Hiroshi Moriwaki

Hiroshi Moriwaki (森脇 浩司)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 170 lb.

• High School Yashiro High School

• Born August 6, 1960 in Kurodasho, Hyogo Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Hiroshi Moriwaki played and managed in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Moriwaki was a second-round pick of the Kintetsu Buffaloes in the 1978 NPB draft. He made it to the big club in 1981, hitting .316/.371/.491 in 63 plate appearances over 57 games. He backed up Shigeru Ishiwata at shortstop. His first hit was off Shoji Yasuki and his first homer against Isamu Kida. He batted .208/.261/.289 in 168 plate appearances and 55 games in 1982, again backing up Ishiwata. He saw little action in 1983, going 8 for 27 with 3 doubles and 3 walks. He was then dealt with Yasuo Fukui to the Hiroshima Carp for Hideji Kato and Tetsuya Ohara.

Hiroshi was 3 for 11 with 6 runs and 2 steals in 20 games in 1984; Hiroshima won the 1984 Japan Series (which he did not appear in). He was a 4th-string second baseman for the 1985 Carp, rarely batting (2 for 21, BB, CS, 6 R in 46 G). He was 1 for 6 in 1986 and struck out in his lone at-bat in the 1986 Japan Series (the Carp lost to the Seibu Lions). He was sent with Toshinori Nagata to the Nankai Hawks in 1987 for Shuji Nishiyama.

With Nankai, he split shortstop in 1987 with another Hiroshi, Hiroshi Ogawa, and hit a meek .203/.262/.262 in 198 plate appearances, with 22 runs and 11 RBI in 91 games. When the team picked up Tony Bernazard to play 2B in 1988, they scooted Hiroshi Yugamidani over to SS. Moriwaki was 5 for 32 with a walk, 8 runs and a RBI in 62 games that year as a utility infielder. In 1989, the Hawks became the Daiei Hawks and Moriwaki again split short with Ogawa; he hit .257/.341/.407 in a career-high 285 plate appearances and 98 games. His five triples tied Shinichi Furukawa, Norifumi Nishimura, Hatsuhiko Tsuji and Masashi Yokota for second in the Pacific League behind Ken Hirano.

He was a backup infielder for the Hawks in 1990, hitting .222/.308/.278 in 46 games and sometimes forming an All-Hiroshi infield with Ogawa, Yugamidani and Hiroshi Fujimoto. He was 2 for 28 with 4 walks, a double, two runs and a RBI in 66 games in 1991, backing up Fujimoto and Eddie Williams at 3B, Yugamidani at 2B and Ogawa and Yoshio Mizukami at SS. Primarily backing up Fujimoto at 3B in 1992, he was 7 for 34 with a double, triple, homer, steal, walk, 9 runs and 4 RBI in 77 games.

Moriwaki had his second-busiest season in 1993, serving as Daiei's main option at the hot corner; he hit only .210/.275/.275 in 188 plate appearances over 98 games. The Hawks picked up Hiromi Matsunaga for 1994, sending Moriwaki back to the pine. Backing up Fujimoto at 2B, he batted .259/.344/.389 in 65 plate appearances over 82 games. He was just 1 for 6 with a run in 16 games in 1995 to end his playing career.

He had hit .223/.291/.315 with 14 home runs, 152 runs and 345 RBI in 1,267 plate appearances and 843 games in NPB. He stole 17 bases in 30 tries.

After retiring, he worked in the front office for Daiei, managed in the minors for them and coached for them. When Sadaharu Oh was hospitalized with stomach cancer in 2006, he was interim manager for the Hawks (now the Softbank Hawks, going 30-22-3. He took over the reigns of the Orix Buffaloes in 2013 and was 66-73-5 in his first season in that role. The team was 80-62-2 in 2014 for the best record in the PL but fell in the playoffs. After a slow start in 2015, though, he was let go in favor of Junichi Fukura.

Sources

• Japan Baseball Daily by Gary Garland
• Michael Eng database
• Japanese Wikipedia