Sadaharu Oh

The legendary Sadaharu Oh is stepping down as the manager of the Softbank Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League due to health concerns.

Many Americans know about Oh due to his 868 career home runs, but he's managed the Hawks a long time -- winning a couple of championships -- and before that managed the Yomiuri Giants, the marquee team in Japan, where he also won a pennant. To state the mildly obvious, this would be like Hank Aaron or Willie Mays retiring in the mid 70s and then going on to have Sparky Anderson or Tony La Russa's career.

I've only seen grainy video of his playing and have only read about his managing (this is a great book, by the way, and everyone should read it) but in some weird way I feel quite sad about this.