Katsuhiro Nakamura

Katsuhiro Nakamura (中村 勝広)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 143 lbs.

• High School Naruto High School
• School Waseda University

• Born June 6, 1949 in Sanbu-gun, Chiba Japan
• Died September 23, 2015 in Minato, Tokyo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Katsuhiro Nakamura played and managed in the Nippon Pro Baseball.

Nakamura was drafted by the Hanshin Tigers in the second round of the 1971 NPB draft. He was selected into the 1972 NPB All-Star Game, and went 0-for-1. However, he struggled in the rest of the season and only recorded a .175/.274/.260 batting line in 1972. Nakamura still didn't play well in 1973, only hitting .204/.332/.296 in 74 games.

The Chiba native improved and played 112 games with a .231/.338/.394 batting line in 1974. He broke out in 1975, blasting a career-high 16 homers with a .280/.399/.429 batting line. He attended the 1975 NPB All-Star Game, but went 0-for-3 with a walk. He also set the NPB record by recording 11 assist in a game (Yuichi Honda broke it in 2013, but he still holds the CL record as of 8/15/2023). Nakamura was stable in the next three years, hitting .262/.366/.426, .242/.349/.384 and .250/.359/.394 respectively. He was also selected into the 1977 NPB All-Star Game, but went 0-for-3.

When Yoshiyuki Sakakibara shined in 1979, he took Nakamura's spot so he only played 61 games that season. He was still the main backup infielder for the Tigers in 1980, hitting .231/.336/.389 in 61 games. However, Nakamura slumped to .067/.118/.067 in 1981, and went 4-for-25 in 1982. He then announced his retirement after the 1982 season, and became a coach.

After retiring, Nakamura managed the minor league team of the Tigers from 1983 to 1987, and became the fielding coach for the Tigers in 1988. He started to manage the Tigers in 1990, and worked for them until 1995. Nakamura was the only manager in the Tigers' history to have them finish last for two consecutive years, and he resigned after the Tigers only had a poor .354 winning percentage in 1995. He then became the General Manager for the Orix BlueWave from 2003 to 2005, and managed them in 2006. However, Orix only had a .391 winning percentage in 2006, and he left the team. The Tigers hired Nakamura as their GM in 2012, and he stay in that position until he passed away because of a heart attack in 2015.

Overall, Nakamura hit .246/.352/.387 with 648 hits in 11 years in NPB. He was 373-487-7 as a manager.

Related Sites

• Stats at japanesebaseball.com
• Wiki Japan
• NPB bio