Tetsuhara Kawakami

Given the manager aspect and the deadball style of play, I tend to favor Chance, though Kawakami is far superior as a player relative to his peers. Strictly as a player, George Sisler, the deadball first baseman in Cooperstown comes to mind.

Jim Albright

Perhaps even a better match is Cap Anson. Anson was a fairly successful manager in the early days of the major leagues. He was a heck of a first baseman (he was more versatile defensively than Kawakami), but like others of the day, he had doubles power, but not a lot of homers, and he hit for a fairly high average. Further, Anson was an outspoken advocate for barring blacks from the majors and Kawakami an outspoken advocate that Japanese baseball should be only Japanese. Anson was a racist, and I'd call Kawakami's stance chauvanistic, and while I can't endorse either position, Anson's is the more deplorable.

If we look for comparisons among the top three NPB managers, focusing just on longevity and success, Kawakami is most like Stengel, but only with the Yankees, though even more successful.

Tsuruoka is most like John McGraw -- there from the early days, starting as a player/manager (and rather successful as a player), and staying a long time with one franchise as a very successful manager.

Shigeru Mizuhara is most like Joe McCarthy in that he succeeded wherever he went.

Like most of these comparisons, you could overdo it, especially since Kawakami didn't platoon like Stengel, and I'm sure Mizuhara played much more "small ball" than McCarthy did.

His first name is Tetsuharu, not Tetsuhara.

He was the manager of the years when the Giants won 9 straight pennants and Nippon Series from 1965 to 1973.

During his playing days, he was known as "dageki no kamisama" or "the god of batting."