No other employee was named in the contract.
June 26, 2018 8:33 PM   Subscribe

Ten years after retiring, Cubs clubhouse manager Yosh Kawano died Monday [EU unfriendly], age 98. He worked at Wrigley Field for nearly 65 years, witnessed 37 managers and his continued employment was infamously guaranteed when the Wrigley family sold the Cubs in the 1980s.

He is survived by his brother Nobe Kawano, who spent a his career as the Dodgers' clubhouse manager. The Kawanos were born in Washington and grew up in Southern California. Being of Japanese descent, they were imprisoned during the war.

Chicago Tribune links are likely blocked in the EU.
posted by hoyland (11 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
After the Cubs ended their epic drought, finally winning a World Series in 2016, the Ruzicka brothers had a championship ring made for Kawano and presented it to him last year.

Oh, my heart skipped a beat and my eyes got all misty! What a wonderful gesture, and so very appropriate!
posted by hippybear at 8:55 PM on June 26, 2018 [6 favorites]


It’s hard to explain this to people who didn’t grow up in Chicago, but those old Cubs ballclubs had a whole cast of characters that you got to know besides the players. Maybe it was because there were years (okay, decades) of really bad teams you had to endure. It’s not like that now. Maybe it’s because the game has changed so much since the 80s. I don’t know.

But it’s true. These were people who were just as familiar as Ryno, Bull, the Penguin, the Sarge, Eck, and Rainbow. They had names like:

• Arne Harris (“SHOW IT AGAIN, ARNE!”)
• Marla Collins
• Ronnie Woo Woo
• Dallas Green
• Harry

And while watching a game on WGN, they’d switch to a shot of this little old guy with a white, floppy fisherman’s hat. You’d hear Harry bellow out, “IT’S YOSH ... KAWAAAANO!”

My Dad started taking me to Wirgley Field in 1982. I was 7. I distinctly remember clamoring to get Billy Buckner’s autograph before a game with the Dodgers. Yosh came up to bring him some piece of equipment and people started clamoring for HIS autograph. “Yosh! Yosh!”

Years later, I had a white fisherman’s cap with a Cubs logo on it that I would wear as I mowed the lawn. You’d better believe I called it my “Yosh hat.”

RIP, Yosh.
posted by zooropa at 9:19 PM on June 26, 2018 [28 favorites]


• Harry

My favorite entry on this list. It's like Prince or Madonna, but it's Harry.
posted by hippybear at 9:24 PM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


Oh man, I remember Yosh. You had a good run, my friend.

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posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 9:35 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


Glad he got to see the Cubbies win the Series.

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posted by talking leaf at 10:03 PM on June 26, 2018 [6 favorites]


⚾️
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:25 PM on June 26, 2018 [4 favorites]


Real glad that Kawano got to see them not only get into but also to win the world series. All of those years, around all of those players and managers, he pretty much got to see it all. With his vast store of experience he probably could have managed on days when the Cubs managers got thrown out. And no secrets -- almost certainly he could tell who was going to get let go of, as their skills waned or as they didn't fit in with a new manager, I'm betting he saw it all and said nothing. An observer. Any manager -- or any player -- would have done well to have tried to gain his trust, learn to see what he sees, get a heads-up on what's coming down the line. Instead, I'm betting they saw a guy with a goofy hat and a broom and paid him little mind.

He had to have been there as the color barrier was walked through. The amount of absolutely vile garbage tossed onto Robinson and Dobie, it's almost hard to credit that we, as a nation, were so blind, and so hard-hearted. I never saw any of that -- by the time I came along Ernie Banks and Billy Williams were accorded status of gods in our house, damn sure in my heart. Still, so much of it went on -- I remember reading about Buddy Ryan, and his straight-up racist rants at Dave Duerson -- shooting Ryan would be too good, he's not worthy the bullet and a small amount of gasoline and a match costs less than a bullet for my .44, and would certainly bring at least as much pleasure....

Off topic -- sorry. I ~ do ~ go on.

That Suntimes article, talking about what a shame that Kawano had to watch so much shitty baseball, all those losing years in Chicago. I call bullshit on that -- the Cubs *always* had some spectacular players, outstanding athletes. Not to mention that Kawano got to see every other National league team as they came through -- I still shudder at remembering when the Expos were coming into town, that deadly young outfield of Warren Cromartie, Andre Dawson, Ellis Valentine. I'm betting Kawano had extra work to do when the Expos were coming into town or were in town -- every Cubs pitcher had to be shitting their drawers. In any case, the man saw spectacular baseball, outstanding athleticism, 65 years of looking out across a perfect lawn and seeing men do the impossible. What a great job!

Happy Trails, Mr. Kawano.

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posted by dancestoblue at 3:48 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


He started with the Cubs in spring training in 1943 because it got him out of a nearby Japanese-American Internment incarceration camp. He would later enlist in the U.S. Army and fight in the Eastern Theater, which means he probably translated intercepted messages and interrogated POWs, which means he would have been very tortured if he’d been captured himself.

Even without his service to our national pastime, America didn’t deserve Mr. Kawano.
posted by Etrigan at 3:49 AM on June 27, 2018 [3 favorites]


Someone's cutting onions in my office. Show yourselves!

What a tribute. I love baseball.
posted by deezil at 6:50 AM on June 27, 2018


@zooropa: I moved to northern Illinois in 1983 and have been a diehard Cubs fan ever since. Your post said everything I feel on hearing this news.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 9:53 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


I got to see many Cubs game as a kid (and one brutally hot one in the summer sun as an adult). But my family wasn't particularly sports oriented, so it wasn't a regular thing. I didn't have the inside scoop on any players, I didn't know if I was supposed to be pro or anti-lights. And before today, I had never heard of Yosh.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is: thanks for sharing this little piece of history with me.
posted by Phredward at 12:52 PM on June 27, 2018


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