Kazuhide Funada

Kazuhide Funada (船田 和英)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 158 lbs.

• High School Hamamatsu Shogyo High School

• Born May 5, 1942 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Japan
• Died May 28, 1992

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kazuhide Funada played in the Nippon Pro Baseball for 19 years.

Funada was signed by the Yomiuri Giants in 1962, but he only played 2 games with the big club in his rookie year. He broke out and attended the 1963 NPB All-Star Game, and went 1-for-4, with a single off Kazuhisa Inao. He ended up hitting .248/.286/.349 with 6 homers in 1963. In the 1963 Nippon Series, Funada was 4-for-17 with 3 walks, and won his first Nippon Series title as the Giants beat the Nishitetsu Lions in 7 games. However, he slumped to .217/.283/.294 in 1964 and struggled in 1965 due to a hit-by-pitch to his head. The Giants then traded him to the Lions for Kusuo Tanaka.

The Hamamatsu native bounced back and hit .222/.265/.349 with a league-leading 27 sacrifice bunts in 1966. He was selected for the 1966 NPB All-Star Games, and he went 1-for-7 in 3 games; the only hit was a solo shot off Kentaro Ogawa in Game 1. He was injured in 1967 so he only played 51 games, but Funada recovered rapidly and recorded a solid .286/.350/.481 batting line with a career-high 16 homers in 1968. He was 0-for-3 in the first two games of the 1968 NPB All-Star Games, but shined in Game 3 as he was 2-for-4, with a solo shot off Gene Bacque.

Funada extended his elite performance in the 1969 NPB All-Star Games, as he collected 3 hits and 2 runs to win MVP in Game 2; he was 1-for-9 in the other games. The talented infielder ended up hitting .249/.294/.356 with 8 homers in 1969. However, he was involved in the Black Mist Scandal and he was banned for the entire 1970 season. Funada struggled in 1971 as his batting line was .179/.218/.308, then the Lions traded him to the Yakult Swallows for cash.

In the first season with the Swallows, Funada was a reliable utility man and he hit .248/.314/.402 with 8 homers. He then extended his stable performance, hitting .231/.295/.308 and .250/.302/.336 respectively in the next two seasons. The veteran slumped to .216/.263/.252 in 1975, and he bounced back fiercely. Funada hit .302/.348/.345 in 1976, enhanced his batting average above .300 for the only time in his career and won the NPB Comeback Player of the Year Award. He recorded a .283/.346/.339 batting line in 1977, and hit .271/.336/.449 in 1978 to help the Swallows won the CL pennant. In the 1978 Nippon Series, Funada was 7-for-22 with 4 RBI, and won another Nippon Series title. The 1979 season was his last productive campaign as he hit .283/.337/.431, then he announced his retirement after only playing 53 games in 1980. He was a coach for the Swallows from 1981 to 1990.

Overall, Funada had hit .251/.304/.356 with 105 homers and 1,281 hits in 19 seasons in NPB.

Related Sites

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan