Katsuya Morinaga

Katsuya Morinaga (森永 勝也)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 154 lb.

• School Senshu University
• High School Yanai Commercial and Technical High School

• Born April 5, 1934 in Yanai, Yamaguchi Japan
• Died December 7, 1993

BR register page

Biographical Information

Katsuya Morinaga has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Morinaga was signed by the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in 1958, then soon became an everyday outfielder. He ended up hitting .272/.320/.439 with 13 homers in his rookie year and ranked 11th in batting average, and 10th in homers (16 behind Shigeo Nagashima). He was selected into the 1959 NPB All-Star Game, and Kazuhisa Inao struck him out in his only at-bat in Game 1. The Yamaguchi native then batted .259/.328/.381 and .223/.291/.328 respectively in the next two years. He recorded a .279/.340/.445 batting line with 14 homers in 1961, and won the Best Nine for the first time in his career. He was 7th in batting average, homers and RBI.

Morinaga was selected into the 1962 NPB All-Star Game, but went 0-for-3 in that event. He ended up hitting .307/.370/.426 with 11 homers in 1962, and won the Best Nine award again. He became the first batting title winner in Carp history, and his .307 batting average was the lowest in the two-league era. Morinaga also ranked 2nd in hits (5 behind Nagashima), 7th in runs (19 behind Sadaharu Oh) and 8th in RBI (30 behind Oh). He slumped a little with a .266/.341/.356 batting line in the next year, but bounced back soon in 1964. He recorded a .295/.360/.442 line with 12 homers in that season, and ranked 8th in batting average (.028 behind Shinichi Eto).

Morinaga was still a reliable corner outfielder in the next two years, when he hit .273/.308/.334 and .260/.318/.322 respectively in 1965 and 1966. The Carp traded him to the Yomiuri Giants for Yojiro Miyamoto after 1966 season. Morinaga batted .245/.317/.373 with 3 homers in the first year with the Giants. Morinaga started in Game 4 of 1967 Nippon Series. He went 3-for-4 with a RBI and was a homer shy to hit for a cycle in that game, but didn't get any other at-bats in the series. Morinaga was used mainly as pinch-hitter starting with the 1968 season, and he announced his retirement after the 1970 season.

After retiring, Morinaga came back to the Carp and served as hitting coach in 1971. When Carp manager Rikuo Nemoto resigned, he filled in for 1972. He was the manager for the Carp's minor team in 1973, then was promoted to the major team in 1974. The Carp was 54-72-4 in the 1974 season, and Morinaga resigned after this season. He then became a broadcaster.

Overall, Morinaga had hit .270/.332/.390 in 13 seasons in NPB.