Akihiro Higashide

Akihiro Higashide (東出 輝裕)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 160 lb.
• High School Tsuruga Kehi High School

• Born August 21, 1980 in Sabae, Fukui Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Akihiro Higashide was an infielder for the Hiroshima Carp for 14 years.

Higashide hit .464 with 34 HR in high school, but would not show that kind of power as a pro. He represented Japan in the 1998 Asia Junior Championship. He was a first-round draft pick in 1998 NPB draft, taken by the Hiroshima Carp. Akihiro got his first game on May 11, 1999, as Hiroshima's starting second baseman; that game, he had an infield hit off Yusaku Iriki for his first base hit. He was Hiroshima's main second baseman that year, hitting .227/.273/.258 in 78 games to lead a crowded group. In 2000, Higashide batted .261/.309/.333 with 17 steals in 23 tries. He fielded only .958 while playing 116 games at short and one at third base as long-time shortstop Kenjiro Nomura moved to third base. He tied Takuya Kimura for 2nd on the team in swipes behind Tomoaki Kanemoto. He hit his first career home run off of Greg Hansell on April 8.

The Fukui native fielded .961 with 27 errors in 2001 and hit .262/.310/.349. He scored 82 runs and stole 26 bases in 35 tries. He tied Kimura and Atsunori Inaba for the Central League lead with five triples and set a Carp team record with 49 sacrifice hits. the mark stood for 12 years until his successor at 2B, Ryosuke Kikuchi, broke it. In the 2001 Baseball World Cup, Higashide did a great job, hitting .324/.432/.405 with 10 runs and 10 RBI in 10 games; he fielded only .905 at third base. He tied Tadahito Iguchi and Evert-Jan 't Hoen for 3rd in the Cup in RBI, trailing leader Chin-Feng Chen by 4. He made the tourney All-Star team at third base, beating out legendary Omar Linares as well as Michel Enríquez, Tai-Shan Chang and Chris Snopek. He joined infield mate Hirokazu Ibata on the All-Star infield while Iguchi missed out. In the Bronze Medal game loss to Taiwan, he went 0 for 3 and struck out twice against Chih-Chia Chang.

Akihiro's batting line in 2002 read .239/.281/.271 while continuing to hold down the starting shortstop job for Hiroshima. He was only 12 for 82 in 2003 while backing up Kimura at second; Andy Sheets took over at shortstop for Hiroshima. In 2004, Higashide hit .240/.288/.307 in 85 plate appearances over 76 games. He was used as a backup to 2B Greg LaRocca and also pinch-ran and pinch-hit at times. The next year, he batted .209/.264/.284 in 39 games as a middle infield backup. Higashide got back into regular duty in 2006 when LaRocca departed for free agency. He hit .282/.321/.306 and made his first Central League All-Star team; he was 0-for-3 in the 2006 NPB All-Star Game 2. For a leadoff hitter, he showed very disappointing speed, only stealing 11 bases while being thrown out a circuit-high 18 bases.

In 2007, Higashide hit .269/.318/.295 and was much better stealing (13-for-17). In 458 AB, he only managed 12 doubles, no triples and no home runs. He had his third straight homer-free year in 2008 but improved to .310/.337/.341 and went 13-for-21 in steals. He was 9th in the league in average, just ahead of defending MVP Michihiro Ogasawara (also .310). He was 7th in the league in hits (162, between Tomoaki Kanemoto and Ogasawara), 8th in steals (tied with Soichiro Amaya) and 9th in runs (76). He made the Best Nine as the top second baseman in the Central League. He was also selected into the 2008 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 0-for-3 again.

Higashide extended his solid performance in 2009, and he played 142 games with a .294/.345/.351 batting line. He still didn't hit any homers, and he was the only NPB player to have 4 straight homer-free year while qualifying for batting title. He was voted into the 2009 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 0-for-3 for the third straight All-Star attendance. Higashide led the league with 8 triples, and he ranked 4th in hits (between Hirokazu Ibata and Norichika Aoki), 9th in hits (164, between Shinya Miyamoto and Shinnosuke Abe) and 9th in steals (14, tied with Eishin Soyogi and Masato Akamatsu). He won his second and last Best Nine award.

Akihiro crushed a homer against Shun Tono on April 23, 2010, and his 2,393 consecutive plate appearances without a home run streak ended. That's the third longest record in NPB history, following Norihiro Akahoshi's 2,528 and Yoshifumi Okada's 2,501. He was voted into the 2010 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 3-for-6, with a RBI single against Hiroyuki Kobayashi in Game 1 and a double against Satoshi Nagai in Game 2. He ended up hitting .267/.307/.337 with 7 triples in 2010, and he was one triple away from leader Ryota Wakiya. Higashide then hit .278/.324/.320 in 2011, and he was 10th in batting (between Alex Ramirez and Kazuhiro Hatakeyama) and 6th in hits (151, between Kenta Kurihara and Takashi Toritani). He played 91 games with a .247/.293/.279 batting line in 2012, but he then tore his ACL. Higashide never recovered from the injury, and he announced his retirement in 2015. He later became the batting coach for the Carp from 2016 to 2019.

Higashide's career batting line was .268/.312/.315 with 1,366 hits and 30 triples in 1,492 NPB games. He stole 143 bases but was caught 81 times. He only hit 12 home runs in 5,094 AB, with five of those coming in 2001 alone. As of 2025, he was tied with Yoshio Yoshida for 17th in sacrifice bunts in NPB history.

Sources

• Defunct IBAF site
• Japan Baseball Daily by Gary Garland
• Japanesebaseball.com
• Japanese Wikipedia