Cultural Impact
When the Osaka Tigers played their first season in 1936, jersey numbers were given out in alphabetical order. Wakabayashi was assigned number 4, but he refused to wear the number because it is considered unlucky in Japan. He was given the first available number instead, which was 18. His subsequent success in the professional leagues made it a custom for a Japanese team's ace pitcher to be given the number -for example, Daisuke Matsuzaka was given number 18 when he joined the Seibu Lions from high school.
Read more about this topic: Tadashi Wakabayashi
Famous quotes containing the words cultural and/or impact:
“The primary function of myth is to validate an existing social order. Myth enshrines conservative social values, raising tradition on a pedestal. It expresses and confirms, rather than explains or questions, the sources of cultural attitudes and values.... Because myth anchors the present in the past it is a sociological charter for a future society which is an exact replica of the present one.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)
“The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
—Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)