Portrait of Masaichi Kaneda

Birthday profile

Masaichi Kaneda

Masaichi Kaneda, Japanese baseball player and manager (died 2019)

Born
August 1, 1933
Died
October 6, 2019
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1933

About Masaichi Kaneda

Masaichi Kaneda (金田 正一, Kaneda Masaichi; 1 August 1933 – 6 October 2019) was a Japanese professional baseball pitcher of Zainichi Korean origin, one of the best-known pitchers in Japanese baseball history, and is the only Japanese pitcher to have won 400 games. He was inducted in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988. Nicknamed "The Emperor" because he was the most dominant pitcher in Japan during his prime, Kaneda holds numerous Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) career records. He won 400 games despite being on an extremely weak team, the Kokutetsu Swallows, for most of his career. About 90% of his 400 career wins came with the Swallows. He left for the Yomiuri Giants in 1965. In five seasons with the team, he won the Japan Series each time before retiring in 1969. Kaneda batted and threw left-handed. After his playing career ended, he became a manager for the Lotte Orions, where he managed in two different stints that saw him win the Japan Series in 1974. The Swallows were a very weak team at that point in Japanese baseball, but Kaneda quickly became recognized as the best pitcher in Japan for his fastball and trademark drop curve.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Masaichi Kaneda was born

Masaichi Kaneda was born in 1933. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1933

  • #1 song"Stormy Weather" – Ethel Waters
  • Top movieKing Kong
  • Best-selling bookLost Horizon – James Hilton

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst MLB All-Star Game played at Comiskey Park
  • Top headlineAdolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
  • Technology milestoneFM radio patented by Edwin Armstrong
  • Defining fadChain letters
  • Notable inventionFM radio
  • World population2.17 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championNew York Giants (World Series)
  • U.S. population125.6M

1933 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Masaichi Kaneda's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19332026
Gas$0.18$3.45/gal
Average home$4,800$435,000
Average income$2,300$67,500
Minimum wage$0.25$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.20$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population125.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, National Diet Library, NACSIS-CAT, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.