Takeshi Yamasaki

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Takeshi Yamasaki (山﨑 武司)

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Biographical information[edit]

Takeshi Yamasaki won two home run titles in Nippon Pro Baseball in a career that spanned four decades.

Yamasaki was a catcher and sumo wrestler in junior high school. In high school, he hit 56 home runs. He wanted to play for the Yomiuri Giants, but was a second-round pick of the Chunichi Dragons in the 1986 NPB draft. He was sent to the US to learn how to play third base in the Arizona Instructional League but never played that position in NPB. He was briefly on loan to the Los Angeles Dodgers system, going 0 for 10 with 3 walks, 4 strikeouts and a run for the 1987 GCL Dodgers. Yamasaki was 5 for 29 with 5 walks and 11 strikeouts in his NPB debut in 1989; he had more success on the farm, leading the Western League in home runs and RBI. Kozo Shoda stole five bases against him one day, a sign he would not be a catcher for much longer. In 1990, he repeated his homer and RBI titles in the WL and was 3 for 7 with a double and a walk in NPB. That winter, he went into a burning building and saved some lives, earning him a commendation.

The Aichi native only batted .149/.260/.256 in 26 games for the 1991 Dragons but improved to .236/.308/.396 at the plate in 1992 at age 23. Yamasaki began playing regularly in 1993, appearing in 77 games and hitting .276/.349/.399. He was mostly a pinch-hitter in 1994, batting .262/.380/.548 in 42 AB. Yamasaki saw increased time in 1995 as an outfielder and produced at a .291/.366/.576 rate with 16 homers in 203 AB. Despite still not being a full-time player, he was third on the Dragons in home runs, trailing Yasuaki Taiho and Alonzo Powell.

Yamasaki blossomed in 1996 as he became a starting outfielder for Chunichi. He hit .322/.382/.625 with 83 runs, 39 home runs and 107 RBI. He edged Hideki Matsui by .003 for the Central League lead in slugging percentage, was 4th in the CL in runs, was second in RBI (two behind Luis Lopez), was fourth in batting (between Kazuyoshi Tatsunami and Thomas O'Malley) and led in home runs (one ahead of Matsui and Taiho). He joined Matsui and Powell as Best Nine outfield picks in the CL. He also made his first All-Star squad, and he was 1-for-4 in the 1996 NPB All-Star Game. On May 1, he had a brawl with Balvino Galvez after Galvez nearly plunked him on his head, and both player were ejected.

In 1997, the right-handed batter hit .257/.350/.447 in a major drop-off. The next year, Yamasaki batted .255/.355/.483 with 27 homers and 86 RBI while replacing Taiho at first base. He was third in the CL in homers (behind Matsui and Akira Eto), and he ranked 4th in RBI (between Takanori Suzuki and Eto). He was hit by 8 pitches, most in the league that year. He hit his 100th career homer that year, going deep against Mark Acre. Yamasaki's average fell further but his OPS improved in 1999 by batting .246/.345/.528 with 28 HR. He ranked 8th in homers (between Yoshinobu Takahashi and Eto) and 9th in RBI (between Eto and Atsuya Furuta) However, he fractured his wrist late in the season during a collision with Mitsuru Manaka of the Yakult Swallows and missed the 1999 Japan Series, which Chunichi lost.

Yamasaki was selected into the 2000 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 3-for-4 with 3 runs scored in Game 2 to win the MVP; he was hitless in 3 at-bats in Game 3 though. He hit .311/.372/.520 and finished sixth in the league in average behind Tatsuhiko Kinjo, Bobby Rose, Matsui, Roberto Petagine and Tomoaki Kanemoto in 2000. He hit 18 homers, his lowest total from 1996-2001. Yamasaki batted .238/.297/.488 with 25 home runs in 2001. He tied Tomoaki Kanemoto and Atsunori Inaba for 9th in homers. Yamasaki hit only .192/.241/.295 in 26 games in 2002 in a miserable campaign. Chunichi traded him to the Orix BlueWave for Masafumi Hirai that off-season.

In his first year away from Chunichi, Yamasaki hit .232/.304/.480 with 22 homers as the DH for Orix. He reached 200 career homers against Shinji Kurano on August 19, the 77th player in NPB history to that level. He won the 2003 Comeback Player of the Year Award. Yamasaki slipped in 2004, hitting .245/.313/.377. He complained about his usage by manager Haruki Ihara on April 27 after Ihara promised to start him but used Yoshitomo Tani instead. Yamazaki already invited his relatives to the game, so he thought that Ihara insulted him and threw his bat into Ihara's office. Thus, he was sent to ni-gun as a result and stayed there for most of the season. When the BlueWave merged with the Kintetsu Buffaloes after 2004, Yamasaki was given his walking papers.

He signed on with the Rakuten Golden Eagles, an expansion team, hitting .266/.342/.525 with 25 homers as the team's cleanup hitter and designated hitter. He hit the first pinch-hit home run in franchise history on May 7. He picked up his 1,000th career hit that season. He led the new team in homers that season, 9 ahead of runner-up Koichi Isobe. When Rakuten added Jose Fernandez as a cleanup threat in 2006, Yamasaki was dropped to 5th in the order and batted .241/.332/.432 with 19 homers. He tied Nobuhiko Matsunaka and Kazuhiro Wada for 7th in homers in the Pacific League, and he was 9th in RBI (between Atsunori Inaba and Benny Agbayani).

Yamasaki had yet another comeback season in 2007 at age 38. He produced at a .261/.359/.577 rate with 86 runs and a career-high 43 homers and 108 RBI. He made his third All-Star team. Yamasaki was 0-for-1 in the 2007 NPB All-Star Game Game 1, and he went 2-for-4 with a 2-run shot against Hisanori Takahashi in Game 2 to win the Outstanding Player award. He and Fernandez set a PL record when they hit grand slams in the same inning against the same pitcher, Masato Yoshii, on April 1. He tied Hirotoshi Kitagawa for the PL lead in sacrifice flies. His 142 strikeouts were second in the PL to Tuffy Rhodes and his 71 walks were also second to Rhodes. He grounded into 28 double plays, leading the league. He was second to Rhodes in slugging percentage as well. He finished second in runs, trailing Hichori Morimoto instead of Rhodes. The Rakuten slugger most notably led the league, though, in homers (one ahead of Rhodes), RBI (12 ahead of Rhodes) and total bases (292, 12 more than Rhodes). 11 years after his first home run crown, he had claimed his second. He was helped by an injury that sidelined Rhodes for the last couple weeks. Still, it proved to be yet another amazing comeback. Amazingly, Yamasaki was far from being the oldest home run leader of 2007 - 46-year-old Fausto Álvarez led Hoofdklasse, 8 years older than the Rakuten DH. Yamasaki made the Best Nine for the second time of his career.

The veteran slugger's salary was more than doubled for 2008, from 82.5 million yen to 192 million yen. He crushed 26 home runs and 80 RBI with a .276/.372/.471 batting line that season, and he was 5th in homers (between Craig Brazell and Matsunaka) and 10th in RBI (between Hiroyuki Nakajima and Takumi Kuriyama). He hit a walk-off single against Tomoyuki Kubota and won the MVP in the 2008 NPB All-Star Game 1, and he was 1-for-4 in Game 2. He continued to slug into his 40s. In 2009, his age-40 season, he hit .246/.332/.515 with 39 home runs and 107 RBI, and he was 2nd in homers (9 behind Takeya Nakamura) and 2nd in RBI (15 behind Nakamura).

Yamazaki crushed 28 home runs with 93 RBI and a .239/.303/.446 in 2010, and he led the league with 147 strikeouts. He was 2nd in homers (5 behind Takahiro Okada) and 4th in RBI (tied with Nakajima). Yamazaki was also selected into the 2010 NPB All-Star Game, and he crushed a homer against Hitoki Iwase in Game 1. He added a homer against Shun Tono in Game 2, and he was the first player in NPB history to hit multiple homers in All-Star competition when older than 40. Yamazaki fell to .229/.286/.367 with 11 home runs in 2011, and he was still selected into the 2011 NPB All-Star Game. In his last All-Star appearance, Yamazaki was 1-for-7 in three games, and that only hit was a single against Shohei Tateyama in Game 2. He also crushed his 400th homer, against Yusei Kikuchi on August 18, and he was the 17th player to reach this benchmark.

The Golden Eagles released Yamasaki after the 2011 season, and he returned to the Dragons. He hit .209/.288/.293 in 90 games in 2012, and he struggled again in 2013 as his batting line was .210/.310/.258 in 51 games. He became the oldest player in the CL to hit a triple on May 14 against Naoki Miyanishi, and he set the CL record for oldest player to hit a double on June 1 against Shohei Ohtani. The 44-year-old hit a walk-off single against Koji Aoyama on May 17, and he was also the oldest player in CL annals to do so. Yamasaki announced his retirement after the 2013 season, and he became a broadcaster. His hobby is radio-controlled cars.

His career NPB batting line was .257/.337/.479 with 403 home runs and 1,205 RBI in 2,249 games in 25 seasons in NPB. As of 2024, he was 86th in runs (between Fumio Fujimura and Alex Ramirez, 72nd in hits (between Yoshihiro Maru and Hiromichi Ishige), 40th in doubles (tied with Taira Fujita, Tsutomu Wakamatsu, Yoshitomo Tani and Shinnosuke Abe), 20th in homers (between Norihiro Nakamura and Kazuhiro Yamauchi), 36th in total bases (between Morimichi Takagi and Tomonori Maeda), 49th in walks (between Haruki Nishikawa and Yoshio Itoi) and 25th in RBI (between Yasunori Oshima and Shinichi Eto).

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