Akio Saionji

Akio Saionji (西園寺 昭夫)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 149 lb.

• High School Kumamoto Technical High School

• Born October 31, 1937 in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Japan
• Died October 3, 2011

BR register page

Biographical Information

Akio Saionji was a two-time All-Star in Nippon Pro Baseball.

He played for Toyo Rayon in the industrial leagues after high school. He then signed with the Toei Flyers, but saw little action as a rookie in 1957, mostly pinch-hitting and backing up Teruo Ishihara at third; he hit .216/.216/.351; his first NPB hit was off Isao Wada and his first homer against Michio Ukari. He backed up SS Tadao Maekawa and 3B Ishihara in 1958, hitting .219/.281/.322 at age 20.

When Maekawa retired, Saioinji took over at short and blossomed. He made the Pacific League team for the 1959 NPB All-Star Games. He pinch-hit for Tadashi Sugiura in Game 1 and was retired by Yoshio Kitagawa. In Game 2, he pinch-hit for Kazuhisa Inao and was retired by Minoru Murayama. He hit .300/.370/.461 for the 1959 season, with 8 triples. He was 6th in the PL in average (between Teruyuki Takakura and Yasumitsu Toyoda) , 4th in hits (138, between Akitoshi Kodama and Kihachi Enomoto), runs (tied Enomoto for 6th), doubles (tied Carlton Hanta for 4th with 25), triples (3rd, one behind Junzo Sekine and Norifumi Kido), walks (49, 4th, between legends Kazuhiro Yamauchi and Katsuya Nomura), OBP (3rd, after Toyoda and Yamauchi), slugging (6th, between Kohei Sugiyama and Nomura), OPS (4th, between Takao Katsuragi and Yoshio Anabuki) and total bases (212, 5th) though he also led with 39 errors. Toyoda won the Best Nine as the PL's top shortstop.

Saionji slumped to .221/.295/.388 in 1960, though he stole 16 bases in 20 tries. Moving to third base, he was still second in the PL in errors . On a positive side, he was among the leaders in homers (14, tied Masahiro Nakata for 7th), swipes (tied Hachiro Yamamoto and Yoji Tamatsukuri for 6th) and walks (39, tied Kodama and Anabuki for 7th). He rebounded the next year, making his last All-Star team even though he was just 23 still. In 1961 NPB All-Star Game 1, he batted for Sugiura in Game 1 and was retired by Yoshiaki Ito. In Game 2, he replaced Futoshi Nakanishi at the hot corner and went 0 for 2 the rest of the way. He finished the 1961 campaign with a career-high 31 doubles, 22 homers, 97 runs, 73 RBI and 79 walks. He also had 7 triples, stole 20 bases in 30 tries for his lone 20-20 campaign and posted a .258/.365/.479 batting line. He led the PL in runs (four ahead of Enomoto), tied Isao Harimoto for 7th in two-baggers, tied Enomoto and Yishinori Hirose for 3rd in three-baggers, was 5th in dingers (between Harimoto and Nakanishi), placed 8th in RBI (between Nakata and Kenjiro Tamiya), tied Roberto Barbon and Nobushige Morishita for 5th in steals, was second in walks (8 behind Toyoda), was 8th in OBP (between Nomura and Shoichi Busujima), was 4th in slugging (between Sugiyama and Nakata), was 7th in OPS (between Tamiya and Enomoto), tied Katsutoyo Yoshida for 6th in total bases (241) and was 5th in HBP (7). He again did not win a Best Nine, losing to Nakanishi.

He helped the Flyers win their first PL title in 1962, leading off for them. He batted .255/.347/.375 with 28 doubles, 72 walks, 24 steals in 31 tries and 85 runs. He made PL leaderboards for runs (4th), doubles (tied Enomoto and Nomura for 4th), triples (5, tied for 6th), steals (tied Kenji Koike for 4th) and walks (3rd, behind Harimoto and Toyoda). In the 1962 Japan Series, he hit .185/.313/.333 with 5 walks and 6 runs in 7 games; in Game 7, his 12th-inning homer off Hanshin's Murayama won the title for Toei, their lone Japan Series title. He tied Yoshio Yoshida for the Series lead in runs and led in walks. His batting line improved to .262/.350/.421 in 1963 and he had 82 runs, 25 doubles, 5 triples, 16 homers, 33 steals in 44 tries and 67 walks. He was 6th in runs (between Jim Baumer and Takakura), tied for 8th in doubles, 5th in triples, 3rd in steals (after Hirose and Iwamoto), 4th in walks (between Yamauchi and Hiroharu Okajima), 8th in OBP (between Shozo Higuchi and Kodama) and 10th in OPS (between Hirose and Kodama). The Best Nine went to Kodama.

The Kumamoto native slumped to .234/.321/.374 with 12 doubles, no triples and 12 steals in 1964, finishing 9th in the PL with 47 walks. He batted .235/.336/.365 in 1965, with 71 runs and 73 walks. His 16 errors led PL third basemen, his third time in four years doing so. He tied Hirose for third in runs, was 5th in doubles (25), placed 6th in steals (17), was second to Daryl Spencer in walks (six back) and was second to Shuzo Aono with 13 sacrifice bunts (6 shy there as well). He had his last season as a regular in 1966, smacking 29 doubles and posting a .271/.346/.403 batting line; his speed was going as he was only 11-for-24 in steal attempts. He again led the league's third basemen in errors. He tied Baumer for 7th in runs (57), tied Tony Roig for 10th in hits (119), was 3rd in doubles (trailing Enomoto's 31 and Roig's 30), tied for 6th in triples (4), was caught stealing the most (two more than Koshi Yamamoto), was 5th in walks and ranked 6th in OBP (between Busujima and Kent Hadley). He became the 44th NPB player to 100 homers.

The Flyers dealt him to the Hanshin Tigers for cash. They used him as their #4 outfielder, behind Yamauchi, Eiji Fujii and Junichi Ikeda. He hit .274/.343/.350 in his backup role in 1967 then .235/.360/.345 in 1968, again the #4 outfielder (this time behind Willie Kirkland, Fujii and Ikeda). He was then traded to the Sankei Atoms for Kiyotake Suzuki. His playing time falling further, he started at short for the first time in a decade; he hit a strong .325/.451/.530 in 103 plate appearances in 1969 but an injury cut his season short. He batted only .178/.276/.256 for the team (now the Yakult Atoms) in 1970.

He retired with a .253/.341/.398 batting line in 1,413 NPB games, with 638 runs, 217 doubles, 44 triples, 117 homers, 445 RBI, 153 steals in 224 tries and 586 walks. He later coached in the industrial leagues. While he was still among the top-100 in walks through 2010 , he had fallen from the list by 2023. He was still among the top 100 in career triples at that point, tied for 69th with Haruyasu Nakajima, Hideshi Miyake, Kodama, Takao Katsuragi and Kido.