Shigeyoshi Morishita

Shigeyoshi Morishita (森下 重好)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 156 lb.

• School Hosei University
• High School Koyo Gakuin High School

• Born April 12, 1920 in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Japan
• Died July 16, 2000

BR register page

Biographical Information

Shigeyoshi Morishita played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 10 years.

Morishita signed with the Taiyo Robins in 1946, and he hit .287/.381/.431 with 27 doubles in his first season. He was 3rd in doubles (between Noboru Aota and Shigeya Iijima) and 8th in homers (tied with Akira Iwamoto) in the Japanese Professional Baseball League. Morishita then crushed 12 homers with a .238/.294/.395 batting line in 1947, and he ranked 5th in doubles (14 behind Fumio Fujimura) and 2nd in homers (5 behind Hiroshi Oshita). Morishita extended his solid performance as he hit .235/.270/.380 with 13 homers in 1948, and he ranked 8th in homers (tied with Fujimura and Kaoru Betto). He also went 1-3 with a 2.61 ERA on the mound that season.

The Nishinomiya native had a .220/.284/.333 batting line in 1949, and he joined the Kintetsu Buffaloes when the JPBL split into two leagues. Morishita had his career year in 1950, and he crushed 30 homers with a .291/.350/.560 batting line. He was 2nd in homers in the Pacific League (13 behind Betto), 10th in hits (between Oshita and Kazuo Horii), 8th in doubles (9 behind Tokuji Iida) and 5th in RBI (between Katsuki Tokura and Yasuya Hondo). Morishita became the first player to hit a homer in each of his first three at-bats on opening day, in 1951, and it would be 28 years before the second batter accomplished it (Tomio Tashiro in 1979). He ended up hitting .229/.288/.383 with 12 homers that season, and he tied Junji Nakatani for 7th in homers. Morishita had a .266/.339/.414 batting line in 1952, and he hit .253/.329/.390 in 1953. He played 88 games with a .274/.343/.411 batting line in 1954, and he announced his retirement after he hit .244/.280/.381 in 1955.

Overall, Morishita hit .256/.319/.418 with 828 hits and 99 homers in 10 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan