was a Japanese amateur pitcher originally from

Ichinomiya, Aichi is a city located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The city is sometimes called Owarichinomiya to avoid confusion with other municipalities of the same name, including Ichinomiya (now part of the city of Toyokawa), Ichinomiya in Chiba Prefecture. , t ...

. He had 23 wins at Spring and Summer Koshien. In the

National High School Baseball Championship The of Japan, commonly known as , is an annual nationwide high school baseball tournament. It is the largest scale amateur sport event in Japan. The tournament, organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation and ''Asahi Shimbun'', t ...

between 1931 and 1933, he won 14 consecutive games at

Koshien Stadium , commonly referred to as simply Koshien Stadium, is a baseball park located near Kobe, Hyōgo, Kobe in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The stadium was built to host the High school baseball in Japan, national high school baseball tourn ...

and he became the only pitcher to win three consecutive championships.

Three consecutive high school championships

Yoshida entered Chukyo Shogyo. He defeated

Yoshiyuki Iwamoto was a Japanese baseball player and manager. He is a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. Biography Iwamuto was born in Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture. He took part in the National High School Baseball Championship in 1931, but his team ...

's Kōryō in his quarterfinal game of 1931. He won the first championship in 1931. He defeated

Masaru Kageura was a Japanese baseball player from Matsuyama, Ehime. An accomplished two-way player, Kaguera is one of two players (Eiji Sawamura being the other) who was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame after being killed in World War II. Kag ...

's Matsuyama Shogyo in his final game of 1932, and won the second championship in 1932. He defeated Fumio Fujimura's Taishō in his quarterfinal game of 1933. On August 19, 1933, Yoshida pitched a

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

with 336 pitches and 25 innings in his semifinal game against Akashi. Although he was exhausted by this game, he achieved his third consecutive championship the next day.

Later career and HOF induction

He never joined

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

, instead continuing to play as an amateur pitcher. In honor of his unprecedented pitching at Koshien, Yoshida was inducted to the

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 a ...

in 1992. No high schools have ever achieved three consecutive victories since Yoshida's team recorded the feat.

References

External links

Masao Yoshida (Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame)
1914 births 1996 deaths Baseball people from Aichi Prefecture People from Ichinomiya, Aichi Japanese baseball players {{japan-baseball-pitcher-stub