FOUR SELECTED FOR JAPANESE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME

Two all-time great players are among four people selected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame last week.


Tsutomu Wakamatsu led the Yakult Swallows to Japan Series victories as both a player and a manager. Wakamatsu was an outfielder for Yakult’s first Japan Series winners in 1978, and his lifetime batting average of .319 is an all-time high among Japanese players. He also managed the Swallows to a Series crown in 2001.

Former Yomuiri Giants slugger Noboru Aota was also selected to the Hall. Aota won five Central League home run titles as well as two RBI crowns and a batting championship as one of the linchpins of Yomiuri’s high-octane offense in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

Wakamatsu and Aota will be joined by former Nippon Ham Fighters owner Yoshinori Okoso and historian Ichiro Kimishima to bring the number of Japanese Hall members to 168.