Junzo Uchida

Junzo Uchida (内田 順三)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 165 lb.

• School Komazawa University
• High School Tokai University Shoyo High School

• Born September 10, 1947 in Mishima, Shizuoka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Junzo Uchida has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Uchida was on the Japanese national team in the 1969 Asian Championship as the country won its sixth title. The Yakult Atoms drafted him in the eighth round of the 1969 NPB draft. Uchida only hit .115/.165/.137 in his rookie year, but he broke out and hit .307/.377/.406 in 1971. However, when Art Lopez joined the team, Uchida's starting spot was taken by Lopez, and he slumped to .223/.292/.337 with 4 homers. He bounced back a little with a .274/.325/.356 batting line in 1973, but then declined to .223/.326/.342 again in 1974. The Yakult traded him with Yoshihito Oda to the Nippon Ham Fighters for Katsuo Osugi after the 1974 season.

Uchida played a career-high 108 games with a .259/.322/.330 batting line in 1975, then extended his stable performance with a .240/.316/.368 batting line in 1976. The Fighters then traded him with Katsuo Ukai, Yasuo Minagawa and Satoshi Niimi to the Hiroshima Carp for Toshimi Kubo, Yukinobu Miyamoto and Kazushi Saeki. Uchida had the best batting line in his career in the first season with the Carp - .331/.399/.446 with 4 homers. He extended his good condition and hit .327/.393/.418 in 1978. However, he slumped to .190/.284/.259 in 1979, and never found back his good condition in the rest of his career. He only played 85 more games in the next three seasons, and announced his retirement after the 1982 season. After retiring, Uchida was the hitting coach for the Carp from 1984 to 1987, from 2003 to 2005 and from 2008 to 2010. He worked for their minor team as the same position from 1988 to 1993, and managed them from 2012 to 2014. He also coached the Yomiuri Giants and became their hitting coach in 1997, from 1999 to 2002 and from 2006 to 2007. He is the batting coach for the Chiba Lotte Marines since 2023.

Overall, Uchida had hit .252/.323/.346 in 13 seasons in NPB.