The Answer - Four Moments That Broke No Rule but Drew Criticism
There are moments in Yomiuri's history when the club broke no rule yet was accused of bending an opponent's title, a record or an umpire's call in its own favor. Of the four covered here, 1985 and 1999 were intentional walks in plate appearances where an opposing hitter's title or record was at stake, and 2011 and 2012 were plays that looked unfavorable to Yomiuri on video but were ruled in Yomiuri's favor.
| Year | Moment | Action by bench or player | Reaction |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Bass's 55th | Walks over two games | Oh denied ordering them |
| 1999 | Petagine walk | Walk ordered in the 7th | Uehara kicked the dirt in tears |
| 2011 | Wakiya's drop | Hand up to claim the catch | Mayumi protested |
| 2012 | Kato's beanball call | Hara appealed | Kuriyama protested |
Intentional walks are a recognized tactic, and the calls were made by umpires. Even so, all four have been criticized as unfair in press reports, in protests by the opposing manager and by fans. What follows sets out the facts and the reactions for each moment, and then discusses the decisions of the bench and the club.
1985 - Bass's 55th and the Walks
In 1985, Hanshin's Randy Bass had 54 home runs with two games left. Both were against Yomiuri, whose manager was Sadaharu Oh, the man who had set the single-season record of 55 home runs in 1964. On October 22 at Koshien, starter Suguru Egawa challenged Bass with strikes in all three of their meetings, and Bass went 1 for 2 with a walk against Egawa, but the other pitchers effectively walked him on purpose. In the final game on October 24 at Korakuen, Bass drew four-pitch walks in his first, second, fourth and fifth plate appearances. In the third, he lunged at starter Masaki Saito's first pitch, high and away, and sent it into center for a single. He finished the day 1 for 1 with four walks, and the 55th never came.
The next day the Hochi Shimbun ran the headline "Bass Fails to Reach the Record" and carried Oh's comment that he had not ordered anyone to walk Bass. According to the Sports Nippon at the time, the battery also said there had been no order from manager Oh, while the catcher let slip, "It's a record the manager built and has protected."
In an ironic twist, reaching base nine times in ten plate appearances over the two games lifted Bass's on-base percentage to .428, and he also won the on-base percentage title. That year he hit .350 with 54 home runs and 134 RBIs, taking the Triple Crown and the MVP award. His career and his two Triple Crown seasons are covered in the article on Bass.
1999 - The Petagine Walk and Koji Uehara's Tears
October 5, 1999 brought the final game between Yomiuri and Yakult that season, a game with no bearing on the standings after Chunichi had already clinched the pennant. Yomiuri's Hideki Matsui, with 41 home runs, was competing for the home run title with Yakult's Roberto Petagine, who had 42. Throughout the game, Matsui was walked again and again on pitches that were all but intentional balls.
Yomiuri's starter was the rookie Koji Uehara. He challenged Petagine and retired him in his first and second plate appearances, but in the bottom of the seventh, following an order from the bench to walk him, Uehara threw four straight balls, kicked up the dirt on the mound and wiped away tears with the sleeve of his uniform. In the ninth he went after Petagine again and gave up a run-scoring hit, but finished a complete-game win allowing two runs, his 20th victory of the year (20-4). A 2019 Smart FLASH article states that the order to walk Petagine came from manager Shigeo Nagashima.
When the season ended, Petagine had 44 home runs and won the home run title, along with the on-base percentage title, while Matsui finished with 42. Matsui's career is covered in the article on Matsui.
2011 - Ryota Wakiya's Drop and the Out Call
On April 20, 2011, Yomiuri played Hanshin at Koshien. In the seventh inning, Hanshin led by a run and had runners on first and third with two out when Craig Brazell lifted a ball behind second base. Second baseman Ryota Wakiya made the catch as he fell, raised his right hand holding the ball to show it, and the first-base umpire called the batter out. The slow-motion replay, however, showed the ball popping out of his glove, bouncing on the ground and being picked up again. The commentator on the TV Asahi broadcast also said, "That's been dropped." Hanshin manager Akinobu Mayumi came out of the dugout to protest, but the call stood, and Yomiuri came back to win 5-4.
After the game, Wakiya told the Sports Nippon: "I caught it. I play right on the edge. The replay? Maybe the TV picture was bad." In the next day's game on April 21 he was loudly booed when he came to bat, and criticism spread on Twitter. Press reports called it a blown call.
Wakiya admitted the drop seven years later. On October 6, 2018, in the Farm Japan Championship against Hanshin in Miyazaki, he came up as a pinch hitter for what would be the final plate appearance of his career, bowed to the Hanshin fans and said that through his actions in the Koshien incident he had hurt and saddened Hanshin fans and baseball fans.
2012 - The Japan Series Beanball Call and Ken Kato
On November 1, 2012, Game 5 of the Japan Series was played at the Sapporo Dome. In the top of the fourth, with no outs and a runner on first, Ken Kato squared to bunt, and a high-and-inside pitch from Nippon-Ham's second pitcher, Kazuhito Tadano, passed near his face and got past the catcher. Kato fell back and went down. On an appeal from manager Tatsunori Hara, home plate umpire Yanagita ruled that the pitch had hit Kato in the head and ejected Tadano under the dangerous pitch rule. It was the first such ejection in Japan Series history.
Nippon-Ham manager Hideki Kuriyama protested for several minutes, but the call stood, and boos filled the Sapporo Dome. On the replay the ball did not appear to touch Kato, and Nippon-Ham catcher Shinya Tsuruoka insisted, "I heard the sound of wood." Kato went to first base without receiving treatment, and Nippon-Ham hurriedly sent in Toshiharu Moriuchi. Yomiuri went on to win the series four games to two and became Japan champions.
Analysis - What the Bench Put First, and the Club's Account Afterward
The two cases from 1985 and 1999 were walks that blocked an opponent's record or title. In 1985, Oh himself and the battery denied there was any order; in 1999, Uehara's book describes an order from the bench, and press reports attribute it to manager Nagashima. In both games the pitchers left signs that they chose to compete: Egawa challenged Bass with strikes in all three meetings, and Uehara retired Petagine in his first two plate appearances.
Even so, both games ended with an opposing hitter held back by an accumulation of walks. What was at stake in 1985 was a record held by Yomiuri's own manager, and in 1999 it was a Yomiuri hitter's title race in a game with no bearing on the standings after the pennant was decided; in neither case was it the outcome of the game itself. That is the core of the criticism: the bench was seen as putting records and the title race ahead of the game.
The cases from 2011 and 2012 were calls that went Yomiuri's way and were simply accepted. Umpires make the calls, and appealing to them is within the rules. Yet where the video contradicted the call and the opposing manager protested, Wakiya admitted the drop on his own seven years later and bowed to the Hanshin fans, while the club has given no explanation about the Kato case in 2012. For a call that produced the first dangerous pitch ejection in Japan Series history, the winning club had a responsibility to state its view afterward.
Whether umpiring is biased toward Yomiuri is examined in the article on umpiring bias. This article is limited to the facts and reactions in the four moments.
How to Read This, and Its Limits
None of the four moments involved a rule violation. Intentional walks are a recognized tactic, and the 2011 and 2012 calls were both made by umpires and stood despite protests. The criticism in this article is aimed at the bench's decisions and the club's stance, and the critics it refers to are limited to press reports, the opposing managers and fans.
On the "order" to walk, the 1985 case is presented together with the denials by Oh and the battery, and for the 1999 case the order from the bench described in Uehara's book is kept separate from the press reports that name manager Nagashima. No individual pitcher or fielder is evaluated. Points on which sources disagree, such as which pitch of the plate appearance it was in 2012, are left out.