View source for Osamu Higashio

{{short description|Japanese baseball player}}
{{BLP sources|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox baseball biography
| name          = Osamu Higashio
| image         =
| image_size         =
| caption       = 
| position      = [[Pitcher]]
| birth_date    = {{birth date and age|1950|5|18}}
| birth_place   = [[Wakayama Prefecture]], Japan
| bats          = Right
| throws        = Right
| debutleague   = [[Nippon Professional Baseball|NPB]]
| debutdate     =
| debutyear     = 1969
| debutteam     = [[Saitama Seibu Lions|Nishitetsu Lions]]
| finaldate     =
| finalyear     = 1988
| finalteam     = [[Saitama Seibu Lions|Seibu Lions]]
| stat1label   = [[Win–loss record (pitching)|Win–loss]]
| stat1value   = 251–247
| stat2label   = [[Earned run average]]
| stat2value   = 3.50
| stat3label   = [[Shutouts]]
| stat3value   = 34
| stat4label   = [[Innings pitched]]
| stat4value   = 4,086
| stat5label   = [[Strikeout]]s
| stat5value   = 1,684
| teams         = 
'''As player'''
*[[Saitama Seibu Lions|Nishitetsu Lions/Taiheiyo Club Lions/Crown Lighter Lions/Seibu Lions]] ({{baseball year|1969}}–{{baseball year|1988}})
'''As manager'''
*Seibu Lions ({{npby|1995}}–{{npby|2001}})
|awards = 
*2× [[Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award|Pacific League MVP]] ({{baseball year|1983}}, {{baseball year|1987}})
*5× [[Japan Series]] champion ([[1982 Japan Series|1982]], [[1983 Japan Series|1983]], [[1986 Japan Series|1986]]–[[1988 Japan Series|1988]])
* [[Japan Series MVP]] ([[1982 Japan Series|1982]])
| hoflink       = Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
| hoftype       = Japanese
| hofdate       = 2010
| hofvote       = 
| hofmethod     = 
}}
{{Nihongo|'''Osamu Higashio'''|東尾 修|Higashio Osamu|born May 18, 1950}} is a Japanese former [[baseball]] player who played in the Japanese professional leagues from 1969–1988, being remembered as one of the leading Japanese pitchers in the 1980s. He also was manager of the [[Saitama Seibu Lions|Seibu Lions]] from 1995 to 2001.

==Professional career==
Higashio was a star in the [[National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament|Koshien]] high school baseball tournament, helping his team advance to the semi-finals in the spring of 1968. He was drafted in the first round by the Nishitetsu Lions (the current [[Saitama Seibu Lions]]) later that year. He lost confidence in his pitching ability after seeing the high level of pitching in the [[Pacific League]], and requested the team to convert him to a position player. The team accepted his request, but quickly withdrew it when the [[Black Mist Scandal (Japanese Baseball)|Black Mist Scandal]] erupted in the 1969 off-season. The ace of the Lions pitching staff, [[Masaaki Ikenaga]], was banished from the professional leagues because of the scandal, and Higashio was forced into pitching a full year in the Lions starting rotation. His inexperience resulted in a 5.15 ERA in 40 games that season. Higashio made improvements in the following years, but still led the league in losses in 1971 and 1972. During the 1972 season in particular he pitched over 300 innings, leading the league not only in losses, but in hits, runs, and home runs given up. He also allowed over 100 walks in three consecutive seasons beginning in 1971.

The Lions team was sold by the [[Nishi-Nippon Railroad]] in 1973, becoming the Taiheiyo Club Lions, and in 1978 he was sold again when the team became the Crown Lighter Lions. It was during this turbulent period that Higashio emerged as the ace of the Lions pitching staff. In the 1975 season he had a very respectable 2.38 ERA while leading the league with 23 wins. He won 23 games again in 1978, pitching over 300 innings for the third time in his career. The Lions finally obtained financial stability in 1979, becoming the Seibu Lions, and won the [[Japan Series]] in [[1982 Japan Series|1982]] and [[1983 Japan Series|1983]]. Higashio marked the lowest ERA in the league (2.92), and led the league in wins to receive the [[Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award|MVP]] award in 1983. The Lions won the Pacific League championship four years in a row from 1985–1988 (including three more Japan Series wins), and Higashio won his second MVP award in 1987. He announced his retirement in 1988.

==Beanballs==
Higashio often pitched towards the inside of the plate to intimidate opposing batters during his professional career, and he holds the Japanese career record for hit batsmen (165). He was not afraid to throw pitches close to the batter, and showed little remorse after hitting batters. In 1986, he received a beating on the mound by [[Kintetsu Buffaloes]] player [[Dick Davis (baseball)|Dick Davis]], after hitting Davis with a pitch (Higashio continued pitching after the incident, marking the win).<ref>[[Whiting, Robert]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080409083700/http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068391/index.htm "The Pain Of Perfection,"] ''Sports Illustrated'' (May 15, 1989). [https://japanesebaseball.com/writers/display.gsp?id=18781 Archived at JapaneseBaseball.com].</ref>  Many fans sympathized with Davis, and demanded that Higashio be penalized as well for hitting so many batters. Managers of rival teams accused Higashio of purposely hitting batters, since Higashio possessed excellent control, and there was no way he could accidentally hit batters so often. Higashio has maintained that he never threw a pitch with the intention of hitting the batter.

==Career statistics==
*'''Bolded figures''' are league-leading ones
{| class="wikitable"
|- 
!Year!!Team!!G!!CG!!SHO!!W!!L!!SV!!IP!!H!!HR!!BB+HBP!!SO!!ER!!ERA(Place)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1969||rowspan="4" style="text-align: center;"|Nishitetsu Lions
||8||0||0||0||2||0||15.0||16||2||15||11||14||8.40
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1970||40||3||0||11||18||0||173.1||183||22||97||94||99||5.15(21)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1971||'''51'''||3||0||8||'''16'''||0||221.1||198||20||'''133'''||109||92||3.75(17)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1972||55||13||2||18||'''25'''||0||'''309.2'''||'''313'''||'''37'''||122||171||'''126'''||3.66(15)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1973||rowspan="4" style="text-align: center;"|Taiheiyo Club Lions
||48||14||5||15||14||0||257.2||'''250'''||22||'''114'''||104||'''94'''||3.29(14)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1974||27||7||1||6||9||0||123.0||116||12||53||58||47||3.44
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1975||'''54'''||'''25'''||'''4'''||'''23'''||'''15'''||7||'''317.2'''||'''287'''||14||70||'''154'''||84||2.38(3)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1976||43||15||2||13||11||5||243.1||'''256'''||14||59||93||'''86'''||3.19(14)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1977||rowspan="2" style="text-align: center;"|Crown Lighter Lions
||42||17||1||11||'''20'''||4||241.2||'''259'''||'''30'''||70||108||'''104'''||3.87(20)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1978||45||28||1||23||14||1||'''303.1'''||'''299'''||25||69||126||99||2.94(8)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1979||rowspan="10" style="text-align: center;"|Seibu Lions
||23||10||1||6||13||0||155.0||181||19||39||61||78||4.53(21)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1980||33||18||1||17||13||0||235.1||'''258'''||28||53||84||99||3.79(7)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1981||27||11||1||8||11||0||181.0||192||24||58||55||77||3.83(16)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1982||28||11||2||10||11||1||183.2||179||20||52||59||67||3.28(9)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1983||32||11||'''3'''||'''18'''||9||2||213.0||198||14||57||72||69||'''2.92(1)'''
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1984||32||'''20'''||3||14||'''14'''||0||'''241.1'''||227||24||61||84||89||3.32(3)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1985||31||11||'''3'''||17||3||1||174.1||164||19||53||74||64||3.30(4)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1986||31||8||0||12||11||2||168.1||183||29||34||52||79||4.22(13)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1987||28||17||3||15||9||0||222.2||215||16||35||85||64||2.59(2)
|- style="text-align: right;"
|1988||19||5||1||6||9||0||105.2||121||21||33||30||57||4.85
|- style="text-align: right;"
!colspan="2"|Career Total
|697||247||34||251||247||23||4086||4095||412||1267||1684||1588||3.50
|}

==Managerial career==
Higashio worked as a sports commentator for various television networks before returning to the Lions in 1995 as manager. Higashio drafted several top players, and recruited [[Darrin Jackson]] and [[Orestes Destrade]] from the major leagues, but ended up in 3rd place in his first two seasons as manager. The emergence of several young players, including [[Kazuo Matsui]], put the Lions over the top in Higashio's third year, and the team won consecutive league championships in 1997 and 1998 (the Lions lost the Japanese championship series both years). Pitchers [[Shinji Mori]], [[Daisuke Matsuzaka]], [[Fumiya Nishiguchi]] and [[Yui Tomori|Denney Tomori]] also emerged during Higashio's tenure as manager. The Lions placed in 2nd in 1999 and 2000, and fell to 3rd place in 2001, and Higashio resigned from his post at the end of 2001.

He has currently{{as of?|date=March 2017}} returned to his role as a sports commentator. In September, 2006, he became the head of the [[Tokyo Apache]] Japanese professional basketball team.

Higashio served as the pitching coach for the [[Japanese national baseball team]] in the [[2013 World Baseball Classic]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2013/03/07/baseball/cuba-tops-japan-remains-unbeaten-at-wbc/|title = Cuba tops Japan, remains unbeaten at WBC|date = 7 March 2013}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Higashio's daughter, [[Riko Higashio]], is a [[professional golfer]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/03/24/national/media-national/abortion-controlled-by-the-state/|title = Abortion controlled by the state|date = 24 March 2013}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Baseballstats|brm=higash000osa}}
*[http://www.japanesebaseball.com/players/player.jsp?PlayerID=409 Player profile]

{{Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame}}
{{Japan Series MVP}}
{{Pacific League MVPs}}
{{Saitama Seibu Lions Managers}}
{{Japan roster 2013 World Baseball Classic}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Higashio, Osamu}}
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Baseball people from Wakayama Prefecture]]
[[Category:Japanese baseball players]]
[[Category:Nishitetsu Lions players]]
[[Category:Taiheiyo Club Lions players]]
[[Category:Crown Lighter Lions players]]
[[Category:Seibu Lions players]]
[[Category:Nippon Professional Baseball MVP Award winners]]
[[Category:Managers of baseball teams in Japan]]
[[Category:Seibu Lions managers]]
[[Category:Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame inductees]]