Sen'ichi Hoshino

Sen'ichi Hoshino, 2011

Sen'ichi Hoshino ( Japanese 星野 仙 一 , Hoshino Sen'ichi ; born January 22, 1947 in Kurashiki , Okayama Prefecture ; † January 4, 2018 ) was a Japanese baseball manager and former pitcher . For the 2008 Summer Olympics he coached the Japanese national baseball team . As a player, he won the 1974 Sawamura Award for the league's best pitcher.

Life

Player career

Hoshino played in his high school days at the Okayama Kenritsu Kurashiki Shōgyō Kōtō Gakkō , with which he never succeeded in participating in the Kōshien tournament . During his studies at Meiji University , he played in the first team from the start. In the League of Six Universities of Tokyo , he brought it in 63 games with an ERA of 1.91 to 23 wins and 25 losses.

1986 Hoshino was in the first round of the Chunichi Dragons ge draftet was, for he had pitched regularly in the first season and soon often also often used as a starter, in the early years as a reliever. In 1974, when the Dragons broke the nine-year dominance of the Giants and took first place in the Central League , Hoshino led the league with 10 saves and also scored 15 wins for 9 losses and an ERA of 2.87 in a total of 49 games. He was awarded the Sawamura Award for his seasonal performance.

After the Dragons were able to repeat their success in 1982 and were again first, Hoshino ended his career. In a total of 500 games (including 177 starts) - all for Chūnichi - he had achieved 146 wins and 34 saves. He had taken part in the All-Star Game six times .

Coaching career

In March 2008, Hoshino's hometown Kurashiki established a small Sen'ichi Hoshino museum.

After retiring, Hoshino initially worked as a television commentator for NHK . After the 1986 season, he replaced Kazuhiro Yamauchi as manager of the Chūnichi Dragons, which had finished the previous two seasons in fifth (penultimate) place. In 1988 he led the team to the league title, but then lost the Nippon Series against the Seibu Lions . After five years, Hoshino resigned in 1991.

For the 1996 season he was reappointed as manager. In 1999 he was able to repeat the success of 1988 with the team, but lost the championship again, this time against the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks . In 2001 he finally left the Dragons and took over the Hanshin Tigers in 2002 . Although he was able to win the title in the Central League again in 2003 , reports of his impending resignation were published during the Nippon Series . After he lost the championship again to the Hawks, he resigned for health reasons; he was sick several times during the season. He was awarded the Shōriki Matsutarō Prize of the Yomiuri Shimbun as an Honored Manager .

In January 2007, Hoshino took over the Japanese national baseball team from Sadaharu Oh (or as the Olympic team from Shigeo Nagashima ) in preparation for the Summer Olympics in Beijing . By winning the Asian championship in December 2007, his team was able to qualify directly for the Olympic Games.

Web links

• Official Website (Japanese)
• Player statistics at japanesebaseball.com
• Hoshino Museum website (Japanese)