Hiroshi Gondo

Hiroshi Gondo (権藤 博)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 160 lbs.
• High School Tosu High School

• Born December 2, 1938 Tosu, Saga Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hiroshi Gondo pitched and managed in the Nippon Pro Baseball for 39 years.

Gondo was signed by the Chunichi Dragons in 1961, and he soon became the Dragons' ace as a rookie. Since the rotation of the Dragons was very weak, Gondo pitched nearly half of the Dragons' games. There's even a rhyme Gondo, Gondo, rain, Gondo to describe his incredible performance. (quoted from legend pitcher Ritsuo Horimoto, who said that Dragons just used Gondo as their only pitcher in rotation and pray for rain), recalling the Spain and Sain and pray for rain Milwaukee Braves. He attended the 1961 NPB All-Star Games, pitching 2 shutout innings with 3 strikeouts in Game 1, then recorded a shutout inning in Game 2. Gondo ended up 35-19 with a 1.70 ERA and 310 strikeouts, led the league in appearances, starts, complete games, shutouts, wins, innings, hits, strikeouts, ERA and WHIP. He won the NPB Rookie of the Year, Best Nine and the Sawamura Award. His 429 1/3 innings pitched is still the most since the two leagues split, and his 35 wins, 12 shutouts, 310 strikeouts are the NPB records for a rookie.

He was still an elite starter in 1962, when he went 30-17 with a 2.33 ERA. He led the league in wins, ranked fourth in strikeouts (58 behind Masaaki Koyama) and 3rd in shutouts (7 behind Koyama). The Saga native was selected into the 1962 NPB All-Star Game, started in Game 1 but allowed 3 runs in 2/3 inning and got the loss. He pitched 2 1/3 innings with one strikeout in Game 2. Gondo was still on the roster of the 1963 NPB All-Star Game, and he pitched 3 shutout innings with 3 strikeouts in Game 2. However, his performance started to decline, and he only went 10-12 with a 3.83 ERA in 1963. The overuse in the first two seasons destroyed Gondo's shoulder, and he slumped to 6-11 with a 4.19 ERA in 1964. He was turned into an infielder in 1965, but he only hit .199/.252/.301 as a backup third baseman. Gondo still struggled, hitting .179/.237/.246 and .215/.246/.316 respectively in the next two seasons. He led the league in sacrifice bunts with 32 in 1967. Gondo came back to the mound in 1968, but he allowed 23 runs in just 18 1/3 innings. He then announced his retirement after the 1968 season.

After retiring, Gondo became the ni-gun pitching coach for the Dragons from 1973 to 1980, and for their big club from 1981 to 1983. Gondo transferred to the Kintetsu Buffaloes and worked as the same position from 1987 to 1989. However, due to his personal experience, Gondo emphasized pitcher protection and division, which created a disagreement with old-school manager Akira Ohgi. In the 1989 Nippon Series, Gondo wanted to save their ace Hideyuki Awano from starting with just 3-day rest, but Ohgi disagreed. Awano lost then the team dropped the last two games to lose the Series; had Awano been available on more rest, they could have won the Series. Gondo then resigned after that series. Gondo then served as pitching coach for the Daiei Hawks from 1991 to 1993 and for the Yokohama BayStars in 1997. The BayStars hired Gondo as their manager in 1998. Gondo led the BayStars to 79 wins in 1998, and they won the 1998 Nippon Series. It was their first Nippon Series title since 1960 (before they had the BayStars name). The BayStars were 71-64 and 69-66 in the next two seasons, and still held in the A-Class. He left the team after the 2000 season. He was also the pitching coach for the Dragons in 2012, and coached Japan in 2017 World Baseball Classic. Gondo was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019.

Overall, Gondo was 82-60 with a 2.69 ERA, struck out 667 and pitched 1,136 innings in 5 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• 1963 NPB All-Star Game
• Wiki Japan