In a player who symbolized style over substance his entire career on two continents, Tsuyoshi Shinjo announced that he will retire from professional baseball at the end of the 2006 season.
SHINJO (using the name he officially goes by on scoreboards in Japan, please use all caps), has never been particularly good on either side of the Pacific. Nevertheless, he was very popular in Japan and when the Nippon Ham Fighters moved to Sapporo and became the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, they made SHINJO the focus of their marketing campaign.
Shinjo was the first Japanese player to participate in a World Series game, going 1 for 6 for the Giants in the 2002 World Series. Hideki Irabu was on the Yankees roster for the postseason for parts of 1998 and 1999, but did not appear in the World Series either time.
That was the only year I've ever lived in a market when its team went to the World Series. The Bay Area was baseball crazy that year -- two teams in the playoffs, one in the Series, Bonds blowing by McGwire. And, of course, SHINJO and his orange arm bands. Between him and Eric Byrnes, the BA may have experienced the highest ratio of fruity outfielders to ballplayers in one market in history.
Anyway, the point is, I have fond memories of SHINJO.
Bob, no post about SHINJO is complete without some sort of picture like this:
http://www31.ocn.ne.jp/~yokohamacity/photo/j-shinjo.jpg
Anyway, the point is, I have fond memories of SHINJO.
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