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“Fighter” Shinichi Eto (7th)
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From the 1960s to the 1970s, there was a baseball player named Shinichi Eto who made the baseball world lively (died in 2008). He was called a “fighting general” for his fighting play, and won the top hitter in both the Central League and the Pacific League for the first time in the history of Nippon Professional Baseball. He was selected as the best nine six times, and although he was as good as ON, his baseball life was full of ups and downs. Who on earth was Shinichi Eto? Kimura Yukihiko, a journalist and non-fiction writer, approaches the life of Shinichi Eto, a professional baseball player who has never been seen before, based on the testimonies of many famous players and people involved.
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Yasunori Oshima was a successful batter, but he was a pitcher when he was in high school.
In 1968, Shinichi Eto finished his 10th year as a professional. At that time, players who worked for 10 years had a system of 10-year players who could receive a bonus (= re-contract fee) or exercise the right to transfer (starting in 1947 and abolished in 1975). It is said to be the predecessor of the current FA system, but unlike FA, players cannot freely choose the transfer destination, and negotiations after declaring the exercise are the Weber method from the lower team in the season ranking. It was decided that.
As a player’s right, it was allowed to refuse offers from teams that he did not want to go to up to two teams. Masaichi Kaneda, who was enrolled in the National Railways Swallows, used this system in 1964, rejecting Chunichi and Hiroshima at the negotiation table and transferring to the giant.
At the time when the player’s life was much shorter than it is now, the certification of a 10-year player was a medal because he could exercise that incentive. It is said that Wally Yonamine, who was a giant, had a feud with Tetsuharu Kawakami because he was given a free contract with the director Kawakami when he got this qualification. Eiji Bando, who joined Eto at the same time, also stuck to a 10-year bonus until he put a scalpel in his broken elbow.
“The rehabilitation after the surgery didn’t go as I expected, and there were days when I couldn’t even move my fingertips. Still, in order to get a” 10-year bonus, “I told the team that my elbows were completely healed, and managed to complete the contract for the following year. I was able to get a bonus of 270,000 yen “(” Red Hand Fateful Crossroads “Eiji Bando / Aoyama Publishing Co., Ltd.)
Bando’s elbow was so close to the limit that the surgeon said, “You have a 70-year-old elbow,” due to overuse from high school, but Eto left a batting average of .302 this year as well. In the Central League batting average category, he was fourth behind Sadaharu Oh, Shigeo Nagashima and Kazuhiro Yamauchi, and hit 36 home runs. Chunichi No. 4, who had already established a solid position in Nagoya, completed the 11th year contract without considering a transfer.
On the other hand, the team was at the bottom because Toshio Naka suffered from his eyes and Morimichi Takagi was forced to leave due to a hit by pitch received from giant Tsuneo Horiuchi, and the center line was aligned and he was absent.
The team tried to rejuvenate here. Before the 1969 season, he requested Shigeru Mizuhara to take over as coach. Until then, all the commanders of Chunichi had been in the hands of team OBs, and blood from the outside was introduced for the first time. It is also one of the best generals who led the team that had been sluggish even after moving to the Toei Flyers (1961-1967), winning eight times in 11 years during the Giants coaching era (1950 to 1960), to the first crown. ..
