Yoshitomo Tani

Yoshitomo Tani (谷 佳知)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 170 lb.
• School Osaka University of Commerce
• High School Jinsei Gakuen High School

• Born February 9, 1973 in Higashiosaka, Osaka Japan

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Biographical Information

Yoshitomo Tani has made the Best Nine five times in his career in Nippon Pro Baseball, has played in the Olympics twice and set the single-season NPB record for doubles. He is married to Olympic judo star Ryoko "Yawara" Tamura. They have one son.

Amateur Career

Tani won a Triple Crown in college and garnered a MVP award as well. He then went on to Mitsubishi Motors Okazaki in the industrial leagues. He played for the Japanese national team in the 1995 Intercontinental Cup, hitting .333/.366/.615 with 3 home runs, 11 RBI, 8 runs and 3 steals in 9 games. He tied Jeffrey Cranston for third in steals, trailing Byung-kyu Lee and Adonis Kemp. He tied 7 others, including Lee, Omar Linares, Nobuhiko Matsunaka and Evert-Jan 't Hoen for second in homers, one behind Juan Rodriguez. He failed to make the tournament All-Star team. Tani was named an All-Star outfielder in the 1995 Asian Championship, helping Japan win Gold and a spot in the 1996 Olympics.

In the 1996 Olympics, he put on an excellent effort, hitting .421/.463/.868 with 8 runs, 3 doubles, a triple, 4 homers, 2 steals, 11 RBI, 20 putouts and one outfield assist in 9 games. He was 7th in home runs, third in hits (16) behind Linares and Orestes Kindelan and tied for 4th in steals. He was Japan's top performer in their 13-9 loss to Cuba in the Gold Medal game, going 3 for 5 with 2 homers, 3 runs and 3 RBI out of the #3 slot in the batting order, doing well against Omar Luis and Pedro Luis Lazo.

Stardom with Orix

Tani was picked in the second round of the 1996 NPB draft by the Orix BlueWave, joining a team that was coming off of two Pacific League titles and being added to an outfield already featuring Ichiro Suzuki and So Taguchi. Tani became a regular as a rookie in 1997. Getting his first game on May 11, he got his first hit two weeks later in a big game. He singled in a run against Yasuhiko Yabuta and added a triple, steal of home and 3 more RBI before the game was over. He quickly established himself as Orix's third outfielder alongside the two future major leaguers and hit .272/.326/.375. Tani hit .284/.341/.391 in 1998.

In 1999, the Orix outfielder batted .291/.350/.400 with 24 steals in 26 tries. He was third in the Pacific League in steals (trailing Kazuo Matsui and Makoto Kosaka) and hits (155, trailing Matsui and Michihiro Ogasawara). He joined Ichiro and Tuffy Rhodes as the PL Best Nine outfielders that season. Tani produced at a .284/.338/.395 clip with 23 steals in 32 attempts in 2000, and he was 5th in hits (150, between Ichiro and Atsushi Kataoka), 7th in doubles (26, tied with Hiroki Kokubo, Taguchi, Norihiro Nakamura and Matsunaka) and 4th in steals (between Ichiro and Ogasawara). His 7 sacrifice flies led the Pacific League.

Tani had a breakthrough year in 2001, and he had to pick up more slack with Ichiro gone. He hit .325/.398/.503 with 27 steals (in 34 attempts), 52 doubles and 99 runs. He set a new NPB record for doubles in a season, and he was 5th in average (between Rhodes and Koichi Isobe), 3rd in hits (178, between Rhodes and Hiroshi Shibahara) and 3rd in steals (tied with Hiroshi Narahara). Tani was selected into the 2001 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 3-for-11 in three games. He made his second Best Nine while winning his first Gold Glove Award. Tani batted .326/.383/.418 in 2002 and swiped 41 bases while only being caught four times. His 171 hits were second to Kazuo Matsui and he led the PL in steals, 8 ahead of Matsui. Tani was 4th in the PL in average behind Matsunaka, Matsui and Alex Cabrera. He made his second All-Star team, and he was 1-for-8 in the 2002 NPB All-Star Games. Tani won his second Gold Glove, and he made his third Best Nine, joining Rhodes and Tatsuya Ozeki in the outfield.

The Orix star hit .350/.409/.539 for a career year in 2003. He hit 37 doubles, 21 home runs, scored 86 runs and drove in 92 though he only stole 9 bases. He set a PL record for hits by a right-handed batter (189), hit in 21 straight games and won his third Gold Glove. Tani made his third All-Star team, and he was 1-for-6 in the 2003 NPB All-Star Games, with a homer off Kei Igawa in Game 1. He joined Rhodes and Kazuhiro Wada as the Best Nine outfielders in the PL. He led in hits, 7 ahead of Kenji Johjima and was second in average, 10 points behind Ogasawara. He tied Tadahito Iguchi for third in doubles, and he was 10th in RBI, between Roosevelt Brown and Wada. Tani helped Japan win Gold at the 2003 Asian Championship.

Tani's production fell in 2004 as his batting line was .317/.387/.513 with 15 home runs. He was selected into the 2004 NPB All-Star Games, and he went 2-for-4 in 2 games. He finished 7th in the PL in average between Wada and Benny Agbayani, and he tied Hirotoshi Kitagawa, Masahide Kaizuka and Shibahara for 9th in doubles. He won his fourth and last Gold Glove, and he made his fifth and final Best Nine, joining Wada and Tsuyoshi Shinjo in the outfield. Tani also appeared in the 2004 Olympics, again helping Japan win Silver. He was far less successful than in the 1996 Games, hitting .200/.273/.333 and was left out of the Gold Medal game.

Winding down

In 2005, Tani batted .248/.291/.336 in his worst year to that point. He only stole 3 bases and hit 6 home runs while battling back problems. Tani rebounded only slightly in 2006, hitting .267/.316/.346 and made his fifth All-Star team despite an elbow injury to add to his back injuries. Tani was traded to the Yomiuri Giants for Masahiro Nagata and Takashi Kamoshida in the off-season. He hit .318/.357/.431 in an excellent comeback year in 2007, and he his sixth All-Star team. He was hitless in 3 at-bats in the 2007 NPB All-Star Game 1, and he went 3-for-4 in Game 2. Tani finished third in the Central League in average behind Norichika Aoki and Alex Ramirez, 5th in doubles (31, between Ogasawara and Shuichi Murata) and 6th in hits (172, between Hirokazu Ibata and Takahiro Arai).

Tani extended his solid performance in 2008, and he played 120 games with a .295/.330/.430 batting line. He crushed a homer against Daisuke Kato on June 3, and he became the 4th player to hit a homer against 13 different teams in NPB history. Tani shared the starting spot with Yoshiyuki Kamei in 2009, and he still hit .331/.383/.533 in 101 games. However, he slumped to .239/.293/.307 in 2010, and he hit .274/.291/.319 in 83 games in 2011. Tani played 89 games with a .258/.299/.319 batting line in 2012, and he was 7-for-28 in 2013. The Giants then released him, and he returned to the Buffaloes. However, he only played 20 more games for the big club, and he announced his retirement in 2015.

Career statistics

Overall, Tani hit .297/.351/.420 with 1,928 hits, 355 doubles and 133 homers in 19 seasons in NPB. As of 2025, he was 63rd in hits (tied with Hiroyuki Nakajima), 40th in doubles (tied with Taira Fujita, Tsutomu Wakamatsu, Takeshi Yamasaki and Shinnosuke Abe) and 30th in batting (between Hideji Kato and Kenjiro Tamiya) in NPB history.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• Japan Baseball Daily by Gary Garland
• Defunct IBAF site