Koji Ano, a former Yomiuri Giants catcher and coach who spent 22 years with the club, was told on Oct. 31, 1991, that the team had no intention of re-signing him — delivered in one 10-yen public phone call that ended his baseball career, Yahoo!ニュース reported.
Ano, then 43, was in Arizona as one of the coaches leading Giants rookies, including infielder Daisuke Motoki, through a 27-game instructional league. After returning to Japan, he was dining with a friend at a sushi restaurant in Tokyo’s Roppongi district when his wife told him the club wanted him to call, Yahoo!ニュース reported. At a time before mobile phones were widespread, he used a public phone, and the club representative’s message, delivered and then cut off, was final: “We have no intention of contracting you for next season.”
A Shock Three Days Before a New Job
Ano had already published two books on training methods and received offers from other teams, but on Nov. 3 — three days after the call — he visited a construction company introduced to him by Seiji Matsubara, the Giants’ first-team hitting coach who was leaving the club the same year, Yahoo!ニュース reported. The company was Steel Engineering Co., a firm doing steel-frame and floor-plate work, and Ano decided to enter an entirely unknown field.
He said his family had been in business, that he was good with an abacus and liked numbers, and that he had wanted to try life as a salaried employee; with manager changes constantly threatening coaches in a system of one-year contracts, he thought a monthly salary would also reassure his wife.
From the Dugout to Steel Beams
Ano went on to serve as president and then chairman of Steel Engineering and, at 78, still works as an adviser to other companies in the same industry, Yahoo!ニュース reported. Reflecting on the turn, he said that the part of his life after taking off the uniform has been longer than his playing and coaching years.
Questions Readers Still Ask
The report says he received offers from other clubs but does not name them, so the specific teams remain unidentified.
According to the report, the company handles steel-frame and floor-plate construction work, and Ano now advises other firms in the same industry.
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