Shohei Baba

Shohei Baba (Giant) (馬場 正平)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height listed from 6' 6" to 6' 10" depending on source, Weight 187 lb. (significantly higher after his baseball career ended)

• High School Sanjo Jitsugyo High School

• Born January 23, 1938 in Sanjo, Niigata Japan
• Died January 31, 1999

BR register page

Biographical Information

At the age of 17, Shohei Baba dropped out of high school to join the Yomiuri Giants. In ni-gun, he was 12-1 in 1956 and was named the Eastern League pitcher of the year. The next season, he won 13 more games and pitched three games with Yomiuri, going 0-1 with a 1.29 ERA. His only decision was on October 23; the winning pitcher was Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame hurler Shigeru Sugishita, who won his 200th victory that day. In 1958, he had brain surgery to remove a mass and two years later, he fell while exiting the bathtub and trashed his pitching hand.

After his baseball career ended, Baba became a very successful professional wrestler and was known as Giant Baba. He was still wrestling in his 60s. He died in 1999 of intestinal cancer; he had been known as a smoker for many years prior to his death.

Main sources: Japanbaseballdaily.com by Gary Garland, Japanesebaseball.com