, also spelled Oshita, was a

Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame The is a museum which includes a library, reference rooms and . It first opened in 1959 next door to Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. In 1988, the museum moved to a new site within the Tokyo Dome. The Hall of Fame and Museum was created as ...

outfielder who began his career after World War II. Known for his trademark blue bat, he hit a record 20 home runs in a season and was home run king and leading hitter three times for the Toei Flyers. Ohshita was also a heavy hitter with the Nishitetsu Lions of the

Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently cons ...

during the 1950s.

Early life

Ohshita was born in

Sannomiya is a district of Chūō-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo, Japan. Today, it is the biggest downtown area in the city. The district takes the name from Sannomiya Shrine, a branch of Ikuta Shrine. Before the 1920s, Sannomiya was just an edge of the city. Th ...

, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture on December 15, 1922. His father died in war when he was a child; his family moved to Gaoshun,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, where he grew up. Ohshita graduated from Gaoshun Commercial High School, and was recruited by Tairiku Watanabe to attend Meiji University, a private university in Japan which was noted for its baseball program. Meiji University belongs to the

Tokyo Big6 Baseball League is an intercollegiate baseball league that features six prominent universities in the Tokyo area. Before the 1936 establishment of the Japanese Baseball League and subsequent growth (after 1950) of Nippon Professional Baseball, the Big6 Leagu ...

, an intercollegiate league with five other schools:

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

, Keio University,

Rikkyo University , also known as Saint Paul's University, is a private university, in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan. Rikkyo is known as one of the six leading universities in the field of sports in Tokyo (東京六大学 "Big Six" — Rikkyo University, University of ...

Hosei University is a private university based in Tokyo, Japan. The university originated in a school of law, Tōkyō Hōgakusha (, i.e. Tokyo association of law), established in 1880, and the following year renamed Tōkyō Hōgakkō (, i.e. Tokyo school of law ...

and the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...

; Ohshita played for the Meiji University baseball team. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he was a second lieutenant in the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

and trained as a

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending t ...

pilot before the war's end on August 15, 1945.

Career

Ohshita joined the Japanese Professional Baseball League in 1946, playing for the Senators and hitting a record 20 home runs. The following season (1947), the Senators changed their name to the Tokyo Flyers; Ohshita won the leading-hitter and home-run-king titles, and became a household name in Japan. Children admired him; his trademark was a blue-painted bat and his rival,

Tetsuharu Kawakami was a Japanese baseball player and manager, known for his red bat, and his nickname . He was a professional player for 18 years, winning the batting title five times, two home run crowns, three RBI titles, and had six titles for the most hits in ...

of the Tokyo Giants, used a red-painted bat. Fans called him "blue-bat Ohshita" (''ao batto no Ohshita''), and Kawakami was known as "red-bat Kawakami" (''aka batto no Kawakami''). Ohshita was again leading hitter for the 1950 season, and repeated as leading hitter and home-run king for the 1951 season. His

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .383 for 1951 was a long-time Japanese record; he also holds the Japanese record of seven hits in seven at-bats in a single game. After the 1951 season Ohshita was traded to the Nishitetsu Lions, with whom he won the 1954

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

award with an average of .321. The Lions won the Pacific League Championship, but lost to the Nagoya

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...

(the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consi ...

champions) in the

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, :File:2014_JS_logo.png is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series ...

. However, the Lions defeated the Central League champion

Tokyo Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

in the Japan Series three times (from 1956 to 1958); Ohshita was Series MVP in 1957. Ohshita retired as a player in 1959, with a record of 1,667 hits in 1,547 games (more than one hit per game). He was Japan's leading hitter three times (in 1947, 1950 and 1951), and a three-time home run king (in 1946, 1947 and 1951). Ohshita's uniform number (3) was retired by the Lions, but he wore it again later as manager of the Tokyo Toei Flyers in 1968. He was a hitting

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

for the Hankyu Braves in 1961, before becoming a baseball commentator. When managing the Flyers, Ohshita used no signs in games and his players had no curfew; when the team finished last in the Pacific League, he was fired by its owner after the season. Ohshita was again a hitting coach for the Taiyo Whales in 1974 and 1975. He was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980, the year after his death.Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
Archived fro

2012-05-21.

Personal life

Ohshita was married to Tetsuko, and they had three children: a son, Masaru and two daughters, Hiroko and Hiromi. For years following his professional career, Ohshita coached youth baseball. After suffering a stroke in June 1978, he died May 23, 1979 and is entombed in the Wakaba district of Chiba, Chiba, Japan.

References

Bibliography

* Hiroshi Ohshita, "The Diary of Hiroshi Ohshita". ''Baseball Magazine'', 1980. * Hiroshi Ohshita and

Jun Henmi , real name , was a Japanese writer and poet born in Mizuhashi (now part of Toyama City), Toyama Prefecture, Japan. She was known for her works of fiction and nonfiction about people affected by World War II. Henmi was the daughter of Gen'yoshi ...

, ''The Rainbow Life''. Shinchosha, 1992.

External links