Yuichi Honda

Yuichi Honda (本多 雄一)
(Pon-chan)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 160 lb.
• High School Kagoshima Jitsugyo High School

• Born November 19, 1984 in Onojo, Fukuoka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Yuichi Honda played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 13 years.

Honda played for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan's industrial leagues after high school. The Softbank Hawks took him in the 5th round of the 2005 NPB draft. In spring training of his rookie year, Honda suffered a major setback when a Kazuhisa Ishii pitch broke his wrist. He did not make it into a Hawks game until August 4; that day, he got his first career hit, off Shunsuke Watanabe. 13 days later, he hit his first career home run against Rui Makino. After his return from injury, he became the primary Hawks second baseman, replacing Mitsuru Honma. He hit .245/.280/.412 in 37 games in 2006.

The Fukuoka native hit .275/.319/.349 in 2007 with 34 steals in 47 tries. He was 6th in the Pacific League in hits (151), tied Hiroyuki Nakajima for 4th in triples (5), tied Daisuke Hayakawa for 4th in sacrifice hits (23), 6th in strikeouts (112), 2nd in steals (4 behind Yasuyuki Kataoka) and tied for 2nd in times caught stealing (even with Tsuyoshi Nishioka. In 2008, Honda batted .291/.325/.355 and stole 29 bases in 42 attempts. He replaced Munenori Kawasaki in the leadoff slot. He was third in the PL in swipes and second in times caught stealing (behind Kataoka). He also tied Hiromasa Arai's team record as he got a hit in 8 consecutive at-bats.

Honda collected 43 steals with a .262/.320/.339 batting line in 2009, and he was 3rd in steals (between Munenori Kawasaki and Kensuke Tanaka) and 6th in triples (4). He extended his solid performances in 2010, and he stole 59 bases with a .296/.334/.385 batting line. He led the league in steals, and he broke Kawasaki's team record with 50 sacrifice bunts in a season. Honda was selected into the 2011 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 4-for-8 in 3 games. He ended up hitting .305/.367/.368 with 60 steals in 2011, and he led the league in steals, triples (10) and sacrifice bunts (50). Honda tied Daijiro Oishi's PL record for most steals primarily as a second baseman, and he was 6th in hits（167, between Kawasaki and Yoshio Itoi) and 5th in batting (between Takumi Kuriyama and Nakajima). Honda won his first NPB Gold Glove and Best Nine. Kawasaki, Nobuhiro Matsuda and Honda were the first trio of teammates to play all 144 games in the two-league era. In the 2011 Nippon Series, Honda was Softbank's starting second baseman in all 7 games, and he hit .192/.222/.269 with a triple. The Hawks beat the Chunichi Dragons in 7 games, and Honda won his first title.

The speedy star of Fukuoka slumped to .246/.299/.294 with 34 steals in 2012, and he was 3rd in steals (between Esteban Germán and Kenji Akashi). He won his second Gold Glove award. Honda then made it onto Japan's roster of the 2013 World Baseball Classic, and he was mainly used as a pinch-runner. He scored twice in 4 games, and he only got one at-bat. Honda crushed a grand slam against Kazuya Takahori on the opening day of the 2013 season, and he was the only player in NPB history to hit a grand slam on opening day while not getting any dingers the prior season. Honda ended up hitting .283/.352/.347 with 22 steals in '13, and he tied Haruki Nishikawa for 6th in steals.

Honda was plunked by Naoki Miyanishi on August 2 2014, and he missed the rest of the regular season. He only played 94 games with a .291/.353/.360 batting line and 23 steals, and he was 7th in swipes. Honda returned in the 2014 Nippon Series, and he appeared in all 5 games as a backup second baseman; the Hawks beat the Tigers, and Honda grabbed his second title. He suffered from a right ankle injury in 2015, and his batting line fell to .228/.274/.278 in 61 games. Honda bounced back with a .280/.344/.322 batting line and 23 steals in 2016, and he tied Yuki Yanagita and Nakajima for 4th in steals. He slumped to .213/.284/.262 in 2017, and he announced his retirement after hitting .259/.313/.376 in 33 games in 2018. Honda later became the fielding coach for the Hawks from 2019 to 2022.

Overall, Honda hit .276/.329/.345 with 1,289 hits and 342 steals (in 449 tries) in 13 seasons in NPB. As of 2025, he was 22nd in steals (tied with Tadashi Matsumoto) and 24th in sacrifice bunts (243, between Ginjiro Sumitani and Shozo Doi).

Sources

• Japanbaseballdaily.com
• Wiki Japan