Former Nankai Great Dies

Former Nankai (now Daiei) Hawks first baseman Iida Tokuji, who
lead the club during its golden period of the early 1950's, passed
away from a heart attack Monday at a Yokohama hospital. He was 76.
Iida broke into Japanese professional baseball in 1947, where he
played with and under the great Nankai player and manager Tsuruoka
Kazuto, who also died earlier this year, finishing with a career batting average of .284 with 183 homers and 969 RBIs, and was selected on the best nine five times during his 17 year career. He was an all around player who stole bases (390 total, including his high of 48 in both 1953 and 1954) and had some power as well as providing sterling defense. Nankai won four Pacific League pennants during Iida's tenure,
including three in a row from 1951-54.

Arguably, his best campaign was in 1949, when he socked 27
homers, drove in 101 runs and stole 21 bases. He won two consecutive
Pacific League RBI titles (1951, 1952), an MVP (1955) and a stolen base crown (1957 with 40).

From 1948-1958, he played in 1246 consecutive games, which was`
the Japanese baseball record before Kinugasa Sachio came along and set
the world mark that was then eventually shattered by the Baltimore
Orioles' Cal Ripken. Iida's streak was interrupted by a torn Achilles
tendon.

Iida played for the Hawks up until 1957, when he joined the
Kokutetsu Swallows for the final six seasons of his career. That
period saw Iida as a shadow of his former self, as he never hit more
than eight homers in a season for them and his high in steals was
10, his final two years seeing him only in a part time role.

Three years after retiring, he took a job as manager of the
Sankei Atoms (now the Yakult Swallows) for two years and then
took a manager's post with Nankai in 1969 for a year and was then
replaced by present Hanshin Tigers manager Nomura Katsuya.

Iida was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in
1981. He was survived by his wife Reiko.