Widely considered the best defensive center fielder in Japan, 30-year-old Tetsuya Iida remains a mixed bag.

As a lead off hitter, he has the speed to get around the bases, but his batting average and on base percentage are seldom spectacular. He gets a lot of hits and triples but not many home runs or doubles.

Injuries have frequently kept him on the sidelines for 20 or 30 games a season. Since 1989, Iida has compiled a career .275 batting average, 40 triples, 38 home runs and 193 stolen bases (he led the league with 33 steals in 1992).

1997 was a strange year for Iida. Often injured, the right-handed outfielder compiled a career high .306 batting average while hitting fifteen doubles, seven triples and three home runs. His .349 on base percentage was fairly decent, but not particularly great for a lead-off hitter.

On the disabled list several times, Iida stole 26 bases but on his last attempt in early October, he injured his shoulder sliding into third base and missed the last two games of the regular season and the entire Japan Series.

During the Japan Series, Iida sat in the stands with his arm in a sling, watching the games with a pained expression on his face.

To pay homage to their teammate, and hoping for some luck after losing the second game of the series, most of the able-bodied Swallows players began wearing caps with the number 2 (Iida's jersey number) hastily written next to the "YS" logo. Doing things his own way, clever relief pitcher Shingo Takatsu instead drew two white dots on the side of his hat, a reference to the two moles on Iida's chin.

His shoulder may be fine by the beginning of the 1998 season, but that is little guarantee that the risk-taking center fielder will remain in one piece for the entire season. Reserve outfielder Mitsuru Manaka did a fine job filling in for Iida in 1997, and will be ready to take over in the future.