Kazuyoshi Tatsunami

Kazuyoshi Tatsunami (立浪 和義) (Mr. Dragon, Mr. Double)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 154 lb.
• High School PL Gakuen High School

• Born August 18, 1969 in Settsu, Osaka Japan

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Biographical Information

Kazuyoshi Tatsunami played in NPB for 22 years then managed for 3 years. He is the NPB all-time career doubles record holder.

Tatsunami helped the PL Gakuen High School won both Spring Koshien and Summer Koshien in 1987, and the Chunichi Dragons and Nankai Hawks picked him in the first round of the 1987 NPB draft; the Dragons won the lottery for the rights to him. Tatsunami shined as a rookie, and he was the first Chunichi rookie straight from high school to start in the opening game. He played 110 games with a .223/.317/.310 batting line as Chunichi's starting shortstop, and he was also selected into the 1988 NPB All-Star Game. He collected a single against Hiroshi Tsuno in Game 1, but he was 0-for-4 in the rest of the season. He was the first high school graduate to win a NPB Gold Glove in his first season as a professional player, and he was named the Central League Rookie of the Year. Tatsunami was 2-for-17 in the 1988 Nippon Series, but the Dragons lost to the Seibu Lions in 5 games. He won 4 votes in the CL MVP voting.

The Osaka native suffered from right shoulder injury, so he only played 30 games with a .235/.316/.400 batting line. Tatsunami came back in 1990, and he hit .303/.381/.456 with 33 doubles in 121 games. He was 3rd in hits (between Katsumi Hirosawa and Takahiro Ikeyama), 5th in steals (tied with Kenichi Yamazaki), 2nd in triples (2 behind Kenjiro Nomura), 2nd in doubles (3 behind Jim Paciorek) and 6th in batting (between Yutaka Wada and Tatsunori Hara). The next season, in 1991, the second baseman led the Central League with 87 runs scored - he hit .290/.379/.423 with 35 doubles, which would resemble his typical season during his career. He was also selected into the 1991 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 2-for-5 in 2 games. Tatsunami was 4th in hits (between Norihiro Komada and R.J. Reynolds), 2nd in doubles (1 behind Johnny Ray) and 3rd in walks (between Yutaka Takagi and Atsuya Furuta).

Tatsunami was turned into a second baseman in 1992, and he hit .301/.383/.404 in 98 games despite missing some games due to finger injury. He then hit .286/.376/.430 with 16 homers in 1993, and he was 5th in runs (between Tomonori Maeda and Jack Howell) and 7th in hits (tied with Tom O'Malley). He also set the NPB record with a .997 fielding percentage as a second baseman, but he lost the Gold Glove to Wada. Tatsunami was then selected into the 1994 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 3-for-4 as CL's starting second baseman in Game 2. He again led the Central in runs in 1994, this time with 90. He also ranked 4th in steals (tied with Koichi Ogata) and 3rd in doubles (tied with Hirosawa and Hitoshi Hatayama). He also set the NPB record as he played 712 consecutive innings without an error as a second baseman (beoken by Kentaro Sekimoto later).

"Mr. Double" improved to .301/.378/.423 with 25 doubles in 1995, and he was 8th in batting (between O'Malley and Koichi Sekikawa), 3rd in hits (between Bobby Rose and Komada) and 8th in doubles (tied with Scott Coolbaugh and Glenn Davis). He was selected into the 1995 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 1-for-4. Tatsunami also won his first Gold Glove award as a second baseman (he already won one as a shortstop). In 1996 he made his first Best Nine, at 2B, when he hit .323/.404/.466. He he was third in the league in average (between Hatsuhiko Tsuji and Takeshi Yamasaki), second in hits (165, 11 behind Alonzo Powell) and second in doubles (39, 3 behind Powell). Tatsunami was voted into the 1996 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 1-for-6 with a triple against Hiroshi Takamura in Game 1.

The Dragons changed their home stadium to the Nagoya Dome in 1997, and Tatsunami crushed the first homer of the stadium against Koki Morita. He ended up hitting .269/.372/.414 with 24 doubles, and he was 10th in doubles (24, tied with Atsunori Inaba and Kazuhiro Kiyohara) and 10th in runs (tied with Tomoaki Kanemoto). He hit for a cycle on August 22, and he won his third straight Gold Gloves. Tatsunami became an outfielder after Jong-beom Lee joined the team in 1998, and he hit .272/.367/.371 in 134 games. He was 10th in doubles, tied with Ogata and Hideki Matsui. He attended the 1998 NPB All-Star Game, and he was hitless in 3 at-bats. Tatsunami returned to the infield in 1999, and he had a .266/.345/.376 batting line in 123 games. He hit a 2-run single against Kenichi Wakatabe in the 1999 Nippon Series Game 2, and he was 7-for-16 in the entire series; the Dragons lost to the Daiei Hawks in 5 games.

Tatsunami came back and hit .303/.372/.447 in 2000, and he was 7th in batting (between Yamasaki and Takuro Ishii) and 6th in doubles (30, tied with Toshihisa Nishi and Roberto Petagine). He was voted into the 2000 NPB All-Star Game, but he went 0-for-3. Tatsunami struggled in the first half of the 2001 season, and he bounced back soon to end his season with a .292/.359/.412 batting line. He was 3rd in doubles (between Inaba and Nishi) and 9th in hits (tied with Takahiro Saeki and Kanemoto). Tatsunami was then selected into the 2002 NPB All-Star Game, but he was hitless in 5 at-bats. He ended up hitting .302/.364/.472 with a career-high 16 homers, and he was 9th in hits (between Hirokazu Ibata and Kanemoto), 4th in doubles (between Akinori Iwamura and Kanemoto), 9th in batting (between Yoshinobu Takahashi and Ogata) and 3rd in RBI (tied with Alex Ramírez).

In 2003, Tatsunami was moved the third base and he played 135 games with a .280/.350/.422 batting line. He won his 5th Gold Glove, and he became the first playuer in NPB history to win a Gold Glove in three different positions. Tatsunami collected his 2,000th career hit against Masanori Hayashi on July 5, and that earned him a spot in the Meikyukai. He was also selected into the 2003 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 1-for-2 with a double against Kazumi Saitoh in Game 1. Unfortunately, he lost his driver's license in 2003 due to too many speeding incidents. He was 10th in doubles (tied with Alex Ochoa) and 7th in RBI (between Petagine and Akihiro Yano). Tatsunami made his second Best Nine in 2004, this time at third base, after hitting .308/.364/.384 - the numbers are deceptive as Chunichi played in a very pitcher-friendly environment. He was 9th in batting (between Takayuki Shimizu and Atsuya Furuta) and 9th in hits (between Ramirez and Kanemoto). On When Kosuke Fukudome was injured in the pennant race, Tatsunami and Alex Ochoa picked up the slack to lead the team to the Japan Series. He was 7-for-27 with 2 homers (against Daisuke Matsuzaka in Game 2 and Chikara Onodera in Game 5), but they lost in seven games to the Seibu Lions.

Tatsunami slipped in 2005, having his worst season since his teens as he hit .253/.345/.361; he broke into the record books when he hit his 450th double on May 19th, giving him the all-time mark for Nippon Pro Baseball; the prior record holder was Yutaka Fukumoto. After the year his salary was reduced to around $2 million and he said he would retire after 2006 unless he had a very good season. He had his 172nd three-hit game in 2006, passing Sadaharu Oh for second all-time in the Central League, behind only Shigeo Nagashima (186). Tatsunami hit .263/.310/.320 in 2006 and followed with a .333/.385/.417 effort in the 2006 Japan Series. After the 2006 season, Tatsunami signed for 100 million yen plus incentives, a pay cut of 125 million yen from the prior year. A key bench threat in 2007, he batted .275/.364/.367 in 109 AB over 101 games; he hit .352 with runners in scoring position, driving in 31. In the 2007 Japan Series, the veteran leader was 0 for 6 with 2 walks and three strikeouts but Chunichi still won its first Japan Series in over 50 years. He hit .205/.314/.301 in 2008 as a player-coach, and he played 77 games with a .318/.425/.439 batting line in 2009 mainly as pinch-hitter. Tatsunami became the 7th NPB player to reach 10,000 plate appearances on August 1, and he retired after that season, just missing the chance to play in four decades.

He coached for the Japanese national team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic and was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019. He worked as a baseball commentator after his playing career ended. In 2022, he became manager of Chunichi, replacing Tsuyoshi Yoda‎ after they finished 5th in 2021. Tatsunami promised that he would never let the Dragons become the 5th place again. He kept his word, in a sense. Tatsunami's Dragons finished last in all three seasons, and he was fired in 2024.

A leader for the Dragons for 22 years, Tatsunami filled in wherever needed, playing second, third and the outfield and batting at the top of the order and in the heart of the order. He hit .318/.425/.439 with 2,480 hits, 1,175 runs and and 1,086 walks in 2,586 games. As of 2025, he was 18th in runs (between Yoshinori Hirose and Michiyo Arito), 8th in hits (between Kanemoto and Shigeo Nagashima), 43rd in RBI (between Motonobu Tanishige and Noboru Aota), 12th in walks (between Yoshihiro Maru and Kihachi Enomoto) and 78th in batting (between Jitsuo Mizutaniand Chiba). Not bad for a guy who had only two Best Nine seasons and played in a pitcher's paradise a great deal. The multi-talented Tatsunami is an example of a player who did everything well - some power, some speed, some walks and some contact - but had no trademark skill to make him stand out from the crowd. Although his all-time doubles record earned him some of the attention he warranted. Alonzo Powell commented that "there's no doubt that he could play in the Major Leagues", but his career peaked before movement from NPB to MLB was common.

Sources

• Wiki Japan