Tatsunori Hara

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Tatsunori Hara (原 辰徳)

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Biographical Information[edit]

Tatsunori Hara was one of the most-hyped players in Nippon Pro Baseball in the 1980s. His nephew Tomoyuki Sugano played for him starting in 2013. His father, Mitsugu Hara, served as head coach at Tokai University. The son of his high school coach, Tatsunori was taught baseball starting at age three, using rigorous training methods. A star in college, he won two triple crowns in the Tohto League. He helped the Japanese national team win a Bronze in the 1980 Amateur World Series.

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In 1981 NPB draft, he was drafted in the first round by the Yomiuri Giants to replace retiree Sadaharu Oh as the cleanup hitter. Hara had a fine rookie year, hitting .268/.308/.483 and tying a rookie record with 7 RBI in a game. Hara hit 22 homers and the third baseman won Central League Rookie of the Year honors. He was selected into the 1981 NPB All-Star Game, but he only hit an infield single in 12 at-bats. The Yomiuri front office got daily marriage proposals from female admirers and Hara rebuffed offers from film studios looking to capitalize on his charisma and popularity. He was voted as Japan's top male symbol of 1981.

In 1982 Hara drilled 33 homers and hit .275/.332/.518 with 92 RBI. He was two homers behind league leader Masayuki Kakefu and 3 RBI behind Kakefu. He attended the 1982 NPB All-Star Game, and he had a 3-for-12 record with a double against Masayuki Matsunuma in Game 2. The next year, he kept on improving, batting .302/.375/.574 and leading the league in runs (94), RBI (103) and total bases (287). He homered 32 times, four less than co-leaders Koji Yamamoto and Yasunori Oshima. Hara was named Central League MVP that year and made his first Best Nine. He would never lead the league in a major offensive statistic again after being the hope of the most popular team in Japan at that time. His failure to live up to hopes led critics to claim Hara was soft from the media. Numerous training regimes and coaches were implemented to try to improve Hara. American teammates like Reggie Smith and Warren Cromartie argued that he was overcoached and should have been allowed to continue with what he had worked for him.

Hara's production slipped in 1984 and he hit .278/.369/.496 with 27 long balls; he was 10 behind the league leader as he was falling further away in his quest for a home run crown. Hara was again voted into the 1984 NPB All-Star Games, but he was hitless in 4 games. He had a rebound season in 1985 when he posted a .283/.376/.576 line with 34 HR. He had 60 walks and 42 K's in his best season in the BB:K ratio department. He tied Akinobu Mayumi and Toru Sugiura for 5th in homers, and he was 6th in RBI (between Akinobu Okada and Masaru Uno). He also attended the 1985 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 2-for-9 with a double against Hisanobu Watanabe in Game 3. On May 12 against the Taiyo Whalrs, he became the 10th player in NPB history to hit 2 homers in an inning.

In 1986 Tatsunori batted .283/.363/.616 with 36 homers in 113 games. It was his top season in terms of homers hit or slugging percentage. He missed several games because of a hit-by-pitch from fireballer Tsunemi Tsuda. Hara wasn't close to the league lead though - 11 homers and 160 slugging points behind Randy Bass, in the middle of a Triple Crown season. Leon Lee beat out Hara for the Best Nine - one of the top prospects in Japan had made just one Best Nine team in 6 years, losing out to Kakefu three times, Lee once and Sachio Kinugasa once. He still managed to attend the 1986 NPB All-Star Game, and he had a 2-for-12 record in 3 games.

Hara hit .307/.372/.596 with 34 homers in 1987 and finally made another Best Nine; he also won a NPB Gold Glove. He was 2 RBI behind league leader Carlos Ponce, and he was 5th in homers (between Ponce and Bob Horner). He crushed a 2-run shot against Nobuyuki Hoshino in the 1987 NPB All-Star Game 1, and he added a 2-run double against Hideyuki Awano in Game 3. In 1988 Hara hit .300/.382/.555 and won his second and last Gold Glove. His 31 homers were 2 less than league leader Ponce, as he again just missed a home run title. He was 25 points behind Hiromitsu Ochiai in slugging.

Hara was selected into the 1989 NPB All-Star Game, but he missed the game for the first time in his career because of injuries. He hit .261/.359/.506 in 1989, and he moved to the outfield. Hara was 6th in homers (tied with Uno) and 7th in RBI (tied with Takahiro Ikeyama). He took over the role as head of the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association that year, replacing Kiyoshi Nakahata. hara struggled in the first 5 games of the 1989 Nippon Series as he was 0-for-18, then he crushed a game-winning grand slam against Masato Yoshii in Game 5. Hara added a 2-run shot in Game 7 against Tatsumi Murata, anf the Giants beat the Kintetsu Buffaloes.

In 1990, Hara made his first Best Nine as an OF. He hit .303/.391/.519 and posted the best OBP of his career. He went 4-for-15 in the 1990 Nippon Series, and the Giants were swept by the Seibu Lions. Hara slipped in 1991 (.268/.342/.492) though he hit 29 homers and made the Best Nine for the fifth and last time. He also set a Central League record with 12 sacrifice flies. His 11th and last All-Star selection came in 1992 when he batted .272/.349/.508 with 28 homers. Akinobu Okada replaced him as the union leader.

In 1993 Hara did something he did not do in his first 12 seasons - fail to hit 20 homers. He had set a record for most consecutive 20+-homer seasons to start a career. Achilles tendon problems hampered Tatsunori, who hit a meek .229/.323/.369. Hara had one last very good year in 1994 as a backup 3B. He hit .290/.364/.530 and knocked out 14 homers in 200 AB; the team's new bright hope was a young outfielder named Hideki Matsui. In his 15th and last year, Hara hit .201/.270/.382 and filled in at third when Jack Howell left at mid-season; he homered in his final game, one of just 6 that year.

After retiring as a player Hara worked for three years (1996-1998) as a baseball commentator, coached for Yomiuri from 1999-2001 and became the Giants manager in 2002. That season the club went 86-52-2, easily won the Central League pennant and swept the Japan Series. Hara won the Matsutaro Shoriki Award that year. The club slipped to 71-66-3 in 2003 and fell to a tie for third. Hara quit the team when Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe meddled in the coaching staff. When Hara's replacement Tsuneo Horiuchi failed to improve the club, Tatsunori was rehired in 2006 - due to the meddling of Watanabe, who was back in power. He led the Giants to the best record in the Central League in 2007 and 2008.

Hara was named as Japan's manager for the 2009 World Baseball Classic and guided them to their second straight World Baseball Classic title. He ended the year with another title, leading the Giants to the 2009 Japan Series, their first Series win in seven years. He won his second Matsutaro Shoriki Award for his work. He also led them to a title in the 2012 Japan Series and to the 2013 Japan Series, where they fell. After a ten-year stint at the reigns of Yomiuri, he was replaced by Yoshinobu Takahashi, having held the post for the longest period since Tetsuharu Kawakami (1961-1974).

He was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame by the Expert Division (the veteran's committee equivalent) in 2018 in a class with Hideki Matsui and Tomoaki Kanemoto from the Players Division and Masao Taki from the Special Committee. He was only gone from the Yomiuri helm for three years as he took back over from Yoshinobu Takahashi in 2019, taking Yomiuri to the 2019 Japan Series his first year back after 3 seasons around .500 when he was away.

Overall, Hara hit .279/.355/.523 line with 382 homers and 1,675 hits in 15 seasons in NPB. As of 2025, he was 64th in runs (between Hiromasa Arai and Koichi Hori), 22nd in homers (tied with Yasunori Oshima), 35th in RBI (between Tomonori Maeda and Sho Nakata) and 73rd in walks (between Akira Nakamura and Hirokazu Ibata).

Sources[edit]

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