Kazuo Satake

Kazuo Satake (佐竹 一雄)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 156 lb.

• High School Keihan Commercial High School

• Born January 28, 1925 in Osaka, Osaka Japan
• Died March 12, 2017

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kazuo Satake played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 12 years.

Satake signed with the Taiyo Robins in 1946, and he went 5-for-37 in his first season. He became the starting first baseman of the Robins in 1947, but he only hit .212/.282/.272 in 111 games. Satake was moved to the catcher spot in 1948, and he crushed 2 homers with a .249/.301/.344 batting line. He had a .282/.317/.391 batting line in 53 games in 1949, but he slumped to .162/.279/.162 in 1950 and the Robins released him. The Kokutetsu Swallows picked him up, and Satake bounced back with a .297/.346/.416 batting line and a career-high 6 homers in 1951.

The Osaka native hit .268/.308/.332 in 97 games in 1952, and he recorded a .223/.295/.283 batting line in 1953. Satake then played 80 games with a .291/.337/.349 batting line in 1954, and his batting line fell to .221/.260/.285 in 1955. He struggled again in 1956 as he hit .192/.249/.236 in 114 games, and he hit .100/.143/.100 in 73 games in 1957. He caught Masaichi Kaneda's perfect game, and he was the first catcher to catch three no-hitters in NPB history (only Motonobu Tanishige and Takuya Kai have also done it as of 2025). Satake announced his retirement after that season, and he was the battery coach for the Swallows from 1958 to 1961 and for their minors team in 1962.

Overall, Satake hit .237/.290/.307 with 720 hits and 19 homers in 12 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan