Yosh Kawano

Yosh Kawano

• Born June 4, 1921 in Seattle, WA USA
• Died June 25, 2018 in Los Angeles, CA USA

Biographical Information

Yosh Kawano was the clubhouse manager for the Chicago Cubs for decades, while being in the team's employment from 1943 to 2008. He worked under 37 Cubs managers and 12 General Managers.

He was known for wearing a distinctive white floppy fishing hat, which went on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY following his retirement. He is a member of the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame. He worked both the home clubhouse and the visitors clubhouse, the latter starting in 1999. Reportedly, there was a clause in the sale of the Cubs from Bill Wrigley to the Chicago Tribune in 1981 that the new owner would guarantee lifetime employment for Kawano. He was the only employee so named. He was given a World Series ring when the Cubs finally ended their historic drought by winning the 2016 World Series.

Of Japanese-American background, he was born in Washington state and first worked for the Cubs as a bat boy in spring training in 1935, at a time when the Cubs were training in California. He was interned in Arizona under the order directed against Japanese-Americans during World War II but earned a reprieve to work for the Chicago White Sox in spring training in 1943. He then served in the United States Army in the Pacific, earning combat medals in New Guinea and the Philippines.

His brother, Nobe Kawano, was clubhouse manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1959 to 1991.

Further Reading

• Paul Sullivan: "Longtime Cubs clubhouse attendant Yosh Kawano, 'the king of Wrigley Field' dies at 97", Chicago Tribune, June 26, 2018. [1]