Yoshihiro Iizuka

Yoshihiro Iizuka (飯塚 佳寛)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 150 lb.

• High School Utsunomiya Gakuen High School

• Born January 26, 1945 in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Yoshihiro Iizuka played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 12 years.

Iizuka was drafted by the Lotte Orions in the 14th round of the 1968 NPB draft, and he hit .267/.323/.291 in 60 games in 1969. He had a .267/.315/.337 batting line in 64 games in 1970, and the Orions traded him with Ichiro Hiraoka to the Taiyo Whales for Sumio Fuchigami and Shigeki Ikeda. Iizuka played 83 games with a .200/.248/.224 batting line in 1971, but he mainly stayed in the minors in 1972 and he only had 2 at-bats for the big club; he led the Eastern League with 25 steals. The Whales then sent him to the Hiroshima Carp, and the Carp soon traded him back to the Orions for Kojiro Yokoyama.

The Tochigi native played 101 games with a .231/.305/.333 batting line and 14 steals in 1973, and he collected 23 steals with a .271/.345/.347 batting line in 1974. Iizuka was 8th in steals in the Pacific League, between Hideji Kato and Michiyo Arito. He was 1-for-10 in the 1974 Nippon Series, and the Orions beat the Chunichi Dragons in 6 games. Iizuka recorded a .254/.292/.317 batting line with 26 steals and 5 triples in 1975, and he was 7th in steals (between Narihiro Abe and Arito) and 5th in triples (tied with Hiroyuki Yamazaki, Kyosuke Sasaki, Teruhide Sakurai and Jim Nettles).

Iizuka got 23 steals with a .278/.325/.379 batting line in 1976, and he was 5th in steals (between Junichi Kashiwabara and Abe). He improved to .306/.376/.365 with a career-high 29 steals in 1977, and he ranked 2nd in steals (32 behind Yutaka Fukumoto). Iizuka slumped to .223/.295/.296 with 15 steals in 1978, and he tied Kashiwabara for 10th in steals. He had a .233/.294/.271 batting line in 1979, and he played 63 games with a .231/.279/.256 batting line in 1980. Iizuka announced his retirement after that season, and he was the minor league fielding coach for the Orions from 1981 to 1986. He then became a scout for them, signing Tomoya Satozaki, Yoshihisa Naruse and Tatsuya Uchi.

Overall, Iizuka hit .256/.317/.322 with 593 hits, 142 steals and 12 homers in 12 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan