Norifumi Nishimura

Norifumi Nishimura (西村 徳文)

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 154 lb.

• High School Fukushima High School

• Born January 9, 1960 in Kushima, Miyazaki Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Switch-hitting Norifumi Nishimura played 18 years with Lotte in Nippon Pro Baseball. He was a five-time All-Star, won a batting title and led in steals four times.

Nishimura was a fifth-round draft pick in the 1981 NPB draft after playing for JR Kyushu Kagoshima in the industrial leagues. He debuted in 1982, playing six games and scoring two runs but not batting once. He became a regular in 1983, hitting .241/.267/.313 in 95 games. He was a starter on the infield by 1984, batting .285/.318/.389 with 25 steals in 38 attempts. Nishimura ranked 5th in steals in the Pacific League, between Hiromichi Ishige and Hiromi Matsunaga. In 1985, Norifumi produced at a .311/.355/.424 clip with 9 triples, 83 runs and 33 steals (in 38 tries). He led the league in triples and was five steals behind leader Matsunaga. Nishimura won a Diamond Glove Award at second base and made the Best Nine at second. He also made his first PL All-Star team, and he was 0-for-1 in the 1985 NPB All-Star Game. He was 9th in the league in average (between Eiji Kanamori and Masashi Yokota) and 4th in hits (159, between Dick Davis and Matsunaga).

The Miyazaki hit .284/.347/.346 in 1986 and was 36-for-45 in steal attempts; he scored 71 times. He led the league in steals for the first time. In 1987, he batted .264/.311/.320 and stole 41 bases while being thrown out 14 times. He led the PL in both steals (tied with Daijiro Oishi) and times caught stealing, and he was 3rd in triples (4, tied with Oishi, Seiji Tomashino and Ko Saito). Nishimura was also selected into the 1987 NPB All-Star Games, and he went 2-for-6 with a double against Masumi Kuwata. Nishimura hit .256/.310/.301 in 1988 and swiped 55 bases in 62 attempts, leading the circuit in steals (tied with Oishi again). Nishimura attended the 1988 NPB All-Star Game, and he was hitless in 3 games.

Nishimura batted .281/.352/.347 in 1989 with 42 steals in 54 attempts. He led in steals for the 4th straight year, and he was 2nd in triples (5, 2 behind Ken Hirano). That year, he became an outfielder. Nishimura had a career year in 1990, batting .338/.418/.443 with 35 SB in 43 tries. He won the batting title by .024 over Oishi, and he was the first switch-hitter to win a batting title in NPB history. He was also 2nd in hits (148, 2 behind Jim Traber), 2nd in steals (16 behind Koji Akiyama) and 3rd in doubles (27, tied with Takeshi Aiko). He won a Gold Glove in the outfield and also made the Best Nine as a flyhawk, and he was the first player in NPB history to win a Gold Glove as both infielder and outfielder. He was voted into the 1990 NPB All-Star Game, but he was hitless again in 2 at-bats.

In 1991, Norifumi hit .275/.343/.330 with 23 steals in 29 tries. He was 4th in steals, between Hiroshi Yugamidani and Akiyama. He batted .216/.285/.290 in 1992 with 14 steals in 16 tries. The veteran produced at a .250/.319/.321 rate with 21 swipes in 28 attempts in 1993, and he tied Mel Hall and Tetsuro Hirose for 5th in steals. He made his last All-Star squad, and he appeared as a pinch-runner for Ishige in the 1993 NPB All-Star Game 1. Nishimura saw his playing time fall in 1994 (.247/.303/.314 in 75 G, 15 SB, 3 CS) and 1995 (.213/.333/.240 in 91 G, 7 SB, 3 CS). He only played 34 games in 1996, going 2 for 25 with 6 walks, 4 steals and 9 runs. He was 0 for 1 to end his career in 1997.

After retiring as a player, Nishimura coached for Lotte. In 2009, the club announced he would success the successful Bobby Valentine as manager. His first season at the helm, 2010, he guided Chiba Lotte to its second PL pennant ever, then their second Japan Series title, beating the Chunichi Dragons in the 2010 Japan Series. He won the Matsutaro Shoriki Award for his work. The team slumped to 54-79-11 in 2011 and 62-67-15 in 2012 before losing his job. He returned to the managerial ranks in 2019, going 61-75-7 with the Orix Buffaloes after replacing Junichi Fukura. The Buffaloes were 16-33-4 in 2020 under his management, and Nishimura was replaced by Satoshi Nakajima on August 20.

Overall, Nishimura played 1,433 games in NPB with a .272/.333/.343 career batting line and 363 steals in 460 tries. As of 2025, he was 75th in NPB history in triples (43, tied with Akiteru Kono, Jinten Haku, Tsutomu Wakamatsu, Ken Hirano and Yutaka Tagawa) and 14th in swipes (tied with Kazuo Matsui).

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• Japanbaseballdaily.com