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The story
Former Yomiuri Giants pitcher Shozo Sadaoka (69) appeared on BS Fuji’s “Pro Baseball Legend Hall” on October 5, where he discussed the circumstances behind his decision to retire from active play at just 29, and recalled getting a phone call at home from his mentor, Shigeo Nagashima. The broadcast revealed why the pitcher — one of the Giants’ famed “Big Three,” alongside Suguru Egawa and Takashi Nishimoto — left the sport when he did, prompting a wave of 5ch posts looking back on how he was rated as a player and his later career as a TV personality.
The truth behind Shozo Sadaoka’s decision to retire at 29 — and the phone call from Nagashima to the home where he’d shut himself away
Former Giants pitcher Shozo Sadaoka (69) appeared as a guest on BS Fuji’s “Pro Baseball Legend Hall” (Tuesdays, 10:00 PM), airing September 29.
He spoke about what led him to retire at just 29 despite being part of the celebrated trio with Suguru Egawa and Takashi Nishimoto, and expressed his gratitude to his mentor, Shigeo Nagashima.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
That's exactly what I'd say about your post lol
Mr. [Nagashima] genuinely thought players straight out of high school only ever wore their school uniforms, huh
That's still young enough to keep growing and improving
Guess that's why his TV career took off
No idea how old you are, but judging from the photo in Re: #9, he doesn't really look like he stepped out of a shojo manga.
He's got that Showa-era handsome vibe, but not the shojo manga look at all.
Shojo manga heartthrobs are more fair-skinned, with cleaner, more refined features — more like actor Masaki Okada.
Oh my, gorgeous
I've seen this somewhere before lol
He's got that bewildered "wait, what is this guy even saying…?" look on his face
I wonder which one it actually was —
did he think Kagoshima was some region where people don't even wear T-shirts,
or was he just using "Western clothes" to mean a formal suit?
He probably didn't want to tarnish that by going somewhere like the Kintetsu Buffaloes.
Was the cap logo already the buffalo mark by Sada's time? Or was it still the "B"?
Funny how Tunnels paid him handsomely for years, then one of their crazy stunts ended up pushing him off TV for good lol
Wasn't Sadaoka hosting a sports news show at the time, and Ishibashi [of Tunnels] ordered him to do the "Very harsh!" catchphrase bit on air? He actually did it and got fired from the show lol
In '85 the Tigers were all anyone talked about, so I had no idea Sadaoka retired the same day they won the Japan Series.
The only Sadaoka I remember is the one getting roasted later on Nama Dara.
I don't think we'll ever see another ballplayer as handsome as Sadaoka, the kind who looks like he walked out of a shojo manga.
Otani and Sasaki Roki can match him for height and leg length, but when it comes to the face alone, they just can't beat Sadaoka.
Back then, I guess a dignified face like young Yuzo Kayama's was the standard for male good looks
Sadaoka's probably just an introvert who's bad with people.
He must've been popular with women, but he's never married — guess he's more comfortable being on his own.
Makihara, who only won 13 games in a season, as S-rank? 😂
No memory of Sadaoka or Shimmura at all.
It's Egawa, Kuwata, and Saito, come on.
Yeah, I've got no memory of Sadaoka either.
Even Kintetsu's own Kanemura talked trash about the team at the time.
The Pacific League in the '80s was all about Seibu's dominance.
Manager Mori, I think.
Nobody was a fan of teams like Lotte, Kintetsu, or Nankai.
Even on Pro Baseball News you could see the stadiums were basically empty.
There was that whole trend of drawing dark circles under your eyes with a marker to look exhausted from Kintetsu day games lol
back then it was an era where you'd only catch the scores on the sports news.
Daiei didn't even exist yet.
I only ever saw the Pacific League on Pro Baseball News.
Day games at half-empty Nissei Stadium, Nishinomiya Stadium, Korakuen —
plus the All-Star Game and the Japan Series.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Shozo Sadaoka was one of the pitchers known as the Giants’ “Big Three,” alongside Suguru Egawa and Takashi Nishimoto, and nearly all of his 51 career wins came as a starter. His retirement at 29 was rooted in his standing within the team and his refusal of a proposed trade to the Kintetsu Buffaloes, and the heart of this episode is that his relationship with then-manager Shigeo Nagashima continued even after he left the game. The thread split over two points: how to rate his skill as a player, and his personal character. Ranking Egawa and Makihara as “S-rank” drew pushback — comments calling it odd to give S-rank to a 13-win season reflect a long-running debate among baseball fans over how starting pitchers should be judged (factors beyond win-loss record, like pitch quality and team circumstances). The other point of friction was how he was treated after retirement on the variety show “Tunnels no Minasan no Okage Deshita” — the thread mixed posts simply stating the facts of how he ended up leaving broadcast work with posts that framed it as a verdict on his personal character, and this article leaves the latter out. Testimony that the Pacific League back then centered on sparsely attended day games also makes for a striking contrast with its popularity today.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geisoku+) thread “[Baseball] Former Giants pitcher Shozo Sadaoka reveals the truth behind his decision to retire at 29 — and the phone call from Nagashima to the home where he’d shut himself away.”
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