Koichi Sekikawa

Koichi Sekikawa (関川 浩一)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 163 lb.

• School Komazawa University
• High School Toin Gakuen High School

• Born April 1, 1969 in Chofu, Tokyo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Koichi Sekikawa was a two-time All-Star in Japan.

Sekikawa was a member of the Silver Medal-winning Japanese national team in the 1990 Goodwill Games, and the Hanshin Tigers picked him in the second round of the in the 1991 NPB draft. He was 8-for-28 in 1991, and he went 5-for-43 in 1992. Sekikawa was 5-for-43 in 1992, and he replaced Katsuhiko Yamada as Hanshin's starting catcher in 1993. He hit .279/.354/.318 in 89 games, and he played 103 games with a .269/.328/.325 batting line in 1994. Sekikawa improved to .295/.362/.374 with 5 triples in 1995, and he was 9th in the Central League in batting (between Kazuyoshi Tatsunami and Atsuya Furuta) and 2nd in triples (tied with Kenjiro Nomura and Teruyoshi Kuji). He was also selected into the 1995 NPB All-Star Games, and he was 1-for-3, with a single against Nobuyuki Hoshino in Game 2.

The Tokyo native extended his solid performance in 1996, and he hit .314/.368/.404 with 21 doubles as an outfielder. He then played 95 games with a .306/.392/.433 batting line in 1997, and the Tigers sent him with Kuji to the Chunichi Dragons for Yasuaki Taiho and Akihiro Yano. Sekikawa was switched from being a catcher/outfielder to a full-time outfielder in 1998, and he recorded a .285/.367/.338 batting line in 125 games. In 1999 he had his best season, batting .330/.383/.429 and finishing second to Bobby Rose in the Central League batting race - the Dragons won the CL pennant that year. He was 0-for-4 in each of the first four games in the 1999 Nippon Series, and he went 2-for-5 in Game 5 but the Dragons lost to the Daiei Hawks. Sekikawa was third in the league with 172 hits (behind Takanori Suzuki and Rose), tied Toshihisa Nishi for 9th in doubles with 28 and tied Suzuki for second with 6 triples. He made the Best Nine that year in the Central. He was selected into the 1999 NPB All-Star Games, and he went 1-for-4 with 4 runs scored.

Sekikawa slumped to .260/.335/.337 in 2000, and he only played 65 games with a .222/.317/.261 batting line in 2001. His batting line fell to .212/.258/.288 in 73 games in 2002, and he again bounced back with a .316/.385/.393 batting line in 2003 as a part-timer as the Dragons returned to the Japan Series, only to lose again. He only got 11 at-bats in 2004, and the Dragons sent him with Shinichiro Koyama to the expansion Rakuten Golden Eagles for nothing. The veteran center fielder provided hustle and hit .287/.354/.365 with the second-best OBP on the new team. That line was almost identical to the career one for the former backstop. In 2006, Koichi batted .286/.346/.342 for Rakuten, and he was 5-for-24 in 2007. He announced his retirement after that season, and he became the assistant batting coach for the Golden Eagles from 2008 to 2009. Sekikawa was the batting coach for the SK Wyverns in 2010, then he returned to Rakuten as fielding coach in 2011. The Tigers named him their batting coach from 2012 to 2015, and he went to the Softbank Hawks system in 2016.

Overall, Sekikawa hit .286/.353/.360 with 1,129 hits and 24 homers in 17 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan