Hideaki Takazawa

Hideaki Takazawa (高沢 秀昭)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 176 lb.

• High School Hokkaido Tomakomai Technical High School

• Born September 10, 1958 in Saru-gun, Hokkaido Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hideaki Takazawa was a two-time Best Nine pick in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Takazawa played for Oji Seishi Tomakomai in the industrial leagues after high school. He was a second-round draft pick of the Lotte Orions in the 1979 NPB draft. He debuted for Lotte in 1980, playing one game and not batting. He was 0 for 3 with a run in 10 games in 1981. Takazawa hit .234/.289/.312 in 38 games in 1982, his first hit coming off Yukihiko Yamaoki and his first homer off Yasuo Kubo. As a part-timer in 1983, Hideaki hit .303/.348/.453.

The Hokkaido native hit .317/.346/.496 with 26 doubles and 70 runs in 1984. He set the Pacific League record with 4 doubles in a game on May 30. He made his first PL All-Star team, and he went 0-for-4 in the 1984 NPB All-Star Games. He won a Diamond Glove Award in the outfield and was named to the Best Nine as one of the PL's top three outfielders, alongside Tommy Cruz and Koji Minoda. He was 4th in the circuit in average behind foreigners Boomer Wells, Cruz and Steve Ontiveros, and he ranked 8th in doubles (26) and 2nd in triples (5, 1 behind Hiromi Matsunaga).

In 1985, the Lotte flyhawk had a batting line of .273/.325/.411, followed by a very similar .273/.322/.456 with a career-high 15 home runs in 1986. He made his second All-Star team in the latter year, and he went 1-for-5 in the 1986 NPB All-Star Games. Takazawa batted .292/.351/.418 with 27 steals in 38 tries in 1987. He was 7th in the PL in average (between Ben Oglivie and Hiromi Matsunaga), 7th in hits (133) and 4th in steals (between Koji Akiyama and Masashi Yokota). He won his second defensive award (now renamed a Gold Glove instead of a Diamond Glove). Takazawa was selected into the 1987 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 2-for-4, with a 3-run homer against Satoshi Komatsu in Game 1 to win the MVP.

His best season was 1988, when the 29-year-old's line read .327/.378/.476 with 28 doubles, 14 homers and 13 steals in 16 tries. He was selected into the 1988 NPB All-Star Game, and he crushed a leadoff homer against Kazuyuki Ono in Game 3 to win the MVP. He won the PL batting title by .001 over Matsunaga but that was clouded by controversy as Lotte walked Matsunaga 11 straight times at year's end so he wouldn't catch Takazawa. He also led the league with 158 hits, four more than Matsunaga or Ken Hirano. He won his last Gold Glove, and he was 2nd in doubles (2 behind Takeshi Aiko), 9th in RBI (64) and 8th in steals (tied with Makoto Sasaki and Hatsuhiko Tsuji). He won 4 votes in the MVP voting.

Hideaki fell to .277 in 1989 but his OBP (.367) and slugging (.440) stayed close to '88 levels. The Orions then traded him with Yoshio Mizukami to the Hiroshima Carp for Masashi Sugimoto, Yoshihisa Shiratake and Yoshihiko Takahashi, and he hit .254/.341/.400 in 91 games in 1990. Takazawa was 8-for-22 with the Carp in 1991 before he was traded back to the Orions for cash, and he had a .250/.312/.400 batting line in 35 games in the rest of the season. He hit .180/.255/.273 in 67 games in 1992, and he announced his retirement. Takazawa later coached in Lotte's system from 1993 to 2009.

Overall, Takazawa hit .284/.342/.433 with 932 hits and 95 homers in 13 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• Japan Baseball Daily