Jutaro Kimura

Jutaro Kimura (木村 重太郎)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 152 lb.

• High School Kumamoto Kogyo High School

• Born May 12, 1968 in Kumamoto Prefecture Japan

Olympics-Reference page

Biographical Information

Jutaro Kimura was an Olympic Silver Medalist.

Kimura pitched for Toshiba in the industrial leagues. He was with the Japanese national team in the 1995 Asian Championship, winning Gold. He remained with them for the 1995 Intercontinental Cup, allowing two runs in five innings for the Silver Medalists. In the 1996 Olympics, he went 2-1 with a 5.27 ERA for Japan, fanning 19 while walking only two in 13 2/3 IP. He beat Nicaragua and Italy. In the Gold Medal game, he took the loss against Cuba. Relieving Masanori Sugiura in the second, he allowed two runs (both solo homers) in 3 1/3 IP while striking out 7 before Takeo Kawamura relieved. While he took the defeat, he had the lowest ERA of any of the 5 Japanese hurlers to work more than one batter that day in a 13-9 slugfest. He finished second in the Atlanta Games in strikeouts (3 behind the great Pedro Luis Lazo) and tied for third in wins (even with Kris Benson, Roberto Cabalisti, Rob Cordemans, R.A. Dickey, Lazo, Osmani Romero, Jose Quiroz and Sugiura, one shy of Seth Greisinger and Omar Luis). He never played professionally and never again appeared for the Japanese national team despite a pretty successful Olympic run.

Source: Old IBAF site