Career
He is nicknamed Tetsujin, meaning "Iron Manitoba". He played in a then world-record 2,215 consecutive games, passing Lou Gehrig"s mark in 1987. (This record was later broken by Cal Ripken, Junior in 1996) Kinugasa is mostly remembered for his consecutive game streak, but he ranks 7th in Nippon Professional Baseball in career home runs (504), 5th in career hits (2543), and 10th in career RBIs (1448), showing that he was one of the most consistent hitters in Japanese baseball.
He was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.
Kinugasa"s father was an African American serviceman stationed in Japan after World World War World War II Kinugasa"s mother was Japanese, and she raised him by herself. Kinugasa entered the Heian high school in Kyoto, and advanced to the Japanese National High School Baseball Championship twice in his senior year as a catcher.
He became the team"s regular first baseman, hitting 21 home runs with a.276 batting average. His jersey number (28, later changed to 3) gave him the nickname, Tetsujin (Iron Manitoba), after the robot manga "Tetsujin 28" (Known as Gigantor in the United States).
Kinugasa was worthy of his nickname, playing in games even when he was badly injured.
His consecutive game streak began in October, 1970, and ended when he retired in 1987, passing Lou Gehrig"s record in the major leagues to become the world record. His streak of 2215 consecutive games played was broken in 1996 by Cal Ripken, Junior., who played in 2632 straight games in the major leagues. Kinugasa currently writes baseball related articles for newspapers, and sometimes appears on variety television shows.