Monday, August 10, 2015

RIP Sadaaki Nishimura

Former Nishitetsu Lions pitcher Sadaaki Nishimura has passed away from liver cancer at 80 years of age.  His pitched for the Lions from 1953 to 1962.  He had a three year stretch between 1954 and 1956 where he went 62-18 but never approached that kind of dominance afterwards with the exception of the perfect game he threw in 1958 (the fifth one in NPB history).  He worked as a baseball commentator after retiring as a player.

I don't have any contemporary cards of his although I assume he has both menko and bromide cards from the 1950's.  I think he's only appeared in maybe four OB sets and half of those appearances were due to his perfect game.  Here are the three cards that I have:

1994 BBM Perfect Pitching #P5

2008 BBM Lions Memorial #10

2012 BBM No-Hitters #35
He also appeared in Epoch's 2012 History Of Best Nine box set.

No comments: