Tomohiro Nioka

From BR Bullpen

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Tomohiro Nioka (二岡 智宏)

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 5' 11", Weight 179 lb.

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Tomohiro Nioka made seven All-Star teams in 15 years in Nippon Pro Baseball and hit over 150 homers. He was the MVP of the 2002 Japan Series as well.

Nioka played for the Japanese national team when in college. He won Silver in the 1997 Asian Championship. He hit .172/.286/.276 in the 1997 Intercontinental Cup but played error-free ball as Japan's starting shortstop. He was 0 for 4 in their 11-2 Gold Medal game upset rout of the Cuban national team. In the 1998 Baseball World Cup, Tomohiro batted .353/.452/.618 with 12 runs in 9 games. His big game was in the semifinals, when he had 3 runs and 3 RBI in a win over Australia. He stole four bases in four tries during the Cup. That tied Lingfeng Sun and Yusuke Nishizawa for second, one behind Davide Rigoli of Italy.

The Yomiuri Giants picked Nioka in the second round in the 1998 NPB draft, replacing veteran Masahiro Kawai at short. He hit .289/.342/.452 as a rookie in 1999 and made the Central League team for the 1999 NPB All-Star Games; he was 0-for-4. On September 19 against Ryuji Yokoyama, Nioka became the first Giants rookie to hit 2 sayonara homers in a season, and he was the second CL rookie to do this, following Takao Sato in 1952. He hit 18 home runs, third on the club behind Hideki Matsui and Yoshinobu Takahashi and outpowering established sluggers Kazuhiro Kiyohara and Domingo Martinez. In 2000, Nioka hit .265/.329/.399 and again made the All-Star team; he was 2-for-7 in the 2000 NPB All-Star Games. He played 86 games in 2001, slumping to .233/.278/.342.

Nioka bounced back in 2002 and had his best OPS with a .281/.329/.520 batting line. He also clubbed 24 home runs and fielded .987, but was left off the All-Star team. Hirokazu Ibata beat him out for Best Nine honors at shortstop. Nioka was second on the Giants in long balls, trailing only Hideki Matsui and ahead of power hitters Akira Eto, Shinnosuke Abe, Kiyohara and Takahashi. He was the first Giants shortstop to hit more than 20 homers, and he tied Motonobu Tanishige and Alex Ramírez for 7th in homers. He was even better in the postseason. In the 2002 Japan Series, Nioka went 9 for 19 with 2 doubles, a homer, six runs and 5 RBI as Yomiuri swept the Seibu Lions. He was the first player to get three hits in three straight games in the Nippon Series. That earned him MVP honors.

The Hiroshima native batted .269/.367/.346 for Japan in the 2002 Intercontinental Cup, forming a double play combo with Hirokazu Ibata. He had another big year in 2003, if not quite as productive. He hit .300/.338/.487 with 88 runs and 29 home runs and made his third All-Star team; he was 1-for-4 in the 2003 NPB All-Star Game. He tied Norihiro Akahoshi for second in the CL in hits (172), trailing Alex Ramirez. He led Yomiuri in steals (14) and was second to Roberto Petagine in homers. He again had more homers than some big power threats - Kiyohara, Abe, Eto and Takahashi. Nioka was named to the Best Nine as the top shortstop in the Central League. He played in the 2003 Asian Championship, in which Japan won a spot in the 2004 Olympics.

Nioka had a left foot injury in 2004 and hit .269/.331/.382 in 91 games. He made the 2004 NPB All-Star Game despite his off-season, but he was hitless in 5 at-bats. In 2005, he was back in form, hitting 16 homers and batting .301/.354/.436. Nioka's batting line in 2006 was .289/.329/.472, 25 home runs and 79 RBI. He fielded .986 and made his fifth All-Star team. On April 30, he had a historic performance. He became the first player in Nippon Pro Baseball history to connect for grand slams in consecutive at-bats and tied Akira Eto's Central League record for RBI in a game (10). He thus set a new Yomiuri RBI single-game record despite the club's rich history of sluggers such as Sadaharu Oh, Shigeo Nagashima, Hideki Matsui or Kazuhiro Kiyohara. He finished 9th in the league in RBI (between Adam Riggs and Akihiro Yano) and 10th in homers (tied with Takahiro Arai).

In 2007, Nioka hit .295/.346/.457 for the Giants and went deep 20 times. He had a horrible year in 2008, hitting .279/.349/.351 in 31 games. He was moved to third base to make room for Hayato Sakamoto but he spent most of the year on the bench as Michihiro Ogasawara started at third. Nioka had a right ankle sprain in September as well. In July, he was caught cheating on his wife with TV personality Mona Yamamoto, who had been involved in a previous adulterous episode. The poor play and off-field behavior caused pressure among Giants fans to force Nioka out.

Shortly after the season ended, he was traded with Masanori Hayashi to the Nippon Ham Fighters for Micheal Nakamura and Takahito Kudoh. He hit .253/.303/.353 in 79 games in 2009, and he was still voted into the 2009 NPB All-Star Game, this time representing the Pacific League; he was 1-for-4 with a double against Shohei Tateyama in Game 1. Nioka attended the 2010 NPB All-Star Game, and he had a 0-for-3 record. He ended up hitting .262/.300/.372 with 7 homers in 2010, and he played 55 games with a .282/.362/.388 batting line in 2011. He recorded a solid .353/.404/.435 batting line as Nippon Ham's main pinch-hitter in 2012, but he slumped to .071/.111/.095 in 2013 and he announced his retirement. Nioka was the batting coach of the Giants from 2017 to 2018, and he managed the Toyama GRN Thunderbirds in 2019. He returned to the Giants as their minors team manager in 2020, and he was their bench coach from 2024 to 2025.

Overall, Nioka hit .282/.331/.433 with 1,314 hits and 173 homers in 15 seasons in NPB.

Sources[edit]

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