Hideki Takayanagi

Hideki Takayanagi (高柳 秀樹)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 198 lb.

• School Kokushikan University
• High School Hokota Daiichi High School

• Born March 1, 1957 in Hokota, Ibaraki Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hideki Takayanagi has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and the Japanese national team.

Takayanagi was on the Japanese national team in the 1975 Asian Championship. The Nankai Hawks drafted him in the first round of the 1978 NPB draft. He only hit .191/.287/.247 in his rookie year, then spent the next three seasons in the NPB Farm Leagues. When Masao Yamamoto left the team in 1984, Takayanagi succeed him and became the main pinch-hitter versus lefties. He hit .272/.309/.469 with 8 homers in this year. The Ibaraki native slumped to .248/.321/.485 in 1985, but he bounced back soon and had a career year in 1986. He recorded a .320/.398/.601 line with a career-high 11 homers in 68 games. Takayanagi couldn't extended his solid performance, only hitting .231/.298/.410 and .243/.290/.388 respectively in the next two years.

His batting line declined to .213/.326/.410 in 1989, and he announced his retirement after the 1991 season. Takayanagi was the ni-gun batting coach for the Hawks from 1992 to 1994, then joined the Mercuries Tigers of the CPBL from 1995 to 1996. He came back to the Daiei Hawks and became their ni-gun hitting coach again from 1999 to 2000 and in 2002. He was the hitting coach for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2003, then transferred to the Chunichi Dragons in the next season. Takayanagi served as ni-gun hitting coach for the Dragons from 2005 to 2009, then became their hitting coach in 2010.

Overall, Takayanagi had hit .249/.317/.429 in 11 seasons in NPB.