Katsumi Hirosawa

Katsumi Hirosawa (広澤 克実)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 212 lbs.
• School Meiji University
• High School Oyama High School

• Born April 10, 1962 in Shimotsuma, Ibaraki Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Katsumi Hirosawa played 19 years in the Nippon Pro Baseball.

Hirosawa represented Japan and won the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. Three teams - the Nippon Ham Fighters, Seibu Lions and Yakult Swallows - all picked him in the first round of the 1984 NPB draft, and Yakult won the lottery. He secured the starting first baseman spot as a rookie, and recorded a .250/.311/.449 batting line in his rookie year. Hirosawa hit .253/.306/.422 in 1986, than improved to .284/.346/.466 in 1987 as he was moved to outfield. He was also selected into the 1987 NPB All-Star Game, and went 1-for-4.

The Ibaraki native broke out in 1988, and attended the All-Star Game again; he was 0-for-6 in the 3 games. He ended up hitting .288/.344/.522 with a career-high 30 homers, and won his first Best Nine award as an outfielder. He ranked 5th in homers (3 behind Carlos Ponce), 5th in RBI (22 behind Ponce) and 4th in hits (22 behind Jim Paciorek). Hirosawa's batting line declined slightly to .270/.347/.413 with 19 homers in 1989, but he still managed to attended the 1989 NPB All-Star Game. He was hitless again in 4 at-bats.

Hirosawa bounced back with a .317/.396/.518 batting line as the Swallows' main cleanup hitter in 1990, and won his second Best Nine award. He ranked 7th in homers (7 behind Hiromitsu Ochiai), 2nd in hits (15 behind Paciorek), 3th in batting (.009 behind Paciorek) and 10th in RBI (30 behind Ochiai). He was selected into the All-Star Game for the 4th consecutive year, but also extended his hitless streak to 20 at-bats.

The slugger was moved back to first base in 1991, and he drove in a league-leading 99 runs with a .278/.351/.500 batting line and 27 homers. He finally ended his 22 consecutive at-bats without a hit record in Game 2 of the 1991 NPB All-Star Games, and went 4-for-4 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI to win the MVP. He ranked 4th in homers (10 behind Ochiai), 7th in runs (16 behind Kazuyoshi Tatsunami), 10th in hits (33 behind Kenjiro Nomura) and won his third Best Nine award as an outfielder though he only played 20 games there.

Hirosawa extended his solid batting in 1992, when he hit .276/.365/.461 with 25 homers, and attended the 1992 NPB All-Star Game. He struggled again in the All-Star contests and went 0-for-5. He ranked 6th in RBI (15 behind Larry Sheets) and 7th in homers (13 behind Jack Howell). The Yakult won the Central League pennant, and he finally played in the Nippon Series for the first time in his career. He was 5-for-29, with a homer off Takehiro Ishii in Game 3; the Swallows lost to the Seibu Lions in 7 games.

In 1993, Hirosawa won his second RBI leader title with 94, and batted .288/.353/.473 with 25 homers. He was 5th in hits (10 behind Atsuya Furuta), 7th in homers (9 behind Akira Eto) and won his first Best Nine award as a first baseman. He blasted a homer off Koji Noda in Game 1 of the 1993 NPB All-Star Game, and went 2-for-3 with 3 runs in that game. Hirosawa went 7-for-29, with a 3-run homer off Hisanobu Watanabe of the Lions in the Game 7, of the 1993 Nippon Series, and won his first Nippon Series title. He was still productive as he hit .271/.330/.493 with 26 homers in the next season, and ranked 4th in homers (12 behind Yasuaki Taiho). However, he had a conflict with the Yakult about the salary after the season, and he decided to leave the team.

Hirosawa announced that he was a free agent after the 1996 season, and transferred to the Yomiuri Giants with a 5-year contract. He still blasted 20 homers in 1997, but his batting fell to .240/.330/.428. The Ibaraki native suffered a bone fracture due to Ishii's hit-by-pitch, and ended his 1,180 consecutive-games-played streak (2nd longest at that time, behind Sachio Kinugasa). He only played 38 games with a .198/.282/.363 batting line. Hirosawa bounced back and hit .280/.349/.470 with 22 homers. He also collected his 1,500th hit on August 10.

The 1997 season was his last productive season as a regular starter. Hirosawa only had 163 at-bats in 1998 and hit .301/.393/.521, then suffered a right shoulder dislocation in 1999. He only played 16 games in the 1999 season, and the Giants released him. The Hanshin Tigers picked him up, but he still struggled, only hitting .217/.280/.357 with 5 homers in 2000. He was used as the Tigers' main pinch-hitter in 2001, and he crushed 12 homers with a .284/.339/.459 batting line. He collected his 300th home run on September 12, 2001, but only got 128 at-bats combined in the next two seasons. Hirosawa announced that he would retire and became a coach before the 2003 season. He went 0-for-7 in the first 6 games of the 2003 Nippon Series, then blasted a solo shot off Tsuyoshi Wada in the last at-bat of his career. The Daiei Hawks beat the Tigers in that game, and his career ended. He was the hitting coach for the Tigers from 2007 to 2007.

Overall, Hirosawa had hit .275/.345/.467 with 1,736 hits and 306 homers in 19 seasons in NPB.

Related Sites

• Stats at japanesebaseball.com
• Wiki Japan
• NPB bio