Baseball: 3-time Japan Series-winning manager Toshiharu Ueda dies at 80

Toshiharu Ueda, who as manager led the Hankyu Braves (now Orix Buffaloes) to three consecutive Japan Series titles in the 1970s, died in the early hours of Saturday morning aged 80, his former club the Nippon Ham Fighters announced Sunday.Ueda died at a hospital in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, where he had been battling pneumonia.Ueda began his professional playing career after joining the Hiroshima Carp in 1959 but never shined, retiring after three seasons before working as a coach from 1962 with Hiroshima and then Hankyu."The owner told me at that time (of my release) that they had sig…READ FULL ARTICLE