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Date: June 12, 1999
Hanshin fans had had very little to cheer about for years. Fourteen seasons since the last championship and four more until the next, there was no telling when the Dark Ages would come to an end. One of the few bright spots on this team was a young, flamboyant fielder named Tsuyoshi Shinjo. The future major leaguer had great power for a man of his stature, and made some magnificent plays in the outfield as well. And though he was not exactly in incumbent manager Katsuya Nomura’s good books, he still got the thumbs up to pull off this stunt.
Let me explain. With runners on the corners and one out in the bottom of the twelfth inning, Giants’ reliever Hiromi Makihara elected to intentionally walk Shinjo in order to create a force play at home. When his first pitch was a little too close to the plate, Shinjo (who had allegedly been practicing this move for a few days) looked to the dugout, got the nod from Nomura, and swung at the next ball. And voila.
Incidentally, the center-fielder played the top of the 12th inning at second base — a first in his professional career (though he had played some at third and short). He even made the final out of the frame, fielding a grounder from Kazuhiro Kiyohara and throwing it to first baseman Mark Johnson.
On the hero’s podium, he infamously ended his interview by saying, “Ashita mo katsu!” (Tomorrow we win again!) Within a week, the team dropped out of first place. Later in the season (September 10, to be exact), Shinjo repeated those same famous last words on the podium, and the Tigers promptly embarked on a 12-game losing streak, henceforth making those words taboo on the postgame stage.
Regardless, this moment is a bright flicker during an extended period of darkness that Tigers fans now look back on with laughter.