Michinori Tsubouchi

Michinori Tsubouchi (坪内 道典)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 4", Weight 132 lb.
• School Rikkyo University
• High Schools Matsuyama Commercial High School, Tennoji Commercial High School

• Born April 7, 1914 in Iyo-gun, Ehime Japan
• Died September 16, 1997

BR register page

Biographical Information

Michinori Tsubouchi is a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

Tsubouchi's pro career began in the fall of 1936 when he hit .262/.339/.272 for Dai Tokyo. He batted .241/.290/.310 in the spring of 1937 and .241/.290/.310 in the fall, in which he moved to the Lion club. In spring 1938, he put up a .255/.366/.314 line, followed by .213/.283/.282 in the fall. Michinori batted .225/.290/.268 in 1939 and .193/.294/.241 in 1940. He tied Ichizo Murase for 8th in the Japanese Professional Baseball League with 22 steals.

The Ehime native batted .237/.342/.294 in 1941 and stole 26 bases, most in the league that season. He also ranked 5th in hits (75). The speedy center fielder hit .241/.327/.390 with 44 steals in 104 games in 1942, leading in steals and times hit by pitch (5). He was 4th in hits (98, tied with Yoshiyuki Iwamoto) and 6th in runs (50). He batted .234/.329/.306 with 36 steals in 1943, and he was 2nd in hits (78, 11 behind Shosei Go), 2nd in doubles (13, 1 behind Junji Nakatani) and 3rd in steals (between Go and Shigeru Sakamoto). As player-manager of Asahi in 1944, he went 12-22-1 before the season ended due to World War II while having a .338/.404/.449 batting line. He was third in the league in average at the time (between Toshio Kurosawa and Hiroshi Hagiwara), leading with 11 doubles and had 16 steals, 3 shy of the lead. His 61 total bases also led the league.

After the war, Tsubouchi joined Goldstar in 1946 and hit .316/.382/.433 with 11 triples and 26 steals. He was 43-60-2 as their manager. He only struck out in 6 of 393 AB, a Nippon Pro Baseball record for fewest whiffs by a player with over 300 at-bats. He was 5th in the JPBL in average (between Fumio Fujimura and Kazuto Tsuruoka), 4th in hits (124, between Kazuo Horii and Tsuruoka), 7th in doubles (21, tied with Naofumi Yasui, Makoto Kozuru and Fukuzo Tada) and 5th in steals (tied with Yutaka Tagawa). In 1947, the veteran outfielder put up a .271/.346/.344 line and stole 21 bags. He was hit by 10 pitches, leading the league. He made the Best Nine, which became an annual award that year, joining Masayasu Kaneda and Hiroshi Oshita as being considered the top outfielders in the JPBL. Tsubouchi also ranked 9th in steals (tied with Noboru Matsuba) and 4th in hits (124, between Fujimura and Masayasu Kaneda). He managed the club, now the Kinsei Stars, to a 41-74-4 record.

Tsubouchi batted .283/.347/.374 with 20 steals in 1948 and had a 25-game hitting streak. He joined Kaoru Betto and Noboru Aota in winning Best Nine honors in the outfield, and he placed 10th in the league in average (between Shigeru Chiba and Tadayoshi Tamakoshi). He became the first player in NPB history to 1,000 games played and 1,000 hits. Moving on to the Chunichi Dragons in 1949, the 35-year-old hit .296/.343/.412 with 83 runs and 31 doubles. He was plunked by 12 pitches, most in the JPBL. He finished 5 doubles behind leader Tetsuharu Kawakami, and he was 5th in hits (177, between Kawakami and Tokuji Iida).

In 1950, he hit .288/.351/.412 with 73 runs and 28 steals in 36 tries. In the Central League's first season, he led the league with 12 times plunked. He wrapped up his playing career in 1951, still productive at .278/.356/.374 with 83 runs and 37 steals in 45 tries. He led the league with 28 doubles, and he made the CL All-Star team (for the first NPB All-Star Game ever); he was 0-for-4 in the 1951 NPB All-Star Game. Tsubouchi was the manager of the Nagoya Dragons in 1952 and 1953. His clubs were 75-43-2 in '52 and 70-57-3 in '53 but finished third each year behind the powerful Yomiuri Giants and Osaka Tigers. He later coached for Chunichi and the Nishitetsu Lions and managed in the minors for the Lotte Orions. In 1992, he was voted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

Overall, Tsubouchi had batted .262/.336/.343 in 1,417 career games in NPB, with 344 steals. Through 2025, he was 27th in NPB history in triples (58, tied with Katsumi Shiraishi and Kozo Kawai) and 20th in steals (between Haruki Nishikawa and Toshio Naka).

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• Japanbaseballdaily
• Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame