Baseball legends Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima met for the first time on a public occasion Wednesday since Oh underwent surgery to remove his cancerous stomach last summer.
Nagashima, who is in rehabilitation after suffering a stroke three years ago, visited Oh at a Tokyo department store, where an exhibition is being held to display baseball memorabilia of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks manager. During their meeting, Oh, the all-time home run king in Japan, showed Nagashima the trophy he won as manager of the Japan team that won the inaugural World Baseball Classic title a year ago.
"I got lost in nostalgia for a while and it seems Mr. Nagashima has got better and his spoken words are much clearer," Oh said of his former Yomiuri Giants teammate.
Both played a key role in the team's heyday in Japanese baseball in 1960s and '70s at the heart of their lineup and managed Yomiuri after retiring.