Katsutoyo Yoshida

Katsutoyo Yoshida (吉田 勝豊)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 171 lb.

• High School Takeo Seiryo High School

• Born March 21, 1935 in Takeo, Saga Japan
• Died March 9, 2016 in Tokyo, Tokyo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Katsutoyo Yoshida has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Yoshida was signed by the Toei Flyers in 1957. He started in the opening day of the 1957 season, and collected the first career hit from Takao Kajimoto. Yoshida batted .223/.282/.382 with 11 homers in his rookie year, but declined to .203/.246/.309 in 1958. Jack Ladra took his starting outfield spot in the middle of the 1958 season, so he ended up playing only 50 games in that season. Yoshida took back the starting spot from Ladra in 1959, and hit 257/.301/.441 with 11 homers. He was selected into the 1960 NPB All-Star Game, but he only had one at-bat - in Game 3 - and was retired by Hiroomi Oyane in the 9th inning. He recorded a .253/.324/.364 batting line in this season, but also led the league in strikeouts with 110.

The Saga native batted .298/.356/.457 with 17 dingers and played all 140 games in the 1961 season. He ranked 8th in batting average, 5th in RBI (82, 30 behind Kazuhiro Yamauchi) and 7th in homers. 1962 was Yoshida's career year. He participated in the All-Star Game again, but went 0-for-2. Yoshida ended up hitting .306/.363/.481 with 18 homers, and won the Best Nine award as an outfielder. He was 3th in RBI (25 behind Katsuya Nomura), 3th in steals (24 behind Yoshinori Hirose), 5th in homers (26 behind Nomura) and 10th in hits. In the 1962 Nippon Series, Yoshida started in all 7 games and went 8-for-30 with 5 RBI. He blasted a 2-run shot off Masaaki Koyama and a 3-run home run off Minoru Murayama in Game 5. The Flyers won their first Nippon Series Title. He tied Katsumi Fujimoto for the most homers in that Series and only Koichi Iwashita had more RBI for the

Yoshida batted .235/.298/.398 with a career-high 19 homers in 1963, and ranked 6th in RBI (59 behind Nomura). His batting line was .267/.341/.396 in 1964, and the Flyers traded him with Motohiro Ando and Sekio Ishihara to the Yomiuri Giants for Yoshiyuki Ikezawa, Masayuki Yamazaki and Kazuhiko Sakazaki after the season. Yoshida played well in the first year with the Giants, and attended the All-Star Game for the third time. He went 1-for-6 in the All-Star Games that year, the only hit being an infield single off Shigeo Ishii in Game 2. He batted .264/.314/.345 with 7 homers in this year. Yoshida played all 5 games in the 1965 Nippon Series, but went 1-for-10 in that series.

The 1965 season was the last productive season for Yoshida. His batting line was .207/.272/.268 and .203/.253/.311 respectively in the next two years, and the Giants traded him with Shigeo Ishii to the Nishitetsu Lions for Yoshio Inoue after the 1967 season. Yoshida had a .261/.320/.319 batting line in 1968, then announced his retirement after the 1969 season. He then became the bench coach for the Lotte Orions in 1973, served as hitting coach from 1974 to 1976 and 1978. He coached for the Orions' minor team in 1977.

Overall, Yoshida had hit .259/.319/.395 in 13 seasons in NPB.