Atsuhiro Motonishi

Atsuhiro Motonishi (本西 厚博)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 165 lb.

• High School Keiho High School

• Born May 15, 1962 Nagasaki, Nagasaki Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Atsuhiro Motonishi played 15 years and won a Gold Glove in the Nippon Pro Baseball.

Motonishi represented Japan in the 1985 Asian Championship and 1985 Intercontinental Cup, winning Gold and Bronze respectively.. The Hankyu Braves drafted him in the fourth round of the 1985 NPB draft, and he spent the first year of his career in the NPB Farm Leagues. Motonishi was used as the 4th outfielder in 1987, and hit .242/.295/.300 in 114 games. He only played 51 games in 1988, but still recorded a .297/.333/.392 batting line.

The 1989 season was Motonishi's career year. He batted .302/.369/.438 with 5 homers, and won his only NPB Gold Glove award as an outfielder. He remained solid in 1990 as he batted .289/.338/.396, and got a career-high 394 at-bats with a .264/.326/.363 batting line in 1991. Due to his poor offense, his starting spot was taken away and he only had played 95 games with a .236/.284/.310 batting line in 1992.

Motonishi was still productive as a 4th outfielder in the next four seasons, hitting .260/.308/.300, .283/.318/.393, .234/.295/.304 and .262/.325/.316 respectively. The Braves traded him to the Hanshin Tigers for cash in the middle of the 1997 season, but he struggled with the Tigers. He only hit .135/.220/.162 in 1998, and the Tigers released him. The Nippon-Ham Fighters picked him up, but they soon released him again as he only hit .237/.363/.296 in 94 games in 1999. He was then signed by the Chiba Lotte Marines. Although he still struggled on offense as his batting average never was above .200, he still stayed with the Lotte due to his elite defense. Motonishi announced his retirement after the 2001 season, and became a coach. He was the defense coach for the Marines in 2002, and served as a defense coach for the Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2010. Motonishi was the assistant hitting coach for Rakuten in 2011, and worked as their batting coach in 2012. He was also the batting coach for the minor team of the Lotte Giants from 2014 to 2015.

Overall, Motonishi hit .258/.319/.340 with 700 hits in 15 years in NPB.

Related Sites

• NPB.com Bio
• Wiki Japan