Mutsuo Minagawa

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Mutsuo Minagawa (皆川 睦雄)

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Biographical Information[edit]

Submariner Mutsuo Minagawa was a long-time hurler for the Nankai Hawks. He was a six-time All-Star who was arguably his league's top pitcher one year.

Minagawa debuted in 1954, going 0-3 with a 3.00 in 10 outings. In 1955, he allowed one run in 6 2/3 IP. In 1956, the young right-hander blossomed, appearing in 60 games. He walked 31 in 190 2/3 IP and went 11-10 with a 2.17 ERA. Minagawa tied Isao Wada for 7th in appearances in the Pacific League. In 1957, Minagawa improved to 18-10 though his ERA rose to 2.36. He was 7th in ERA (between Hisafumi Kawamura and Tamotsu Kimura) and 6th in wins (17 behind Kazuhisa Inao). Minagawa was also selected into the 1957 NPB All-Star Game, but he allowed a 2-run homer to Kenjiro Tamiya in Game 1.

The Yamagata had a 17-8, 1.83 record in 1958, and he was 2nd in ERA (behind Inao), 5th in wins (tied with Atsushi Aramaki), 4th in appearances (52, tied with Kawamura and Aramaki) and 9th in strikeouts (between Kawamura and Aramaki). In 230 2/3 innings, he walked 46, struck out 113 and gave up 172 hits. Minagawa went 10-6 with a 1.92 ERA in 1959 with a WHIP again under 1. He pitched only one inning in the 1959 Japan Series, allowing one run, as Tadashi Sugiura pitched 32 of Nankai's 37 innings in the Series. In 1960, Mutsuo went 11-8 with a 2.89 ERA.

Minagawa had a 16-7, 1.97 record in 1961, giving up 142 hits and 38 walks in 177 1/3 IP. He tied Tetsuya Yoneda for 7th in wins. Minagawa was 0-1 with a 2.92 ERA in the 1961 Japan Series, losing to the Yomiuri Giants in Game Two. In 1962, he walked only 33 in 212 1/3 IP, going 19-4 with a 2.49 ERA. He finished 7th in the PL in ERA (between Yukio Ozaki and Kiyohiro Miura), 5th in wins (9 behind Yukihiro Kubo) and 2nd in appearances (59, 7 behind Kubo). He went 12-9 in 1963 with 33 walks in 188 innings and a 2.54 ERA.

In 1964, Mutsuo went 7-5 with a 2.91 ERA in 52 games. He allowed 3 runs in 6 innings in the 1964 Japan Series, losing Game Five. He was 14-10 with a 2.63 ERA in 1965, and he finished 8th in the league in ERA (between Yoshiro Tsumajima and Mitsuhiro Adachi) and 9th in wins (tied with Joe Stanka). He made his second All-Star team, but he allowed 2 runs in 1 2/3 innings in the 1965 NPB All-Star Game 2; he completed a shutout inning in Game 3. Minagawa was 18-7 with a 2.12 ERA for the Hawks in 1966, walking only 34 in 212 innings. He ranked 4th in ERA (between Taisuke Watanabe and Masaaki Ikenaga) and 7th in wins (5 behind Yoneda). Minagawa was 0-2 with a 4.26 ERA in the 1966 Japan Series, losing both Games 4 and 6 to Yomiuri as Nankai fell in six. He was also selected into the 1966 NPB All-Star Game, and he pitched a shutout inning in Game 3.

Minagawa went 17-13 with a 2.29 ERA in 255 2/3 innings in 1967, giving up only 215 hits. He was 5th in ERA (between Tsutomu Tanaka and Ikenaga) and 5th in wins (6 behind Ikenaga). He was also selected into the 1967 NPB All-Star Game, and he pitched 1/3 of a shutout inning in Game 1. Minagawa had a career year in 1968, appearing in 352 1/3 innings over 56 games. He went 31-10 with only 256 hits allowed and 63 walks. On October 6, Minagawa got his 200th win, against the Toei Flyers, and he was the first submariner to reach this milestone. He led the Pacific League in both wins (only 2 ahead of Tetsuya Yoneda) and ERA (.77 over Masanori Murakami. Minagawa paced the league as well in complete games (27) and shutouts (8, one more than Keishi Suzuki). He was named to the Best Nine as the top hurler in the Pacific League but Yoneda beat him out for MVP honors and Yutaka Enatsu won the Sawamura Award. No other NPB pitcher reached 30 wins after Minagawa in NPB history. In the same year, Denny McLain became the last 30-win pitcher in MLB history.

In 1969, Minagawa was back down to 134 1/3 innings. His record fell to 5-14 with a 2.62 ERA, and he was 8th in ERA (between Ikenaga and Fumio Narita) and 5th in losses (tied with Miura). He was 9-10 with a 3.79 ERA in 1970 but made his final All-Star team. He was named the starter of the 1970 NPB All-Star Game 2, but he allowed 3 runs in 2 innings and Enatsu got the win over him. He finished up in 1971, going 6-5 with a 4.27 ERA. After retirement, Minagawa coached for Yomiuri, the Hanshin Tigers and Kintetsu Buffaloes and also worked as a commentator. While coaching for Yomiuri, Minagawa got into a conflict with pitcher Luis Sánchez, who once threw a ball at him and also called him dumb. He also did not get along well with Takashi Nishimoto, who wound up leaving the team to become a star again elsewhere. He was also the pitching coach for the Mercuries Tigers in 1998. Minagawa was voted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011, alongside Hiromitsu Ochiai.

Overall, Minagawa was 221-139 with a 2.42 ERA and 1,638 strikeouts in 759 games in Nippon Pro Baseball. In 3,158 innings, he allowed 2,704 hits and 633 walks. His 200 wins earned him entrance into the meikyukai. Through 2024, Minagawa was among NPB's career leaders in wins (15th, between Minoru Murayama and Masahiro Yamamoto), shutouts (37, tied with Tsuneo Horiuchi for 19th), complete games (101, tied with Tomehiro Kaneda for 67th), strikeouts (48th, between Kazuhiko Endo and Katsuji Sakai), starts (327, tied with Tadashi Wakabayashi for 39th), games pitched (10th, between Kyuji Fujikawa and Inao), innings (22th, between Shigeo Ishii and Masanori Ishikawa) and ERA (12th, between Sugiura and Shozo Watanabe).

Sourcess[edit]

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