By The Big Magazine Staff
In case you haven't been watching the world of International Baseball, Nippon-Ham Fighters manager Tsuyoshi "BIG BOSS" Shinjo has been taking the professional baseball world by storm with a string of elaborate PR stunts.
One of the most memorable entrances in baseball history, Big Boss pulled all the stops out on Tuesday, soaring around the stadium on a literal hovercraft before the Fighters' game agianst the Seibu Lions.
Baseball fans of earth, we promise you’ve never seen anything like this before.
Despite being the first-ever Japanese player to appear in a World Series game, Shinjo was never the caliber of a Suzuki or an Ohtani. After three seasons in the majors, he was demoted to triple A and eventually returned to Japan to finish out his career as a role player.
But instead of fading into obscurity, something miraculous happened. Along the way, Shinjo became a national celebrity, starting his own clothing line, starring on TV (including winning the Japanese version of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'), and claiming his first and only Japan Series title in his final game as a professional player.
To call Shinjo’s career “unorthodox” would be the understatement of the century, and thus, to the surprise of absolutely no one, his NPB managerial career has picked up right where his playing career left off. This offseason, Shinjo was named manager of the Nippon-Ham Fighters. He quickly made waves by registering “BIG BOSS” as his official name, and on Opening Day he steered into that bit as hard as he could with one of the most memorable entrances in baseball history.
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