Shozo Doi's decades in baseball left a lasting impression.

Doi, the former Yomiuri Giants V-9 era second baseman and one-time manager of the Orix BlueWave, died Sept. 25 of pancreatic cancer in Tokyo. He was 67.

The Hyogo Prefecture native enjoyed a long career in pro baseball as a player, coach, manager, TV and sports newspaper commentator and will be remembered for his contributions to the game.

He joined the Yomiuri club as a rookie in 1965, the year the Giants won their first of nine consecutive Central League pennants and Japan Series titles, and he retired as an active player following the 1978 season. His statistics were not that impressive; he compiled a lifetime batting average of .263, hitting only 65 home runs.

However, the diminutive Doi was a slick-fielding second sacker and, any time the Giants turned an around-the-horn 5-4-3 double play during that V-9 run, it was Doi who took the throw from legendary third baseman Shigeo Nagashima and relayed it to another legend, Sadaharu Oh, at first.

During the heyday years, he was a skillful sacrifice bunter who batted second in the order ahead of Oh and Nagashima.

Doi was a popular player among Kyojin fans, and he parlayed his status as a regular on Japan's most successful team into a post-retirement career on and off the field. He was a Giants coach in the late 1980s and was appointed as field manager in 1991 of the Orix BlueWave, then based in Kobe.

He piloted the BlueWave for three seasons through 1993 and was the first manager of Orix rookies and future major leaguers Ichiro Suzuki and So Taguchi.

Doi was often criticized for failing to realize the potential of the then-19-year-old Ichiro, who he kept on the BlueWave farm team through most of the '93 campaign.

Supposedly, he tried to change Ichiro's batting style, telling the youngster, "You'll never hit like that," referring to Ichiro's habit of shuffling his feet as he prepared to swing.

It was the following year, 1994, when Akira Ogi, Doi's successor as Orix manager, brought Ichiro to the top team where he won his first Pacific League batting title, and the rest, as they say, is history.

There was also an interesting episode during the 1991 season involving Doi and American pitcher Don Schulze, a burly right-hander sometimes used as the Orix closer.

The BlueWave were playing a Pa League game one night against the Kintetsu Buffaloes at the old Nissei Stadium in Morinomiya, downtown Osaka. It was a seesaw battle with both clubs using most of their players as the action went to the ninth inning.

The visiting Orix team took a one-run lead into the bottom of the ninth, and Doi called on Schulze to put the game away. But, having spent his career in the Central League where the designated hitter rule is non-existent, Doi became confused and somehow got his pitcher penciled and announced into the batting lineup, thus negating his DH for the remainder of the game.

As luck would have it, a couple of Buffaloes hits and an Orix error allowed Kintetsu to tie the score and send the game to extra innings. The BlueWave put on a couple of runners in the top of the 10th and, with two out, Schulze's turn to bat came up.

Doi was out of pinch hitters — or out of pitchers — so the American hurler borrowed an undersized batting helmet and went up to the plate for the first time that season. The Buffaloes figured they were out of the inning, as Schulze would be an easy out, but there was a surprise.

Schulze got a hold of one — a tremendous three-run blast, an epic clout — that had to have been one of the longest home runs ever hit at Nissei Stadium. The ball seemed to be still rising when it struck about halfway up a light tower beyond the bleachers in left-center field. Schulze began pumping his fists triumphantly as he trotted around the bases.

The hitting hero held Kintetsu scoreless in the bottom of the 10th, getting credit for the pitching and batting victory and a warm handshake from a relieved and grateful manager.

Doi was asked later how he managed to screw up the lineup card but, true to his character, he replied, "There was no mistake. I had it all planned that way." As if he knew Schulze would go deep that night.

Later, I got to know Doi as a colleague when he served as a color commentator for Giants games on NTV and, when that gig ended for him, he would sit in the press box at Tokyo Dome and file game reports and analyses for one of the sports newspapers.

We would often have discussions about everything from the old Giants to Ichiro's success with the Seattle Mariners. Then, about five years ago, he just was not there. I asked around and heard he had been stricken with cancer which explained his absence from the ballpark.

He did make one final appearance at a Giants game on June 8, 2007, to participate in a ceremony to mark the 5,000th victory in Yomiuri franchise history. He was pushed onto the field, wearing his No. 6 Giants jersey, in a wheelchair, appearing frail and in poor health.

Having seen him that night, it is difficult to believe he hung on for more than two years, but he leaves behind a host of memories that will not soon be forgotten.

Rest in peace, my friend.

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Contact Wayne Graczyk at: [email protected]