Infielder Takuro Ishii of the Hiroshima Carp has announced his retirement as an active player effective at the end of the 2012 season. Ishii joins infielder Hiroki Kokubo of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks who will also hang up his spikes when his club concludes its schedule in October or November.
Both veterans will no doubt be honored by their teams staging the Japanese tradition of the "intai jiai," or retirement game, in which their final regular-season plate appearances will take place. If the timing is right, the final season standings are already decided and the game situation falls into place, each will make that final trip to the batter's box to face a pitcher on the opposing team who was a rival throughout their respective careers.
The 42-year-old Ishii is one of the few remaining active players from the 1998 Yokohama BayStars' Japan Series-winning ballclub. He was the shortstop and leadoff hitter in that "Machine Gun Dasen" lineup, a spark plug who got things going night after night during Yokohama's last glory season 14 years ago.