Fujio Tamura

Fujio Tamura (田村 藤夫)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 174 lb.

• High School Kanto Daiichi High School

• Born October 24, 1959 in Narashino, Chiba Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Fujio Tamura has caught in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Tamura was drafted by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in the sixth round of the 1977 NPB draft. He was sent to the Oneonta Yankees in 1978 (going 0 for 11 but with 6 walks, a run and 3 RBI), then spent the 1979 and 1980 seasons in the NPB Farm Leagues. He debuted on September 27, 1981, and collected his first NPB career hit from Manabu Fujita on May 29, 1982. Tamura mainly played backup to Tatsuo Omiya in his early career, and only played 37, 40 and 77 games respectively from 1982 to 1984. He hit .286/.361/.396 with 9 homers in 1985, and started to share the catcher spot with Omiya in this year.

The Narashino native was named the everyday starting catcher in 1986, and he did well in that spot. He was 1 for 4 in the 1986 NPB All-Star Game; the only hit was a single off Daisuke Araki in Game 1. Tamura batted .274/.325/.438 with a career-high 19 homers in this year. His CS% was also elite 42.7%. Tamura extended his solid performance, when he hit .275/.333/.394 with 12 homers in 1987, and participated in the All-Star Game again. He was 2 for 5 in the 1987 NPB All-Star Game; he collected a couple of singles - from Tadashi Sugimoto in Game 2 and Kazuhisa Kawaguchi in Game 3.

Tamura was in the roster of the All-Star Game for the third consecutive year in 1988, and recorded a 0-for-4 in the 1988 NPB All-Star Games. Although his batting line declined to .248/.296/.362, he improved in defense and had a career-high 46.5% CS%. He played for the NPB All-Stars against the MLB All-Stars in the 1988 Nichi-Bei Series, hitting a homer off Orel Hershiser. The star catcher hit for a cycle on October 1, 1989, and ended up hitting .249/.307/.413 in that season. In the 1989 NPB All-Star Game, Tamura blasted a solo shot off Hiromi Makihara in the 3rd inning, then was retired by Masaki Saito in the 4th inning in Game 1. He batted .244/.333/.405 in 1990, but recorded a 0-for-2 in the1990 NPB All-Star Game.

Tamura participated in the All-Star Game for the sixth consecutive year in 1991, and collected a RBI single from Shinji Imanaka in the 7th inning of Game 2. He recorded a .246/.313/.389 batting line in this year. In 1992 season, he batted .243/.332/.359 with 9 dingers. Tamura recorded a .257/.338/.334 batting line with 5 homers in 1993 season, and finally won the Best Nine and the NPB Gold Glove Award over Tsutomu Ito. Tamura was selected into the All-Star Game for the ninth, and the last time in 1994 season, but was struck out by Masahiro Yamamoto in his only at-bat. He ended up batting .232/.318/.334 with 5 homers in that year. The starting catcher spot of the Fighters was taken over by Kazuhiko Yamashita in 1995, and he only played 80 games with a .186/.304/.244 batting line in that season.

The Fighters traded Tamura to the Chiba Lotte Marines for cash before the 1996 season, and he hit .166/.294/.213 in that year. Tamura then announced that he would become a free agent after the season, and signed with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks. He is the first player to change teams with the FA system in the Marines' history. Tamura only played 22 games in the1997 season, then announced his retirement. He then became the battery coach for the Hawks in the Western League in 1999. He came back to the Fighters as the battery coach from 2000 to 2006, then coached the Chunichi Dragons from 2007 to 2011. He was the battery coach for the ni-gun of Hanshin Tigers in 2012, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks from 2013 to 2014, and the ni-gun of Hawks from 2015 to 2016. He came back to the Dragons from 2017 to 2019, then became a broadcaster.

Overall, Tamura had hit .252/.324/.374 in 17 seasons in NPB.