Meikyukai

The Meikyukai (日本プロ野球名球会, Nippon Puro Yakyū Meikyūkai^?, The Golden Players Club) is one of the two Japanese baseball halls of fame (the other is the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame; Yakyu Dendo 野球殿堂). The Meikyukai is a company ltd. for public benefit.

Founded by Hall of Fame pitcher Masaichi Kaneda in 1978, the Meikyukai honors players born during the Shōwa period (1926–1988). Players are automatically inducted if they reach career totals of 2,000 hits, 200 wins, or 250 saves (added in December 2003) in the Japanese professional leagues.

Inductees are awarded a special jacket, and participate in various baseball-related events during the off-season. Meikyukai members mostly makes appearances in charity and volunteer events, and holds annual meetings and a golf tournament, which is often broadcast on television. All of the money raised from the golf tournament is donated to the Red Cross.

Kaneda founded Meikyukai on July 24, 1978. In addition to Kaneda, the founding members of the club were Kazuhisa Inao, Masaaki Koyama, Keishi Suzuki, Tetsuya Yoneda, Shinichi Etoh, Sadaharu Oh, Morimichi Takagi, Masahiro Doi, Shigeo Nagashima, Katsuya Nomura, Isao Harimoto, Yoshinori Hirose, Kazuhiro Yamauchi, Takao Kajimoto, Mutsuo Minagawa and Minoru Murayama.

...
Wikipedia