Hideyuki Okue

Hideyuki Okue (奥江 英幸)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 162 lbs.

• High School Okayama Higashi Shogyo High School

• Born August 11, 1950 in Okayama, Okayama, Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hideyuki Okue pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball for 10 years.

Okue was selected by the Taiyo Whales in the second round of the 1971 NPB draft, but he spent his first two seasons primarily in the NPB Farm Leagues, and he only played one game combined with the big club. As a reliever, Okue pitched a Central League-leading 51 games with a 3.21 ERA in 1974, and he also had a 6-5 record. He then had a 4.82 ERA in 41 appearances in 1975, then the Whales turned him into a starter in 1976. Okue was 11-17 in 1976, and he led the league in losses (tied with Masaji Hiramatsu). He was 9th in strikeouts (121, between Kazushi Saeki and Takamasa Suzuki), 8th in innings (between Kenji Furusawa and Shigeru Kobayashi) and 6th in complete games (10, tied with Hisao Niura). He also attended 1976 NPB All-Star Game 1, and he pitched 2 shutout innings after relieving Kazuyuki Yamamoto in the 6th inning.

The Okayama native was 6-9 with a 4.92 ERA as a reliever in 1977, then the Whales traded him with Hidetake Watanabe to the Lotte Orions for Yoshio Tanaka. He was 1-9 with a 4.45 ERA in 1978, then he had a 9-4 record with a 4.90 ERA in 1979. Okue collected a career-high 13 wins in 1980, but his ERA rose to 5.10. He led the Pacific League in walks with 102, and he ranked 6th in wins (tied with Yutaka Yanagida and Hisashi Yamada). Okue was 2-5 with a 4.25 ERA in 1981, then he announced his retirement in 1982.

Overall, Okue was 53-62 with a 4.56 ERA, struck out 504 and pitched 980 innings in 10 years in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• NPB.com Bio
• 1976 NPB All-Star Game