You’ll be hard-pressed to find a former San Francisco Giants player enjoying his post-MLB life as much as Tsuyoshi Shinjo is.
Shinjo, who played center field for the Giants during their 2002 World Series run, just started his third campaign as the manager of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters — a professional Japanese baseball team that Shinjo won a Japan Series with as a player in 2006.
Since taking over as the Fighters’ skipper in 2022, he has:
- Worn a three-piece burgundy suit with a comically large collar to his introductory press conference
- Nicknamed himself “Big Boss” and asked reporters to address him as such
- Intercepted a ceremonial first pitch
- Got Nippon Professional Baseball to let him put “BIG BOSS” on his jersey
- Entered a game against the Saitama Seibu Lions in Sapporo on a hoverbike
- Showed up to spring training on a three-wheeled motorcycle
- Retired the nickname “Big Boss”
Shinjo has made a career of being the first to do things: He was the first Japanese-born position player to play in the National League and the first Japanese-born player to play in a World Series game.