Kazushige Nagashima

Kazushige Nagashima (長嶋 一茂)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 198 lb.
• High School Rikkyo High School
• School Rikkyo University
• Born January 26, 1966 in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

The son of one of Nippon Pro Baseball's greatest stars, Kazushige Nagashima played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 7 years.

Nagashima followed in his father's footsteps in playing for Rikkyo University. While Shigeo Nagashima had been a collegiate star, Kazushige hit only .225 with 11 home runs and 54 RBI yet still batted cleanup. While he looked like his father, he clearly lacked his dad's skills at baseball. He won two Best Nine awards and once led the league in RBI. He was on the Japanese national team that won Silver in the 1987 Asian Championship. The Yakult Swallows and the Taiyo Whales made the younger Nagashima their first-round draft pick in the 1988 NPB draft. The Swallows won the lottery for the rights to him, and they signed him for 80-million yen. In just his 8th at-bat as a professional baseball player, he homered off of Bill Gullickson but hadn't connected for another long ball by the All-Star break. He was hitting only .164 at that point yet was among the leaders in voting for the All-Star game. His good lucks and lineage were compensating for his poor game in terms of popularity. He finished the year somewhat better, at .203/.272/.326. In 1989 Kazushige put up a respectable season, .250/.276/.385.

Things went downhill from there. In 1990 Nagashima slipped to .167/.211/.296 in 35 games (54 AB). He rebounded to .221/.320/.383 the next year, posting a career high in OPS, but was still unable to win a regular role. In 1992, Nagashima came to the USA and hit .235/.311/.389 for the Vero Beach Dodgers; his 7 homers were third on the team. He hit .216/.301/.299 in 1993 after the Swallows traded him to the Yomiuri Giants for cash, and he topped 100 AB for the fourth and final time. 1993 was a good year in that he hit the 30,000th homer in Central League history. Nagashima only managed a .172/.250/.310 line in 1994, did not play for Yomiuri in '95 and hit .143/.183/.339 for them in 1996 as a backup third baseman. He fanned 19 times in 56 at-bats, though he did hit 3 homers. He later was an actor and baseball commentator

Overall, Nagashima batted .210/.276/.342 with 161 hits in 384 games, with 18 homers (ten less than his dad had hit as a rookie).

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting
• 1993 Baseball Almanac