Katsuya Nomura

Katsuya Nomura 野村 克也
Catcher/Manager
Born: June 29, 1935 (1935-06-29) Kyoto, Japan
Batted: Right	Threw: 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 Nankai Hawks (1954–1977) Lotte Orions (1978) Seibu Lions (1979–1980) As manager Nankai Hawks (1970–1977) Yakult Swallows (1990–1998) Hanshin Tigers (1999–2001) Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (2006–2009)
Career highlights and awards
5× Pacific League MVP (1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1973)
Member of the Japanese
Baseball Hall of Fame
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 was also a long-time manager for the Yakult Swallows, the Hanshin Tigers, and 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.) He finished his career with 2901 hits. 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) surpassed his home run record and Isao Harimoto ([ethnic Korean]) 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.)

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

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 the 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.

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 the 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 wins mark in his managerial career, but he also holds the record for overall number of losses. He led the Eagles to their best-ever record of second place the regular season.

He retired at the end of the 2009 season and was replaced by American, and former Hiroshima manager, Marty Brown.

External links

• Nippon Professional Baseball career statistics from Japanesebaseball.com

Awards
Preceded by Kazuhiro Yamauchi Isao Harimoto Joe Stanka Yutaka Fukumoto	Pacific League MVP 1961 1963 1965–1966 1973	Succeeded by Isao Harimoto Joe Stanka Mitsuhiro Adachi Tomehiro Kaneda
Preceded by Takehiro Ishii	Matsutaro Shoriki Award 1993	Succeeded by Shigeo Nagashima Ichiro Suzuki
Sporting positions
Preceded by Yasushi Tao	Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles manager 2006–2009	Succeeded by Marty Brown