida's list of baseball cards has always struck me as somewhat odd.  He had many cards during his playing career.  Gary Engel lists 41 cards for him in the latest "Japanese Baseball Cards Checklist And Price Guide" - mostly menko but there's some bromides and gum cards as well as a couple NST cards of him as a Giants coach.  But he's made very few appearances in OB sets from BBM or Epoch over the past 30-ish years.  As far as I can tell, he only has five "modern" cards - 2002 BBM All Time Heroes, 2003 BBM Sluggers, 2012 Epoch History Of Best 9, 2021 BBM Fusion and 2022 BBM Swallows History 1950-2022.

Here are all the cards I have for him:

1958 Who Am I? JCM 54

1960 Maruten JCM 137

1978 NST #241

2002 BBM All Time Heroes #061

2003 BBM Sluggers #018

2021 BBM Fusion #99

2022 BBM Swallows History 1950-2022 #09

That "Who Am I?" menko is apparently uncataloged - I'm not seeing it in Engel's listing for the set.

I'm kind of amused that his four BBM cards only have three photos between them.  I'm also amused that the back of his "All Time Heroes" card uses a photo of him in street clothes: