Junji Nakatani

Junji Nakatani (中谷 準志)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 150 lb.

• High School Wakayama Commercial High School

• Born April 19, 1918 in Wakayama, Wakayama Japan
• Died February 27, 1970

BR register page

Biographical Information

Junji Nakatani played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Nakatani was signed by the Lion club in 1937, but he didn't get many chances in the Japanese Professional Baseball League at first. He only played 44 games combined in the first three years in his career. He hit .248/.330/.324 with a league-leading 14 doubles in 1943, but he then nlisted into the military and missed the 1944 season. When the league restarted in 1946, Nakatani only played 21 games with a .167/.206/.317 batting line. He got the starting third baseman spot in 1947, and hit .225/.288/.319. He then recorded a .226/.298/.334 batting line in 1948.

Nakatani finally broke out in 1949, hitting .320/.390/.491 with 15 homers. He was 7th in batting average (.041 behind Makoto Kozuru) and 7th in doubles (5 behind Tetsuharu Kawakami). Nakatani extended his elite performance in 1950, hitting .299/.376/.515 with a career-high 21 homers, and won his first Best Nine award as a second baseman. He ranked 2nd in RBI (7 behind Kaoru Betto), 8th in batting average (.040 behind Hiroshi Oshita) and 6th in homers (22 behind Betto). He was selected into the first NPB All-Star Game - the 1951 NPB All-Star Game; he started in Game 1 and collected the only two singles for the Pacific League - from Masaichi Kaneda in the 5th and Shigeru Sugishita in the 7th inning. Nakatani then collected a infield hit off Hiroshi Nakao in Game 2, and blasted a solo shot off Tsuneo Mitomi in Game 3. He ended up hitting .293/.378/.526 with 12 dingers in this year.

Nakatani participated in the 1952 All-Star Games, but went 0-for-2 in the games. He recorded a .264/.349/.395 batting line with 27 steals, and ranked 7th in swipes (28 behind Chusuke Kizuka). Nakatani batted .264/.357/.380 in 1953, and slumped to .251/.309/.369 in 1954. After the 1954 season, Nakatani announced that he would became a free agent, and joined the Nishitetsu Lions. The Wakayama native bounced back and attended the All-Star Game for the third and the last time in his career. He was 0-for-1 in Game 1, but shined in Game 2. He crushed a solo shot off Ryohei Hasegawa, then collected a triple from Takehiko Bessho. He ended up hitting .295/.349/.462 with 8 homers. However, this was the last productive season for Nakatani. He hit .196/.246/.273 in 1956, and announced his retirement after hitting .161/.257/.226 in the 1957 season. He then became a coach for the Lions from 1958 to 1969.

Overall, Nakatani had hit .237/.335/.283 in 11 seasons in NPB.