Fujio Nagasawa

Fujio Nagasawa (永沢 富士雄)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 165 lb.
• High School Hakodate Shogyo High School
• Born September 13, 1904 in Hakodate, Hokkaido Japan
• Died March 19, 1985

BR NPB page

Biographical Information

First baseman Fujio Nagasawa played in Nippon Professional Baseball from 1936 to 1943. He played for Tokyo Kyojin his entire career.

He played for Hakodate Ocean in the industrial leagues before the formation of Japanese pro baseball's first league. When Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and other MLB stars toured Japan in 1934, Nagasawa was a regular for their All-Nippon opponents. He hit .226/~.333/.226 in 11 games against the major leaguers, with one run and two RBI. His three steals tied Hisanori Karita for second in the tour, two behind Osamu Mihara. His five walks tied Karita for the All-Nippon lead, though 8 of the Americans drew more. In the spring of 1936, the first campaign for the Japanese Professional Baseball League, the 31-year-old was the first cleanup man for Tokyo (later renamed the Yomiuri Giants). He thus held a role that would later be occupied by such greats as Shigeo Nagashima, Sadaharu Oh, Tetsuharu Kawakami and Hideki Matsui. He was 4 for 20 with a double and a walk in the spring of '36 and 4 for 37 with two doubles and four walks in the fall season.

A light hitter in a pitcher's league, Nagasawa earned the most playing time in 1937, when he batted .224/.289/.327 with 112 total bases in 96 games between the spring and fall seasons. He hit .215/.305/.345 in the spring and .235/.270/.307 in the fall. He tied for 6th in the fall with 3 home runs and tied Koichi Yamashita and Toshio Kurosawa for second with five triples. In the spring of 1938, he produced at a .181/.275/.224 clip but his 18 RBI were tied for 10th in the JPBL. That year, the great Kawakami made his debut and would be the team's first baseman for the next 20 years (except for a period during World War II.

In 1939, he had a career-high batting average of .250 in 84 at-bats. He had a .323 OBP and .321 slugging. He was 7 for 29 with a double, homer and four walks in 1940, 1 for 11 in 1941, hit .149/.179/.149 in 71 plate appearances in 1942 and batted .155/.189/.211 in 75 plate appearances in 1943.

Overall, Nagasawa batted .200/.265/.272 with five home runs and 96 RBI in 789 at-bats over 339 games. He later worked for Hakodate Newspapers.

Sources include Banzai Babe Ruth by Robert Fitts