Kojiro Ikegaya

Kojiro Ikegaya was born on 28 June 1952 in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture, in the area that is now Aoi Ward. He began pitching at Suehiro Junior High School in Shizuoka.

At Shizuoka Commercial High School he was a reserve pitcher as a first-year in 1968, partly because classmate Hisao Niura (a year older, who had transferred into the full-time course) was the star. When Niura left school to join the Yomiuri Giants, Ikegaya was expected to step up in 1969 but remained behind senior Hideo Matsushima. In his third year, 1970, he became the ace and was almost unbeaten within the prefecture, winning the spring Chubu regional tournament, before an upset second-round loss in the summer Shizuoka qualifier.

After graduating from Shizuoka Commercial High School, Ikegaya could not go straight into professional baseball and joined the Kanasashi Shipbuilding works team. To work at the shipyard he qualified as a sling operator and as an electrician, and later joked that he could do electric welding and gas cutting.

The Kanasashi team was disbanded within a year, and he moved to Nippon Gakki (the Yamaha company team). In the 1971 draft the Kintetsu Buffaloes picked him in the seventh round, but he did not sign. In 1972 he pitched mainly in relief as Nippon Gakki won the Intercity Baseball Tournament. Playing for Japan at the 1972 Amateur World Series in Nicaragua, he attracted an invitation from Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1973 he represented Japan at the Asian Baseball Championship and the first Intercontinental Cup, both won by Japan, and was named best pitcher at both events.

The Hiroshima Toyo Carp selected Ikegaya in the first round of the 1972 draft. Because Nippon Gakki was also losing its ace Satoshi Niimi to the professional ranks, the company asked him to stay for the 1973 season, and he joined the Carp after that season.

He made his debut on 29 June 1974 against the Taiyo Whales at Hiroshima Municipal Stadium. In 1975 he won 18 games, second only to Yoshiro Sotokoba's 20, as the Carp won their first Central League pennant, and he pitched three times in the Japan Series against the Hankyu Braves. In 1976 he won 20 games with a 3.26 ERA and 207 strikeouts in 290 1/3 innings, leading the league in wins and strikeouts and winning the Eiji Sawamura Award, the Best Nine award and the Best Pitcher title. He struck out the most batters in the league again in 1977, the same season he allowed a record 48 home runs.

His signature was an exaggerated see-saw motion, his right arm swinging behind his hip while his left arm rose high, which fans called the seesaw or gikkon-battan delivery. He pitched aggressively up in the zone. Sadaharu Oh wrote that losing the ability to keep up with Ikegaya's rising fastball was one of the reasons he retired.

In 1979 he won 12 games as the Carp took the pennant and their first Japan Series, and his Game 3 win over Kintetsu was the first Japan Series victory by a Carp pitcher. He also started twice in the 1980 Japan Series. He reached 1,000 strikeouts on 12 October 1981 and his 100th win on 21 August 1983. After hurting his shoulder in 1982 he never regained his best form and retired after the 1985 season. Career totals: 325 games, 103 wins, 84 losses, 10 saves, 4.13 ERA, 1,056 strikeouts in 1,622 1/3 innings. He wore number 11 throughout his playing career.

After retiring Ikegaya worked as a commentator for Nippon Television and Hiroshima Television. In 1989 manager Koji Yamamoto brought him back to Hiroshima as pitching coach, a post he held until 1992. He was a Yomiuri Giants pitching coach from 1998 to 2001 (first team in 1998, farm team from 1999) and returned as first-team pitching coach in 2004, serving under Shigeo Nagashima and Tsuneo Horiuchi. The 2004 Giants staff struggled, posting a team ERA of 4.50, then the worst in club history, and he resigned at the end of that season. Colleagues remembered him as a studious coach who read American sports psychology research.

From 2005 he returned to the booth for Nippon Television, Hiroshima Television and Radio Nippon. He appeared often on Hiroshima local programmes including Zoom In!! Asa! and TV-Ha, and was main host of TV-Ha Lunch on Thursdays and Fridays from April to September 2015. Sponichi described his commentary as soft-spoken, kind and humorous.

Ikegaya was regarded in Carp circles as one of the club's kindest personalities, often paired with the late Tsunemi Tsuda in that respect. He served as chairman of the Hiroshima Prefecture Community Chest (Kyodo Bokin) charity.

His younger son, Yosuke Ikegaya, was a regular for Hosei University's rugby team and played for Suntory Sungoliath. His elder son runs a yakitori restaurant in Hiroshima. Details of his marriage have not been made public.

Ikegaya defended his unusual delivery as natural rather than unorthodox, saying it developed as he tried to keep the ball longer and build tension, and that to him it felt like spreading his wings. He was proud of challenging hitters head-on and said he was so focused on strikeouts that after his first one he thought he only needed 999 more to reach 1,000. Looking back on the Pirates' interest, he said that today he would have wanted to take on the challenge.

Ikegaya is remembered as a pillar of the Carp's first championship era, part of a rotation with Yoshiro Sotokoba, Manabu Kitabeppu and Kazuo Yamane. His 20-win 1976 season and Sawamura Award remain among the franchise's great pitching seasons, and his 48 home runs allowed in 1977 still stand as the NPB single-season record, often cited as proof of an ace who never backed down. He was the first Carp pitcher to win a Japan Series game. For a generation of Hiroshima viewers he was also the warm, familiar voice of Carp broadcasts.

Eiji Sawamura Award (1976). Central League wins leader (1976, 20 wins). Central League strikeout leader (1976, 1977; not then an official league title). Best Nine (1976). Best Pitcher (1976). Monthly MVP (July 1976). NPB All-Star (1975, 1976). Best pitcher at the 1973 Asian Baseball Championship and the 1973 Intercontinental Cup. NPB record 48 home runs allowed in a season (1977). Three Central League pennants (1975, 1979, 1980) and two Japan Series titles (1979, 1980).

Ikegaya was a long-running baseball analyst on Nippon Television and Hiroshima Television Carp and Giants broadcasts and on Radio Nippon's Giants Nighter. He appeared on Zoom In!! Super and Zoom In!! Asa! (Hiroshima segments), Susume! Sports Genkimaru and TV-Ha, and hosted TV-Ha Lunch in 2015. In February 2023 he appeared as an intensive-care patient in the NHK ETV Special documentary on an ICU. He was a popular guest on former teammate Yoshihiko Takahashi's YouTube series visiting Carp alumni, where he laughed about a famous blooper in which Takahashi's throw home from shortstop hit him in the backside at Korakuen Stadium.

Early in his broadcasting career Ikegaya was criticised for ending many analyses with the conclusion that a player had won or lost on 'feelings', and for a time he avoided the word. As Giants pitching coach in 2004 he took responsibility for the staff's record-poor ERA and resigned.

Ikegaya battled serious illness in his final years. He was treated in intensive care (featured in a 2023 NHK documentary) and developed pancreatic cancer in the summer of 2024, according to Sports Hochi. In November 2025 he pitched at the Carp Legend Game at Mazda Stadium, a return Hiroshima Television followed closely. He kept appearing on television while being treated.

He died of multiple myeloma in the early hours of 29 October 2026, aged 74, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp announced. Former Carp pitcher and coach Sohachi Aniya said it was 'too soon'. The place of death and funeral arrangements had not been made public at the time of publication.