Shingo Furuya

Shingo Furuya (古谷 真吾)

• School Osaka University

• Birth 1932
• Died July 19, 1988 in Tokyo Prefecture Japan

Shingo Furuya was briefly the General Manager of the Hanshin Tigers. Furuya had been with Hanshin Railways since the 1950s when he was appointed the Tigers' GM in 1988. He was immediately beset by two problems, as longtime star Masayuki Kakefu retired due to illness and declined production and there was conflict with foreign slugger Randy Bass. Bass's son had been diagnosed with cancer and he returned to the US for the treatment. Hanshin claimed that Bass had broken his contract; Bass countered with a video recording from a Tigers VP granting him the right to be with his sick child. While Furuya had not been the one to make the promise nor the one who negotiated Bass's contract, he was distraught over the situation, being friends with the Bass family. Under intense fan criticism over the Kakefu and Bass situations, he committed suicide at age 56, jumping from the 8th floor of the Hotel New Otani. He was only 40 days into his job as GM.

Sources

• You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting
• Time Magazine
• New York Times