Cubs change role for clubhouse fixture Yosh Kawano
April 2, 2008
By Toni Ginnetti
Chicago Sun Times
The newest Cubs Japanese star has made a big first impression — but Kosuke Fukudome would need decades of home runs to gain the folklore status of the Cubs best known Japanese-American.
Yosh Kawano, the famed clubhouse manager whose floppy white hat and khaki pants are as recognizable to fans as a player’s uniform number, has spent 65 seasons with the team. All have been spent running the home clubhouse or, in recent years, helping in the visitor’s clubhouse. But things will change this year for Kawano, who turns 87 on June 4.
Kawano will be given "new duties" this season because of concerns about his health, team chairman Crane Kenney said today. "He won’t be working in the clubhouse, but Yosh will always be part of the team," he said.
That may be in part because the venerable and diminutive Yosh is the only Cubs employee with a guaranteed job. The Wrigley family made sure of that when they sold the team to Tribune Co. in 1981 — a clause in the deal mandated that Kawano be retained and have a job for as long as he wanted.
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Thanks for sharing that article! I had never heard of him. It's great how they're honoring him and how much he has been appreciated. It's pretty incredible that the only person to be guaranteed a job for life that the Wrigleys included in the deal was him.
I recently watched the Dodgers' 50th anniversary in Los Angeles game on TV and it's had me reminiscing about baseball lately. I never knew that a JA was the clubhouse manager for the team!