Mitsugu Tanaka

Mitsugu Tanaka (田中 調)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 143 lb.

• High School Takamatsu Commercial High School

• Born June 17, 1944 in Kida-gun, Kagawa Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Mitsugu Tanaka pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball for 10 years.

Tanaka joined the Toei Flyers in 1963, and he pitched 5 games with a 3.86 ERA in his first season. He went 2-1, 2.91 in 1964 in 48 games, and he entered the rotation in 1965. Tanaka had a 17-14, 3.06 season with 158 strikeouts, and he was 6th in wins (tied with Toshihiro Hayashi), 10th in losses (between Yoshio Inoue and Katsuhiko Maki) and 4th in strikeouts (between Masaaki Koyama and Masaaki Ikenaga) in the Pacific League. He was selected into the 1965 NPB All-Star Games, and he allowed a solo home run to Kazuhiko Kondo in Game 3. In 1966, Tanaka went 10-10, 2.91 and he was 8th in strikeouts with 142, between Taisuke Watanabe and Ikegaya.

The Kagawa native had an 11-7, 3.00 year in 1967, and he ranked 8th in strikeouts (146). He again was an All-Star, and he pitched a shutout inning in each of the 1967 NPB All-Star Game 2 and 3. In 1968, his ERA fell to 2.85 (8th in the league between Takashi Mizutani and Akio Masuda) but he was just 9-10. He was 9-11 in 1969 with a 2.78 ERA, and he made his third and final All-Star squad. He didn't retire any batters in the 1969 NPB All-Star Game 1 with 2 hits and a walk allowed, and he surrendered a run in an inning in Game 3. He was 10th in ERA (between Fumio Narita and Tetsuya Yoneda) and 9th in strikeouts (120, between Naoki Takahashi and Masuda) Tanaka declined significantly in 1970, going 4-10 with a 5.71 ERA and he was also under suspicion of throwing games in the Black Mist Scandal that year, though he was never penalized or found guilty. Mitsugu went 1-3, 6.17 in '71 to finish his Toei career at age 27. He was traded to the Yakult Swallows for Makoto Fujiwara in 1972 and finished his career with a 2-0, 5.28 line.

Overall, Tanaka was 65-66 with a 3.33 ERA, struck out 811 and pitched 1,178 1/3 innings in 366 games in 10 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• Japanbaseballdaily.com by Gary Garland