Throwback Thursday: Shingo Takatsu

Jun 7, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Baseball sit on the pitchers mound before the game between the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

In what will be a new weekly feature on Southside Showdown, we’ll take a look back at a past member of the Chicago White Sox.

We’ll just pick a former player at random, but if there are former players, managers, announcers or coaches of the White Sox you want to read about, let us know.

Today, in the first installment of this weekly feature, let’s take a look back at the tenure of former closer Shingo Takatsu.

Takatsu played parts of two seasons with the White Sox from 2004-05 and the remainder of the ’05 season with the New York Mets. After the ’05 season, he never pitched in the majors again.

He later pitched in the minors and in the Japanese League.

Here are some clips of Takatsu from his time pitching in the Japanese League:

Takatsu pitched in 90 total games with the White Sox (91.0 innings) where he was 7-6 as a reliever with a 3.46 ERA. In that span, he totaled 27 saves and 82 strikeouts.

In the World Series championship season of ’05, Takatsu was the Opening Day closer but lasted just 31 games with the White Sox that season.

On Opening Day in ’05, Takatsu pitched one inning, allowing no runs on no hits or walks and one strikeout. He threw 12 pitches in that appearance, capping off eight innings of scoreless baseball by starter Mark Buehrle against the Cleveland Indians.