Kazuya Fukuura

Kazuya Fukuura (福浦 和也) (The hitting machine of Makuhari)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 0", Weight 181 lb.

• High School Narashino High School

• Born December 14, 1975 in Narashino, Chiba Japan

BR NPB page

Biographical Information

Japan's answer to Mark Grace, a contact-hitting first baseman at a position dominated by long-ball hitters, Kazuya Fukuura played 23 years and won a batting title in the Nippon Pro Baseball.

Fukuura was drafted by his hometown team, the Chiba Lotte Marines in the 7th round of the 1993 NPB draft as a pitcher, but he injured his shoulder in his first pro year. The batting coach Koji Yamamoto then suggested that he become a batter. He spent the first three seasons in the NPB Farm Leagues, and finally reached the big league in 1997. He batted .284/.356/.385 in 67 games.

The Chiba native secured the starting first baseman spot in 1998, and he hit .284/.356/.385 with 3 homers. Because of his poor slugging, he shared first base with Kiyoshi Hatsushiba and Frank Bolick. Fukuura only had 256 at-bats and a .277/.338/.379 batting line in 1999. He was a swingman between first base and outfield in 2000, and he improved to .296/.348/.408 with 7 homers in this year. His batting average was near .400 in the middle of the season, and he was selected for the 2000 NPB All-Star Games; he was 0-1 with a RBI in 2 games.

Fukuura broke out in 2001. He hit .346/.424/.550 with 18 homers, and beat Michihiro Ogasawara to win his only PL batting title. He was the first player in NPB history to win a batting title without any steals (Shinnosuke Abe also did it in 2012). He still recorded a .300/.384/.436 batting line in 2002, but he only collected 9 homers in this season. Fukuura bounced back and crushed a career-high 21 homers and 50 doubles with a .303/.357/.506 batting line in 2003, and also won his first NPB Gold Glove Award as a first baseman. He was the second and the last (as of 2022) player to recorded 50 doubles in a season (the first player was Yoshitomo Tani).

The "hitting machine of Makuhari" was still productive in 2004. He batted .314/.381/.466 with 42 doubles, and became the only player in NPB history to collect more than 40 doubles for 3 consecutive years. Fukuura also attended the 2004 NPB All-Star Game, but went 0-for-3. He was on the roster of the All-Star Game again in the next summer, and finally collected his first All-Star Game hit off Hiroki Kuroda in Game 2; he ended up 1-for-4 in 2 games. Fukuura recorded a .300/.363/.403 line with a league-leading 9 sacrifice flies in this year, and won his second Gold Glove award. In the 2005 Nippon Series, he was 4-for-11 with a RBI, blasted a grand slam off Masashi Sajikihara in Game 3 and won his first Nippon Series title as the Marines swept the Hanshin Tigers.

Fukuura hit .420 in the first month of the 2006 season, and won his first player of the month award. However, he suffered a left hand fracture on July, and missed a month. He ended up hitting .312/.362/.390 with 20 doubles, and ranked 5th in batting in this year (.012 behind Nobuhiko Matsunaka). He was selected into the 2006 NPB All-Star Game, but he rejected to play due to the injury. He suffered a rib fracture in the beginning of the 2007 season, and missed a month due to the injury again. He slumped to .258/.325/.344 with 4 homers in this year, and still won his third, and final, Gold Glove award. Fukuura suffered a waist injury in 2008, so he struggled again as he recorded a .252/.352/.290 batting line.

The veteran still struggled as his batting average was near .250 in the first half of the 2009 season, but he bounced back and batted .363 in the August and September. He ended up hitting .273/.352/.364 with 6 homers. Fukuura was moved to designated hitter when Tae-kyun Kim joined the team, and he extended his solid batting in 2010. On May 13, he hit a grand slam off Hiroki Sanada, but it was called a foul first. The Marines requested a instant replay, and the call was overturned. It was the first example in NPB history of overturning a foul into a home run. He ended up batting .295/.354/.475 with 13 homers, and won his first Best Nine award as a DH.

36-year-old Fukuura slumped to .223/.297/.285 in 2010, and he didn't return to the regular starting lineup after this season. He collected his 350th double on April 13, and became the third fastest to reach this benchmark. In the 2010 Nippon Series, Fukuura had a 2-for-10 record and won his second title as the Marines beat the Chunichi Dragons in 7 games. He hit .250/.308/.267 in 80 games and .229/.349/.279 in 79 games respectively from 2012 to 2013, and only had 43 appearances with a .283/.377/.304 lines in 2014. Fukuura recorded a .272/.367/.324 batting line in 199 at-bats in 2015, but then suffered a left ankle injury in 2016 which limited him into 90 at-bats.

He started to serve as player-coach to chase the 2,000 hits milestone, and finally reached it on September 9, 2018. He surpassed Kazuhiro Wada to become the oldest player to reach 2,000 hits, and also become the first Meikyukai who was selected in the last round of the draft. His retiring game was on September 23, 2019. Fukuura started as designated hitter, went 0-for-4 and came back to the familiar first base in the 9th inning. He made the last out by a diving catch on Shota Hiranuma's infield fly, and his 23-year Lotte career ended. He was the ni-gun batting coach for the Marines from 2020 to 2021, and worked for the big club starting in 2022.

Overall, Fukuura had hit .284/.354/.395 with 2,000 hits and 118 homers in 23 seasons in NPB. He holds (as of 2022) the team records for most career game played, sacrifice files and hit-by-pitches.

Related Sites

• Wiki Japan
• NPB bio