Yasuya Hondo

Yasuya Hondo (本堂 保次)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 5", Weight 143 lb.
• High School Nisshin Commercial High School

• Born March 18, 1918 in Yao, Osaka Japan
• Died June 8, 1997

BR register page

Biographical Information

Playing every position except pitcher during his career, Yasuya Hondo played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 17 years.

Hondo began with the Osaka Tigers in 1937, hitting .193 with no homers but an OBP around .300. He improved to .248/.390/.369 in the 1938 spring season and then batted .276/.351/.379 in the fall. In 1939, Hondo hit .260/.309/.394 then was at .243/.314/.358 in 1940 with a Japan Baseball League-leading 26 doubles. He was drafted into the Japanese military and missed the 1941-43 seasons, serving his country during World War II. He returned to play in 1944 and hit .269/.336/.387. The '45 season was cancelled due to the war and in 1946 Yasuya batted .297/.365/.419, 10th in the league in average. The 29-year-old player hit .283/.333/.364 in 1947 and was 7th in batting average (between Kazuo Horii and Takenori Yamakawa), 6th in hits (tied with Horii and Isamu Fujii), 8th in doubles (tied with Noboru Aota and Hiroshi Tsujii) and 6th in RBI (9 behind Fumio Fujimura). 1948 saw Hondo set a record with three steals in one inning. Now with the Taiyo Robins, he slipped to .246/.279/.348.

Back with the Tigers for 1949, Yasuya put up a .302/.335/.429 season. Moving to the Mainichi Orions in 1950, Hondo hit .306/.346/.434 and set career highs in runs (73), hits (143), RBI (84), homers (12), average and slugging. He was 7th in the new Pacific League in average (between Shigeya Iijima and Hirokuni Kataoka), 5th in hits (between Kozo Kawai and Kizuka) and 6th in RBI (between Shigeyoshi Morishita and Horii). He also made the Best Nine at second base, and it was the first year for the Best Nines). Hondo slipped to .231/.284/.298 in 1951, then he hit .270/.356/.372 in 1952. He made the PL All-Star team, and he was 1-for-9 in the 1952 NPB All-Star Game. He was again an All-Star (0-for-2 in the 1953 NPB All-Star Game) as the 35-year-old veteran still batted .264/.321/.383 in 1953.

Hondo slipped to .189/.263/.250 in 1954, then followed that the next few years with .212/.255/.250, .269/.342/.284 in part time and 0 for 2 in 1957 to finish his career. After retiring, Hondo became a coach for the Daimai Orions. Elevated to the managerial job in 1963, he led the team to a 198-222-10 record over three seasons in charge (in '64 they became the Tokyo Orions). They finished fourth or fifth in the six-team league each season and Hondo was replaced at the helm by Hitoshi Tamaru. He then became a scout for the Kintetsu Buffaloes.

Overall, Hondo had hit .261/.323/.361 with 1,242 hits and 58 homers in his playing career in 19 seasons in NPB. As of 2024, he was 81st in triples in NPB history, tying Kikuji Hirayama, Jun Hakota, Jiro Kanayama, Akira Owada, Tetsuya Iida and Teppei Tsuchiya.

Source

• Wiki Japan