Kaoru Okazaki

Kaoru Okazaki (岡崎 郁)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 171 lb.

• High School Oita Shogyo High School

• Born June 7, 1961 in Oita, Oita Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Infielder Kaoru Okazaki played over 1,000 games for the Yomiuri Giants in Nippon Pro Baseball and made four All-Star teams.

Okazaki was a third-round pick by Yomiuri in the 1979 NPB draft out of high school. He played one game in 1982 without batting then went 0 for 1 in 1983. After several years in the minors, he finally came up for good in 1985, hitting .268/.362/.384 in 96 games. Okazaki batted .295/.333/.416 in 92 games in 1986.

Kaoru hit .249/.314/.306 in 1987. In the 1987 Japan Series, he was 4 for 12 with a double as the light-hitting shortstop outperformed many of Yomiuri's bigger names like Warren Cromartie and Tatsunori Hara.

In 1988, Okazaki batted .278/.342/.396 and stole 9 bases in 10 tries. He batted .268/.335/.405 with 12 homers in 1989 and made the Central League All-Star team for the first time. In the 1989 Japan Series, the Oita native hit .250/.345/.542 with two home runs and 6 RBI in 7 games as Yomiuri won. The third baseman tied Hara for the team lead in homers, but Norihiro Komada won Series MVP honors instead.

Okazaki produced at a .289/.361/.441 rate with six triples in 1990 and again was an All-Star. He won the Gold Glove Award at third base that season. In the 1990 Japan Series, the veteran hit .417/.533/.750 and won the Fighting Spirit Award as the top performer on the losing club, as Yomiuri was swept by the Seibu Lions; Okazaki outperformed Cromartie and Hara by a wide margin this time.

In 1991, Okazaki hit .258/.329/.333 and made his third All-Star squad. He batted .252/.320/.390 with 12 home runs in 1992 and was chosen as an All-Star for the last time. That winter, he began a one-year stint as chairman of the board of the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association.

Okazaki's production fell to a .212/.279/.285 rate in 1993. He bounced back to hit .257/.320/.358 in 1994, when he was Yomiuri's most-used third baseman, edging out Hara, Daisuke Motoki and Kazushige Nagashima. He also saw significant time at second base and a little action at first. He hit .278/.364/.389 in the 1994 Japan Series as he won a second title.

Okazaki only batted .206/.277/.288 in 84 games in 1995; he was Yomiuri's main starter at second base, beating out Motoki and several others. Okazaki only played 12 games in 1996, going 1 for 11 with two walks and a homer. Overall, he hit .260/.327/.371 in 1,156 games in NPB.

Okazaki managed the Japanese national team in the 2010 Intercontinental Cup.

Primary Source: Japan Baseball Daily by Gary Garland