Wikipedia:Katsuya Nomura

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Katsuya Nomura
野村 克也
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles — No. 19
Manager
Born: June 29, 1935 (1935-06-29)
Kyoto, Japan
Bats: Right Throws: Right
Professional debut
NPB: June 17, 1954 for the Nankai Hawks
Last professional appearance
October 3, 1980 for the Seibu Lions
NPB statistics
Batting average     .277
Hits     2901
RBIs     1988
Teams
As player

As manager

Career highlights and awards
Member of the Japanese
Empty Star.svgEmpty Star.svgEmpty Star.svg Baseball Hall of FameEmpty Star.svgEmpty Star.svg Empty Star.svg
Inducted     1989

Katsuya Nomura (野村 克也 Nomura Katsuya, born June 29, 1935 in Amino, Takeno District (Present: Kyotango), Kyoto prefecture, Japan) was one of Nippon Professional Baseball's (NPB) greatest players as a catcher and is a long-time manager, currently serving as the skipper of the Rakuten Golden Eagles of NPB's Pacific League.

Career

During a career that spanned four decades from 1954 to 1980, Nomura hit 657 home runs and led the Pacific League in homers eight straight seasons. (However, it should be taken into consideration that his home park, Osaka Stadium, measured only 276 feet until 1972 and 300 feet from 1972 onward down the lines, and 380 feet to straightaway center-tiny dimensions by today's standards.)[1] He finished his career with 2901 hits.[2] His HR and hit totals were the top career marks at the time for ethnic Japanese players, but Sadaharu Oh (Chinese/Japanese with Taiwanese citizenship)[3] surpassed his home run record and Isao Harimoto ([ethnic Korean])[4] broke his career hits record. (Ichiro Suzuki's combined hits total between NPB and U.S. Major League Baseball now ranks him #1 in career hits for a Japanese player, having topped Harimoto's career mark in 2008.)[5]

In 1965, Nomura won the league's first Triple Crown.[6] He was a player-manager between 1970 and 1977.[7] He played for 26 years, the longest NPB playing career until Kimiyasu Kudo pitched in his 27th season in 2008.[8]

Nomura steered the Yakult Swallows to four league titles in the 1990s, and won the Japan Series in 1993, 1995 and 1997.

After stepping down as Yakult skipper, Nomura managed the Hanshin Tigers from 1999 to 2001 but resigned after Hanshin finished at the bottom of the Central League for three straight seasons. Additionally, Nomura's wife, Sachiyo, was in legal trouble in 2001 due to charges of tax evasion, which also contributed to his decision to relinquish his position as manager of the Tigers.[9]

Nomura was hired to manage the industrial league team, Shidax Baseball Club, in 2003. He led the team through the 2005 season.

Nomura returned to NPB as a manager for the 2006 season with the Rakuten Golden Eagles. In so doing, he became the oldest manager in the history of NPB.

On April 29, 2009 he reached the 1,500 career wins mark in his managerial career, but he also has an overall losing record. [10][11]

References

  1. ^ http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Katsuya_Nomura_1934
  2. ^ http://japanesebaseball.com/players/player.jsp?PlayerID=410
  3. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadaharu_Oh
  4. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isao_Harimoto
  5. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichiro_Suzuki
  6. ^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Triple_Crowns
  7. ^ http://www.japanball.com/news.phtml?id=5343
  8. ^ http://www.japanesebaseball.com/players/player.jsp?PlayerID=507
  9. ^ "Sachiyo Nomura indicted over tax evasion". The Japan Times. 2001-12-27. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20011227a6.html. Retrieved 2009-03-22. 
  10. ^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Katsuya_Nomura
  11. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tohoku_Rakuten_Golden_Eagles

External links

Awards
Preceded by
Kazuhiro Yamauchi
Isao Harimoto
Joe Stanka
Yutaka Fukumoto
Pacific League MVP
1961
1963
19651966
1973
Succeeded by
Isao Harimoto
Joe Stanka
Mitsuhiro Adachi
Tomehiro Kaneda

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