Career
He was famous for his steady batting and his defence at shortstop, and received the Best Nine Award of the NPB nine times, in 1955-60, 1962, 1964-65. This is the best record till now. He was often compared with the famous 12th century general, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, and they called Yoshida "Ushiwakamaru", Yoshitune's name as a child.
After retirement, he became the manager of the Hanshin Tigers three times, in 1975-77, 1985–87, 1997-98. The 1985 season was his best. His Hanshin Tigers won the Central League's championship for the first time since 1964, and broke the Seibu Lions in the Japan Series. This is the only time the Hanshin Tigers won the series. That year Yoshida was the winner of the Matsutaro Shoriki Award.
In 1989-95, Yoshida lived in Paris, and managed the French national baseball team, but his team failed to qualify for the Olympic Games twice; first for the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona and again for the 1996 Summer Olympics at Atlanta. Since then, Yoshida has had a new nickname, "Monsieur". He was selected as a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992.
Read more about this topic: Yoshio Yoshida
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
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“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)