Hiroki Kokubo

Hiroki Kokubo (小久保 裕紀)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 194 lb.

• School Aoyama Gakuin University
• High School Seirin High School

• Born October 8, 1971 in Wakayama, Wakayama Japan

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Biographical information

Hiroki Kokubo was a star infielder in Nippon Pro Baseball for 18 years.

Before he began his professional career, he was with the Japanese national team when they won the Gold Medal in the 1993 Asian Championship and the Bronze Medal in the 1993 Intercontinental Cup. He hit .350/.364/.550 with 9 RBI in 11 games in the latter event. He split third base with Naoki Matsumoto but fielded only .786 there. He also split action in left field with a couple other players, handling 10 chances without an error. In the semifinals, he was 2 for 4 with a run against John Powell as Japan's cleanup man and left fielder in an upset loss to Team USA. In the Bronze Medal Game win over Nicaragua, he again hit 4th and played left field. He was again 2 for 4 with a run.

Kokubo was drafted by the Daiei Hawks in the second round of the 1993 NPB draft. He broke in with the Hawks in 1994 and became a star in '95 when he hit .286/.366/.548 with 28 HR. He led the Pacific League in slugging, triples (9), and homers, and he was 4th in RBI (76) and 7th in hits (133, between Kiyoshi Hatsushiba and Koji Akiyama). Kokubo made the PL Best Nine at second base, and he won his first NPB Gold Glove. He was also selected into the 1995 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 3-for-4, with a 2-run dinger against Katsuyuki Furumizo in Game 2. Kokubo had an off-year in '96, and he still crushed 24 homers with a .247/.321/.464 batting line. He attended the 1996 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 0-for-2 with a steal. He ranked 6th in doubles (26), 8th in homers and 6th in RBI (tied with Yukio Tanaka).

The Wakayama native bounced back in 1997 with a line of .306/.366/.588, and he was selected into the 1997 NPB All-Star Games; he had a 2-for-5 record. He led the PL in slugging by 32 points, drove in a league-best 114, tied with Tuffy Rhodes for the double lead with 37 and his 36 homers were one behind league leader Nigel Wilson. He ranked 10th in batting (between Chris Donnels and Koichiro Yoshinaga) and 5th in hits (159, between So Taguchi and Rhodes), and he again made the Best Nine at second base. 1998 was not a good year for Kokubo. A tax fraud scandal that year led to several players losing practically the whole season. Kokubo was the most prominent player caught and he only played 17 games all year.

In '99, Kokubo returned but looked rusty. He hit .234/.323/.449 with 24 HR and this was less valuable as he was now a 1B/3B, moved off of second. He was 7th in homers and 9th in RBI (77, tied with Kenji Johjima). Kokubo went 4-for-20 in the 1999 Nippon Series with a solo shot against Kazuhiro Takeda in Game 4, and he won his first title as the Hawks beat the Chunichi Dragons in 5 games. The next season Kokubo moved full-time to third, where he spent the next several years. He returned to form with a .288/.340/.552 year, and he finished third in the PL with 105 RBI (behind Norihiro Nakamura and Nobuhiko Matsunaka) and 5th in homers (31, tied with Michihiro Ogasawara). He lost a Best Nine chase to Nakamura. Kokubo was 2-for-14 in the 2000 Nippon Series, and the Hawks lost to the Yomiuri Giants in 6 games.

Kokubo hit .290/.364/.600 with 44 HR, 108 R and 123 RBI for his best year in terms of raw stats in 2001, but that was the year Rhodes was having his greatest season. Kokubo was 11 homers shy of the Kintetsu Buffaloes slugger, 62 points of slugging behind and 9 RBI short of Nakamura's league-leading figure. He was the first Hawks player to reach 40 homers in a season. He also attended the 2001 NPB All-Star Game, and he had a 2-for-7 record in 3 games. Kokubo kept hammering away in 2002. He hit .292/.375/.531 with 32 long balls, and he was 6th in homers (tied with Ogasawara), 7th in hits (148, tied with Kazuya Fukuura), 4th in runs (between Rhodes and Nakamura) and 4th in RBI (89, between Derrick May and Kazuo Matsui). He was voted into the 2002 NPB All-Star Game, but he was hitless in 4 games.

However, Kokubo sat out the entire 2003 season with a knee injury he suffered during a home plate collision with Takumi Shiigi in spring training. The team didn't miss him, as Johjima, Matsunaka and Tadahito Iguchi led a strong offense to a Japan Series victory. Daiei, figuring it no longer needed Kokubo or his salary, traded him to the Yomiuri Giants for nothing. That's what we call a salary dump. The team's fans were irate over the move and flooded the phone lines with protests. Kokubo proved them right with a resurgent 2004 for Yomiuri, winning NPB Comeback Player of the Year honors. He hit .314/.372/.641 with 41 HR (4 behind league leaders Rhodes and Tyrone Woods) and 96 RBI (8th between Rhodes and Alex Ochoa). His slugging was second in the league to Greg LaRocca, who played in a hitter's park. Amazingly, Kokubo still couldn't make his third Best Nine, as Kazuyoshi Tatsunami got the spot in the Central League. He was second on homers for a team that set a new Nippon Pro Baseball record.

In 2005, Kokubo kept driving them out - he hit .281/.361/.523 with 34 HR to go over 300 for his career (among the top 30 in NPB history despite missing all of one season and almost all of another). He was 4th in the Central in home runs (between Ty Woods and Tomonori Maeda), 9th in RBI (87, tied with Tatsuhiko Kinjo and Maeda) and 9th in OPS. Kokubo had a realistic shot at the top 15 all-time in homers - he needed to keep on hitting 30+ for 5 more years. The 2006 season was an okay one (.256/.325/.458, 19 HR in 88 G) though he missed two months after breaking his thumb. After the season, he re-signed with the Hawks and the Giants received Shintaro Yoshitake as the compensation for losing him.

Kokubo battled a broken rib that year, which caused him to miss some time. He hit .277/.338/.494 with 25 homers and 82 RBI in 2007 despite the injury. He made the All-Star team, and he went 1-for-3 in the 2007 NPB All-Star Games. He got both his 1,000th RBI (July 18 against Brian Sweeney) and 1,500th hit (September 15 versus Shintaro Ejiri). He finished 8th in the PL in runs (70), 4th in RBI (behind Takeshi Yamasaki, Rhodes and Inaba), tied for 5th in homers (with G.G. Sato) and was 6th in slugging (between Inaba and Kazuhiro Wada).

The veteran hit .253/.334/.465 with 20 homers in 2008 and was an All-Star. He fell to .266/.344/.418 with 18 homers and 81 RBI in 2009 while making his 10th All-Star team. He was 8th in the Pacific League in RBI and second in times hit by pitch (16, one behind Daisuke Kusano. He hurt his neck in 2010 and missed some time; he put up a .279/.335/.436 line with 15 home runs. He scored his 1,000th run in NPB. He won the Gold Glove at first base. He was 9th in voting for the 2010 Pacific League Most Valuable Player Award, third among position players behind Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Hitoshi Tamura.

Kokubo batted .269/.323/.418 in 2011 and made his 11th All-Star team. He hit his 400th career homer on May 12, taking Alfredo Figaro deep. He was 8 for 25 in the 2011 Japan Series to help Softbank beat the Chunichi Dragons in 7 games. He drove in Munenori Kawasaki with the first run of a 2-1 win in game 4 and the first run of a 5-0 win in game 5. For his efforts, Kokubo was named Series MVP. At age 40, he was the oldest Japan Series MVP to that point. The previous oldest was Akiyama in 1999; interestingly, Akiyama was Kokubo's manager in 2011. On June 12, 2012 against Brian Wolfe, Kokubo got his 2,000th hit and entered the meikyukai. He fell to .239/.280/.308 with four homers in 331 AB that season and retired.

He managed the NPB All-Stars when they beat the MLB All-Stars in the 2014 Nichi-Bei Series. He managed Japan to third-place finishes in the 2015 Premier 12 and 2017 World Baseball Classic. He coached for the Hawks in 2021 then managed their minor league team the next season. He replaced Hiroshi Fujimoto as their manager for 2024. Their 91-49-3 record easily led Japan that year but they lost the 2024 Japan Series to the Yokohama BayStars. Their 87-52-4 record was best again in 2025 then they beat the Hanshin Tigers in the 2025 Japan Series. He won the Matsutaro Shoriki Award.

Overall, Kokubo had 2 40-HR seasons, 3 more 30-HR seasons and 5 more 20-HR seasons, with 413 career dingers total. He had batted .273/.342/.496 with 2,041 hits, 381 doubles, 1,091 runs, 1,304 RBI and 723 walks in his 18-season career. As of 2025, he was 27th in runs (between Hiroyuki Yamazaki and Katsuo Osugi), 49th in hits (between Hideto Asamura and Hiromasa Arai), 24th in doubles (between Hiromitsu Kadota and Akiyama), 17th in homers (between Akiyama and Shinnosuke Abe), 19th in total bases (3,722, between Yasunori Oshima and Nakamura), 17th in RBI (between Akiyama and Takahiro Arai) and 65th in walks (between Daijiro Oishi and Nobuo Osawa).

Sources include Wiki Japan