Kazuo Hasegawa

Kazuo Hasegawa (長谷川 一夫)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 158 lb.

• High School Omiya Kogyo High School

• Born January 3, 1945 in Saitama, Saitama Japan
• Born April 24, 2013

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kazuo Hasegawa played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 18 years.

Hasegawa was signed by the Daimai Orions in 1963, but he spent his first nine seasons primarily in the NPB Farm Leagues, only having 192 at-bats combined with the big club. When he was 27 years old, Hasegawa finally got a starting spot in right field, and he hit .307/.332/.443 with 9 homers in 1972. Had he qualified, he would ranked 7th in the Pacific League in batting, between Hiromitsu Kadota and Masahiro Doi. He was then selected into the 1973 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 0-for-2 for the PL. Hasegawa ended up hitting .276/.342/.410 in 1973, but he then slumped to .155/.274/.237 in 1974. He was 1-for-4 in the 1974 Nippon Series, with a single against Jun Misawa in Game 1, and he won his first Nippon Series title as the Orions beat the Chunichi Dragons in 6 games.

The Saitama native bounced back in 1975, hitting .291/.326/.403 with a league-leading 6 triples (tied with Bobby Marcano, Sumio Hirota and Narihiro Abe). Had he qualified, he would ranked 8th in batting average, between Marcano and Toru Ogawa. Hasegawa then recorded a .258/.291/.350 batting line in 1976, and the Orions traded him with Akira Kuramochi to the Crown Lighter Lions for Shoji Yasuki and In-chun Baek. He hit .246/.271/.353 in 1977, and his batting line was .233/.272/.302 in 1978. As the 4th outfielder, Hasegawa recorded a solid .362/.389/.529 batting line in 1979, but his batting line then fell to .253/.302/.394 in 1980. After hitting .286/.357/.317 in 1981, Hasegawa announced his retirement. He scouted for the Lions later.

Overall, Hasegawa hit .271/.311/.383 with 558 hits and 39 homers in 18 seasons in the NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan
• 1973 NPB All Star Game