Masahiro Doi

Masahiro Doi (土井 正博)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 178 lb.

• High School Daitetsu High School

• Born December 8, 1943 in Kashiwara, Osaka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Masahiro Doi was a 15-time All-Star in Japan's Pacific League. He was a left fielder, first baseman and DH.

Doi was a high school drop-out who began his career with the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 1962, hitting only .231/.258/.310 with 16 steals in 24 tries at age 18. By 1963, he was Kintetsu's cleanup hitter and he was selected into the 1963 NPB All-Star Game; he was 1-for-3 in 3 games. For the season, he hit .276/.305/.410 with 33 doubles and 74 RBI. He led the league in two-baggers and paced all of Nippon Pro Baseball as he had 3 more than another youngster, Central League leader Sadaharu Oh. Masahiro batted .296/.340/.510 with 28 home runs and 98 RBI in 1964. He made his second All-Star team, and he was 0-for-4 in the first two games but went 3-for-3 with a RBI double against Shigeyuki Takahashi in Game 3. Doi was 6th in the PL in average (between Kihachi Enomoto and Jack Bloomfield), 4th in doubles (29, tied with Kazuhiro Ishiguro), 4th in homers (between Kent Hadley and Isao Harimoto) and 2nd in RBI (17 behind Katsuya Nomura). He led with 168 hits, one ahead of Yoshinori Hirose.

The Osaka native fell to .271/.320/.445 with 24 home runs in 1965 while leading the PL with 9 times hit by pitch. He was 4th in hits (135, tied with Hachiro Yamamoto), 5th in homers (tied with Francis Agcaoili) and 10th in RBI (61, between Jim Baumer and Enomoto). He made his third straight All-Star squad, but he was hitless in 4 at-bats in the 1965 NPB All-Star Game. Doi produced at a .275/.332/.467 rate with 27 doubles and 21 homers in 1966. He was 10th in the league in average (between Mike Krsnich and Akio Saionji), 5th in hits (129, between Shoichi Busujima and Jim Baumer), 5th in doubles (between Spencer and Akira Ishii), 7th in homers (between Spencer and Tony Roig) and 6th in RBI (58). He was again voted into the 1966 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 1-for-5, with a single against Susumu Oba in Game 3.

Doi hit .323/.386/.567 with 28 circuit clouts and 93 RBI in 1967, and he led the league with 147 hits (3 ahead of Katsuya Nomura). He was 7 RBI behind Nomura, the league leader. He finished second in average (.012 behind Harimoto), 4th in doubles (23, tied with Hiromi Wada) and 4th in homers (tied with Harimoto). He shined in the 1967 NPB All-Star Game, and he crushed 2 homers (against Masaichi Kaneda in the 1st inning and Kiyotake Suzuki in the 8th inning) in Game 1 with 6 RBI; he won the MVP. He had a 25-game hitting streak from September 7 to October 17. Doi also made the Best Nine for the first time, selected alongside Harimoto and Atsushi Nagaike as one of the top 3 flyhawks in the Pacific League.

In 1968, Doi remained hot and batted .309/.406/.491 with 20 homers and 80 RBI. He made the All-Star team for the 6th year in a row and led the league with 7 sac flies. He was third in average (behind Harimoto and George Altman), 4th in hits (141, tied with Don Blasingame), 7th in doubles (23, between Toshizo Sakamoto and Kazuhide Funada), 9th in homers and 4th in RBI (between Katsuo Osugi and Nagaike). He again made the Best Nine, joining Harimoto and Altman as the outfielders picked. Kintetsu's big bopping continued in 1969 by hitting .300/.382/.523 with 27 homers, 76 runs and 72 RBI. He was 7th in the league in average (between Art López and Mitsuo Motoi), 8th in hits (139), 6th in doubles (22, tied with Osugi, Nagaike and Yasuhiro Kunisada), 3rd in homers (between Osugi and Kiyoshi Yano) and 6th in RBI (between Yozo Nagabuchi and Harimoto). He was voted into the 1969 NPB All-Star Game, and he crushed a game-winning 2-run shot against Minoru Murayama to win the MVP in Game 1; he was 0-for-7 in the rest of the All-Star Games.

Doi only played 73 games in 1970 and slumped to .280/.358/.424. He was suspended for a month due to illegal gambling. He rebounded and then some in 1971, producing at a .309/.395/.603 rate with 40 home runs and 113 RBI in 127 games. He led the league with 8 sacrifice flies, and he was 8th in the PL in average (between Harimoto and Tadayoshi Okuma, 8th in hits (137), tied Nagaike for second in homers (one behind Osugi) and was 7 RBI behind leader Hiromitsu Kadota. He was selected into the 1971 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 0-for-6 in 3 games. Doi hit .300/.393/.554 with 30 home runs in 1972, somehow missing an All-Star selection. The 28-year-old was 7th in the league in average (between Nagabuchi and Motoi), 6th in homers (between Harimoto and Arito) and 6th in RBI (84, between Harimoto and Jinten Haku).

In 1973, Doi improved his batting line to .316/.417/.563 with 29 home runs. He was third in the circuit in average (between Nagaike and Harimoto), 10th in hits (131, between Arito and Osugi), 5th in homers (tied with Jim Lefebvre) and 7th in RBI (76, tied with Clarence Jones). He was also voted into the 1973 NPB All-Star Game, and he had a 1-for-5 record. Doi hit .277/.391/.499 with 29 homers in 1974, and he ranked 2nd in homers (9 behind Jones) and 7th in RBI (67, tied with Altman). He made his 10th All-Star squad, and he was 2-for-4 in the 1974 NPB All-Star Games. He drew five walks on May 24 to tie the league record.

Doi was traded to the Taiheiyo Club Lions in 1975 for Hiroaki Shibaike and Yutaka Yanagida. He fell to .260/.352/.491 with his new club, but smacked 34 home runs and drove home 82. That gave him his only home run title, beating out Kato by two. He was also 4th in RBI between Kadota and Jones. Doi attended the 1975 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 1-for-4 in the first two games. He then went 2-for-3 with a game-winning 2-run shot against Takeshi Yasuda in Game 3, and he won his third All-Star MVP. Doi continued to slide backwards in 1976, hitting .259/.340/.450 for the Lions with 25 long balls. He was 3rd in homers (tied with Robert Marcano and Arito) and 3rd in RBI (73, between Kadota and Jones). Doi was an All-Star for the 12th time, and he was 1-for-6 in the 1976 NPB All-Star Games.

Missing the All-Star team in 1977, Doi declined to .248/.340/.435 with 24 home runs. He collected his 2,000th career hit against Choji Murata on July 5. He drew 57 walks, tying teammate Mitsuo Motoi for the PL lead. The veteran slugger had a comeback in 1978 at age 34. He batted .303/.380/.513 with 26 home runs. From May 14 to May 22, he homered in six games in a row, tying the all-time PL mark. He was 9th in the league in average (between Masaru Tomita and Yasuhiro Takai), 10th in hits (131, between Arito and Kinji Shimatani), 4th in homers and 9th in RBI (75, between Shimatani and Leon Lee). He made his 13th All-Star team and made the Best Nine for the third and last time, this time as a designated hitter.

Masahiro fell back a bit in 1979 at .270/.360/.472 with 27 home runs, and he tied Koichi Tabuchi and Shimatani for 8th in homers. He made his 14th All-Star team, and he went 1-for-4 in the 1979 NPB All-Star Games. An All-Star for the last time in 1980, the old-timer still cranked out 23 homers and hit .284/.371/.484. In 1981, age caught up to Doi at 37 and he hit only .200/.283/.246 in 61 games. Retiring, he became a coach with the Lions from 1985 to 1989, and he coached the Samsung Lions of Korea in 1992. He returned to Seibu as batting coach from 1996 to 1999, and he became their bench coach from 2004 to 2007. He was also the batting coach for the Chunichi Dragons from 2017 to 2018

Overall, Doi played 2,449 games in Nippon Pro Baseball. He had 2,452 hits in 8,694 at-bats with 1,105 runs, 309 doubles, 465 home runs, 1,400 RBI and 972 walks while only striking out 777 times. The lone negatives were defense and speed (78 SB, 87 CS). His career batting line was .282/.358/.481. As of 2025, Doi ranks 13th in NPB history in homers (between Tabuchi and Tuffy Rhodes), 10th in hits (between Shigeo Nagashima and Hayato Sakamoto), 76th in doubles, 12th in RBI (between Sachio Kinugasa and Takeya Nakamura), 24th in runs (between Daijiro Oishi and Rhodes), 10th in total bases (4,178, between Kazuhiro Kiyohara and Ochiai), 20th in walks (between Hideto Asamura and Nagashima), 11th in intentional walks (106, between Takeshi Nakamura and Kazuhiro Yamauchi), tied for 28th in times hit by pitch (95, even with Kazuya Fukuura), 12th in sacrifice flies (78, tied with Fukuura), 9th in doubles play ground into (235), 10th in games played (between Fukuura and Takuro Ishii), 10th in at-bats (between Ishii and Kazuyoshi Tatsunami), 11th in plate appearances (between Ishii and Sakamoto) and 95th in batting (between Hiroshi Shibahara and Koichi Ogata).

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• Japanbaseballdaily.com
• 2689.web