Carlton Hanta

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Carlton Hanta
known as Haruo Handa in Japan (半田 春夫)

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Carlton Hanta reached AA in the US then was a two-time All-Star in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Hanta hit only .211 as a sophomore at the University of Houston in 1952. His junior year, he improved to .354 and was named third-team All-American, the first Houston Buffalo to get All-American honors and the first Japanese-American to be so honored as well. He helped Houston to the 1953 College World Series, their first College World Series. He finished with a .363 average, a University of Houston record at that point.

He made his minor league debut in Texas as well and hit .205/.311/.291 and fielded .930 at SS in 39 games for the 1954 Beaumont Exporters. He hit .273/.396/.414 for the 1955 Amarillo Gold Sox. He then spent 1956-1958 in the US Army, stationed out of Fort Lee. While in the Army, he did get a little minor league time in 1957 with the El Paso Texans (.301/.460/.405, 44 BB, 47 R in 41 G) and Austin Senators (4 for 22, 3 BB). He had hit .260 and slugged .364 in 127 minor league games.

The little shortstop signed with the Nankai Hawks for a $5,000 bonus partway through the 1958 season; he hit .278/.279/.435 in 36 games that year for Nankai with only one walk. He was used as a utility infielder. In 1959, he batted .279/.335/.379 and stole 18 bases in 24 tries while playing at least 34 games at 2B, SS and 3B. He made the Pacific League team for the 1959 NPB All-Star Games. In game one, he pinch-hit for Yasumitsu Toyoda in the 8th, drew a walk from Takashi Suzuki and scored a run in a 9-0 romp; he finished the game at short. In game two, he batted for Masayuki Dobashi in the bottom of the third and struck out against Noboru Akiyama; the PL lost 6-4 to the Central League. For the regular season, the utility man made 31 errors. He finished among the PL leaders in errors (4th), doubles (25, tied for 4th with Akio Saionji), steals (6th) and sacrifice hits (18, 2nd, 4 behind Teruo Ishihara). He was 0 for 1 when Nankai swept the Yomiuri Giants in the 1959 Japan Series as the team used Yoshinori Hirose at SS, Nobuyasu Morishita at 3B and Isami Okamoto at 2B.

The Hawaiian hit .258/.312/.362 in 123 games in 1960. Playing regularly at 2B and sometimes at SS, he cut his error total to 17. He was 4th in the PL with 11 sacrifice hits. In the 1960 NPB All-Star Games, he replaced Morishita at 2B in game 1 (a 3-1 PL win), singled off Hiromi Oyane and wound up scoring. In game 2, he replaced Morishita earlier in the game and went 1 for 3 with a two-run homer, the first inside-the-park in NPB All-Star Game annals, victimizing Eiji Bando. The PL lost, 5-4, though. In game 3, he went 1 for 2 after coming off the bench to finish 3 for 7 with a walk in All-Star Games.

Handa fell to .230/.283/.333 in 94 games for the 1961 Hawks, mostly playing 2B when Morishita was at 3B. In the 1961 Japan Series, he was 2 for 11 with a walk and a RBI, playing SS when Hirose was used in the outfield. Nankai fell to Yomiuri in six games. Hanta hit .238/.289/.296 in 112 games after moving to the Chunichi Dragons (in a trade with Shigeo Hasegawa and Yosuke Terada for Noboru Inoue) in 1962 and only made 7 errors while splitting second with a young Morimichi Takagi. One of his infield mates was the great Larry Doby. In 487 games in NPB, he had batted .256/.307/.352 with 176 runs and 135 RBI, stealing 41 bases in 59 tries.

Hanta coached for the Hawks in 1966-1967, the Dragons in 1968-1969 and the Toei Flyers/Nittaku Home Flyers (1971-1973). He returned to Hawaii to coach amateur baseball. In 2010, he was inducted into the University of Houston Hall of Fame.

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