Masato Osumi

Masato Osumi (大隅 正人)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 0", Weight 176 lb.

• High School Chitoku High School

• Born February 17, 1948 in Tagata-gun, Shizuoka Japan
• Died August 3, 2021 in Nagoya, Aichi Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Masato Osumi played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 12 years.

Osumi was drafted by the Yomiuri Giants in the 3rd round of the 1967 NPB draft, and he only got 2 at-bats before the Giants released him in 1970. The Chunichi Dragons signed him, and he was 0-for-2 in 1971. Osumi went 2-for-17 in 1972, and he also won the batting title of the Western League with .380 batting average. He then played a career-high 79 games with a 238/.275/.356 batting line in 1973, and he was 2-for-9 in 1974. He only played 7 games combined in the next two seasons, and he was traded with Kinji Shimatani and Mitsuo Inaba to the Hankyu Braves for Yataro Oishi, Yoshinori Toda, Kiyoshi Morimoto and Kenji Komatsu. Osumi was 2-for-24 in 79 games in 1977, and he had a 3-for-26 record in 78 games in 1978. He played 5 games in the 1978 Nippon Series (going 0 for 1; he was mainly a defensive sub at 1B for Hideji Kato, reprising his regular season role), and the Braves lost to the Yakult Swallows in 7 games. Osumi then played 81 games with a 2-for-26 record in 1979, and he only got 14 more at-bats before he announced his retirement in 1981.

Overall, Osumi hit .181/.208/.256 with 41 hits in 12 seasons in NPB; he had 240 plate appearances in 388 games.

Sources

• Wiki Japan