was a Japanese professional baseball player. A right-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

, he played in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

for the

Nishitetsu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama, Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiar ...

. Ikenaga was one of the top pitchers in

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

before a scandal derailed his career at age 23. Before being implicated in the Black Mist Scandal, he made five consecutive All-Star teams at the beginning of his career, and was in the top 10 in ERA every season of his career.

Biography

Ikenaga attended

Shimonoseki file:141122 Shimonoseki City Hall Yamaguchi pref Japan01s3.jpg, 260px, Shimonoseki city hall is a Cities of Japan, city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 248,193 in 128,762 households and a pop ...

Shogyo High School, with his school baseball team winning the spring 1963 Koshien Tournament. He made his debut for the Nishitetsu Lions in 1965 at age 18, winning 20 games (3rd in the league) with a 2.27 ERA (5th in the league), and establishing himself as the team's ace. That year he made the

Pacific League The , or , or the , due to sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the a ...

(PL) All-Star team, and was named the PL Rookie of the Year. In 1966 he posted a 15–14 record with a 2.18 ERA, again fifth in the PL. 1967 was Ikenaga's most productive season, as he went 23–14 with a 2.31 ERA. He led the PL in wins, complete games (19), shutouts (6) and innings pitched (335-1/3). 1968 saw Ikenaga go 23–13, with a 2.45 ERA (3rd in the PL). The 1969 season saw Ikenaga post an 18–11 record and a 2.57 ERA, finishing 3rd in the league in wins.

Black Mist scandal

In 1970 Ikenaga started the season 4–3 with a 2.60 ERA. On April 1 of that year, disgraced former Lions pitcher Masayuki Nagayasu gave an exclusive tape-recorded interview to the '' Shūkan Post'' newspaper that revealed other players on his former team were also involved in game-fixing during the 1969 season. Of the seven players summoned by the league to testify on their involvement, one of them was Ikenaga. Ikenaga admitted taking money from gamblers via fellow pitcher Tsutomu Tanaka of the

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011 ...

(a former teammate — Tanaka pitched for Nishitetsu from 1961–1967), but said he did not let it affect his play. (Nonetheless, he did not return the 1 million yen he had received from Tanaka.)McKenna, Brian. ''Early Exits: The Premature Endings of Baseball Careers'' (Scarecrow Press, 2007), p. 17. On May 25, the NPB commissioner committee banned Ikenaga for life. Ikenaga's banning was fiercely contested by both Nishitetsu's front office and Ikenaga's own family. He finished his NPB career with a 103–65 record and a 2.36 ERA.

Reinstatement

Ikenaga's case was not taken up by NPB until March 2005, when commissioner

Yasuchika Negoro was the 9th ''daimyō'' of Hirosaki Domain in northern Mutsu Province, Honshū, Japan (modern-day Aomori Prefecture). His courtesy title, initially Dewa-no-kami, was later raised to ''Saikyo Daiyu'' and ''Jujū'', and his Court rank was Junior ...

and owners agreed on a bylaw that allowed banned players who have reformed themselves to petition for a removal of the ban. This occurred after a nine-year campaign by baseball fans and residents of his hometown. Ikenaga requested a removal soon afterwards, and on April 25, 2005, he was allowed to return to baseball. On September 25, 2022, Ikenaga died at the age of 76.

In popular culture

The character Hidehiko Hayakawa in the 1998

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series ''

Princess Nine ''Princess Nine'', known in Japan as , is a 26-episode Japanese anime television series and a three volume manga written and created by Kensei Date. Synopsis The series is about the trials of nine girls at the Kisaragi School for Girls who fo ...

'' is based on Ikenaga.

References

External links