Tsuyoshi Shinjo made the headlines daily last winter when he reached an agreement to become manager of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. This book was released toward the end of February 2022, before his first season as manager began. Surely at the time of “writing” the book (more on those quotation marks later), he had accepted the job but had not yet rolled into Nago (Okinawa) on a three-wheeler, and he definitely had not flown a drone around Sapporo Dome yet. No one knew what the Japanese baseball world had in store for itself, but BIGBOSS might have.
Shinjo played for Hanshin from 1991 to 2000, then spent three years in the majors (NY Mets, SF Giants) before returning to NPB (Fighters) for three more seasons. After that, he pretty much made himself scarce, moving to Bali (Indonesia) and living there in peace. However, according to this book, something burned inside of him and he began to realize how much he loved and missed baseball. At age 47, in 2019, he decided he needed to get back into the game… as a player. He trained for a year, often showing his progress on Instagram. He attended the annual NPB tryouts in December 2020, recording a hit in four at-bats, but ultimately not being offered a deal. However, less than a year later, the Fighters came knocking with a deal that he could not refuse: managing the team starting in January 2022.
Somehow, this book got put together between the time of that offer and its publication, and in some ways, it shows. There are four short chapters and 79 Q & A segments. One of those questions addressed the rumor that he has never read a single book in his life. “That’s true,” he acknowledges, “because I am dyslexic. I get entangled in words too easily and just reading one or two sentences can leave me feeling exhausted.” So if he has never read a book, chances are, he did not write this one. He undoubtedly dictated much of it to someone else, who put it into print for him.
And it shows, as this book has a very conversational tone to it. The 79 questions in particular feel like the transcript of an interview, more than anything. That is not a bad thing at all, though – in fact, it makes this book a quick but highly informative read. It really gives you insights into the man behind the plastic surgery and flashy apparel. He is happy to eat food bought at convenience stores. He works out a little, so that he can look good in his uniform, but not so much that he shows up his players. What kind of workouts? One example he gave was that he would buy two-liter bottles of water from a convenience store, bag them separately, and then do curls with them as he walked home. This blew my mind, as it is such a vast leap from what I expected his answer to be (a private gym on his property and a personal trainer who lives with him and cooks all his über-healthy, expensive food).
Now, let’s not kid ourselves. This is not a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece of literature. But if you are open to new ideas about how baseball can change and become more exciting for fans, and if you are OK with a bit of Shinjo’s penchant for exaggerating the truth, you’ll thoroughly enjoy flipping through this glimpse into his thrilling life.