Shiro Takegami was an infielder for the Japanese Students Team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics demonstration baseball tournament, while he was a student at Chuo University. After college he played two seasons with Kawai Musical Instruments in the industrial leagues but was then drafted by the Sankei Atoms in the 1966 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) draft. He played nine seasons with the Atoms in NPB. In 1967 he became the first ever NPB rookie to hit an inside-the-park homer as his first league home run. Takegami later coached Takult Swallows, successor of the Atoms, and the Yomiuri Giants, and became a television commentator.
Japan