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The story
At the first-pitch ceremony before the Seibu–Orix game at Tokyo Dome, the idol group “ME:I” wore Kazuhisa Inao’s permanently retired number “24” — and it’s causing a stir.
The team explained it was simply because it was the guest’s lucky number, but on the thread the conversation spread from criticism of that flimsy reasoning and doubts about the team’s judgment, to comparisons with other teams’ quasi-retired numbers.
Published 8/21 (Fri), 10:53
Sankei Shimbun
Before the professional baseball Seibu–Orix game held at Tokyo Dome on the 18th, the idol group “ME:I” (Mī Ai) performed the ceremonial first pitch wearing uniform number “24” — the number worn by legendary pitcher Kazuhisa Inao during his Nishitetsu days, and now the team’s permanently retired number — sparking both support and criticism on social media. Responding to an inquiry from the Sankei Shimbun, the team said, “We are aware that we’ve received a great many reactions on social media.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Because on Fuji TV's show "Totsuzen Desu ga Uranatte Ii Desu ka" ("Sudden, But Can I Read Your Fortune?"), a fortune teller told them 24 was their lucky number.
The fact a retired number can get overridden for a reason that flimsy is wild.
If this is really the reason, Seibu fans have every right to be furious.
They need to explain why they said yes to that request in the first place — otherwise this explanation is meaningless.
The reporter's just parroting the team's PR line anyway.
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The team's PR department told the Sankei Shimbun, regarding why the guest wore number 24:
"The guest who performed requested to wear the number 24 uniform, as 24 is their personal lucky number."
ME:I's management better not be under some kind of delusion. The baseball game doesn't exist for their sake — they exist because of the baseball game.
It's rough for fans to think the people running the team's PR have neither the flexibility to suggest something like that nor any respect for the players who came before.
Do SoftBank or Orix have any?
For the Hawks, 15 and 89 are effectively retired numbers.
For Rakuten it's
10 and 77.
For the Hawks, the quasi-retired numbers are 15 and 89,
and for a stretch in the past, 90 was also treated as quasi-retired out of respect for manga artist Shinji Mizushima…
There's no "for or against" here —
there's not an old-timer left alive who even remembers Inao lol
Unfortunately, he's still famous lol
I thought the same and looked it up —
apparently it became a retired number in 2012,
so it looks like there were players who wore it before then.
Read the article first.
That's ≠ME, not ME:I, lol
Over there it's a league-wide retired number, so imported foreign players tend to pick 42 for themselves.
Even so, I don't think it should've been allowed.
It's not the idols' fault though — it's on Seibu.
but most people left.
Part of it was that they weren't there for that,
but honestly the pre-game ceremony rubbed people the wrong way too —
same with the other group.
I left too.
But back in the Shigeru Matsuzaki and Hiromi Go days, a lot more people used to stick around.
Personally I'd add 47 too.
Depends on whose number you mean it as.
I associate 24 with Akiyama.
If Yamazaki's number gets retired, then Akiyama, Kiyohara, Ishige, Ito, Kudo, and Tsuji should all get theirs retired too.
Baseball itself isn't taken seriously anymore.
When Seibu formed the team, they actually cut ties with their Nishitetsu identity.
Owner Tsutsumi hated Nishitetsu.
Oh, Rakuten has one too, from the old Kintetsu days?
77 is Sen'ichi Hoshino.
Kintetsu's retired numbers got wiped once the team changed hands.
For Nankai, after Nomura passed away his family reconciled with the team,
and his memorabilia is now displayed at Namba Parks.
That happened thanks to Emoto's efforts.
Background and Key Points
Seibu’s uniform “24” has been out of circulation since 2012, when the club formally retired it to honor Kazuhisa Inao, the Nishitetsu Lions right-hander who won 42 games in his 1956 rookie season and anchored three straight Japan Series titles (1956–58), including four wins by himself in the legendary 1958 comeback against the Giants. Nishitetsu itself no longer exists as a franchise identity — the team was sold and became the Lions under Seibu ownership in 1979, and, as one poster notes, Seibu’s founding owner Yoshiaki Tsutsumi reportedly wanted distance from the Nishitetsu name, which is part of why institutional memory of Inao runs thin inside the organization now. Unlike MLB’s Jackie Robinson 42, which is retired league-wide and worn by everyone once a year, NPB retired numbers are a team-by-team, informal honor with no commissioner’s rule behind them — clubs can and do bend their own conventions, which is exactly what happened here.
The thread didn’t split over whether ME:I did anything wrong — posters agree the idols themselves aren’t to blame. The real fault line is over Seibu’s front office: whether handing out a permanently retired number for a guest’s televised “lucky number” reflects simple carelessness or a deeper institutional indifference to Inao’s legacy, with several posters contrasting it against how seriously other Pacific League clubs (Hawks’ 15/89, Rakuten’s 10/77) guard their own quasi-retired numbers.
What outside readers likely miss is that “retired number” in NPB carries no formal enforcement mechanism at all — it’s an internal club gesture, not a league statute, so there was never a rule technically broken, only a norm.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “[Pro Baseball] Seibu’s Kazuhisa Inao Retired Number “24” Worn by Guest Idol Group ME:I at Event — Mixed Reactions on Social Media“.
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