Kuroda Shines—and His Father Did Too

The New York Yankees have won the American League East for the second year in a row. Ichiro, who joined from the Seattle Mariners mid-season, was a major contributor — but we must not forget veteran pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, who earned his 16th win in the clinching game.

Kuroda came up through Osaka Joto High School and Senshu University before joining the Hiroshima Carp, then moved to the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers and later the Yankees. Born in February 1975, he is 37 this year — hardly young by baseball standards.

Kuroda's father was also a professional baseball player. He entered the Nankai Hawks in 1949 after Nagasaki Prefectural Sasebo Commercial High School and Yawata Steel Works, playing mainly in the outfield and helping the Pacific League club to three straight titles from 1951 to 1953 under manager Kazuhito Tsuruoka. He later joined the Takahashi Unions when that team was formed in 1954.

Even devoted fans may never have heard of the Takahashi Unions — they are largely remembered only by the senior generation. Shinnosuke Sasaki, a familiar voice in baseball commentary, joined as a rookie. He was on the Shonan High School team that became the first from the Kanto region to win the summer national tournament at Koshien, crossing the Hakone mountains with the crimson championship flag. He went on to captain Keio University in the Tokyo Big6 League before signing with the newly formed Takahashi Unions.

The Unions were based at Kawasaki Stadium (photo) but were a weak club that struggled to draw crowds and were regarded as dead weight in the Pacific League. In 1957 they merged with the Daiei Stars to form Daiei Unions, and in 1958 merged again with the Mainichi Orions to become the Daimai Orions — and the Takahashi Unions vanished without a trace.

The Mainichi Orions were the Pacific League flagship once owned by The Mainichi Newspapers, which is headquartered in Palaceside Building. The Yankees' division title and Kuroda's strong performance prompted a look back at the nostalgic 1950s of Japanese professional baseball.