By Robert Whiting (2021)
I have seen a lot of strange appointments to the post of manager of an MLB club in my long career as a journalist, but perhaps none so strange as the Nippon Ham Fighters front office decision to hire Tsuyoshi Shinjo as their field manager for the 2022 season. Shinjo, a good field, no-hit outfielder with the Hanshin Tigers, New York Mets and San Francisco Giants, was known primarily through his career as “Space Man” for his bizarre behavior which included touching home plate with his hand when scoring and displaying an outre fashion sense—leather suits orange wraparound glasses and eyebrow makeup. He looked more like he belonged in a rock band than in center field. After a peek inside Shinjo’s locker in San Francisco during an interview in 2001, a photographer noted wryly, “He’s got more hairspray in there than my wife does in her bedroom.”
He was unconventional in other ways. By his fourth season with the Hanshin Tigers, he had recorded a love song “True Love” (which sold a grand total of 8,000 copies and by the time he was 28, he had written his autobiography, entitled “Dreaming baby.” He had become so famous for making outlandish statements—eg. “I am one who wants to be adored by others.”, that a collection of them were published in a book entitled appropriately enough, “The Analects of Shinjo.”
Shinjo could run and as an outfielder his arm was as good at Ichiro’s. He was a .249 lifetime hitter who could not hit the outside breaking pitch. He had one good season, 2000, when he batted .278 with 28 home runs, 85 RBI’s and 15 stolen bases. Becoming a free agent he turned down lucrative, multiyear offers from Central League teams and signed with the NY Mets in 2001 for a reported league minimum of $200,000, which caused an uncle to yell, “What the hell are you thinking, you idiot.?”
“I want to test my abilities,” Shinjo replied, “and I want to have fun playing baseball.”
His signing with the Mets reportedly annoyed Ichiro, who has just signed with the Seattle Mariners, as the first Japanese position payer in America.
“What on earth did the New York Mets sign a guy like that for?” he was quoted as saying, “If someone like him can go over there, the major leagues must not be anything much these days. Putting me and Shinjo together is a joke.”
However, Shinjo showed flashes of talent in New York. He had several important hits and made fine defensive plays in center field. And he always hustled on ground balls to the infield to back up teammates in case of an error, something not all American outfielders could be bothered to do.
In fact, Mets manager Bobby Valentine, in a moment of unguarded enthusiasm, called Shinjo the best center fielder in the MLB. Evidently, however, it wasn’t enough as Shinjo finished the season at .269 with 10 home runs in 123 games and was traded to San Francisco for the 2002 season.
Some baseball fans compared Shinjo to Bill Lee, a Boston red Sox pitcher in the 1970’s also nicknamed “Spaceman,” because of his outspoken manner and unfiltered comments. Lee publicly defended Maoist China, Greenpeace and population control. He once threatened to bite off an umpire’s ear. He openly bragged about his marijuana use. His propensity to criticize management—he said portly Bosox manager Don Zimmer looked like a ‘gerbil’—eventually got him bounced out of baseball by 1982.
I interviewed Shinjo twice in San Francisco where his presence on the team was a huge distraction. Shinjo hit .238 with but 9 home runs in 113 games, but his every move was documented by twenty or so reporters. Giants manager Dusty Baker was not happy about that.
“I’m not used to being asked every day about the same person,” he sighed, “How much can you say in a 24-hour period?”
Shinjo spent long stretches languishing on the bench which left the “Shinjo Patrol” desperate for new story angles. One such desperate reporter took a photograph of Shinjo to the strip joints and gay bars in the Castro District, asking bartenders and patrons alike if the good-looking young man in question had ever patronized their establishments. Hearing of this Shinjo became so upset he stopped talking to the Japanese press for a time and instituted a ban of reporters from entering the Giants locker room.
So How will Shinjo do as a manager? Who knows. There have been worse hirings. In 2015 the Miami Marlins hired a front office executive with no managing, coaching or even playing experience on a professional level, major or minor. Jennings finished 55 and 69 and was fired at the end of the year.
Shino was known for his hustle as a player and his presence on Nippon Ham, will definitely attract the media. With Inaba occupying the General manager position to provide “adult leadership” as well bring respectability and baseball smarts to the Fighters’ team, one would assume he will be tasked to keep Shinjo in line and possibly call some/many of the shots.
Some people may view this as a ‘clown’ stunt. But Nippon Ham is know for unconventional—and successful—thinking. So in the end, this bizarre experiment might turn out ok.
Tokyo Junkie 