Kiyoshi Sugiura

Kiyoshi Sugiura (杉浦 清)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 160 lb.

• School Meiji University
• High School Chukyo Shogyo High School

• Born July 20, 1914 in Nishio, Aichi Japan
• Died August 22, 1987

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kiyoshi Sugiura played and managed in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Sugiura won three straight Koshien Tournaments in high school. He served in Rabaul, New Guinea, during World War II. After the war, the 31-year-old turned pro with Chubu Nihon, hitting .282/.336/.458 with 46 RBI in 65 games in 1946. He replaced Aiichi Takeuchi as manager in July and went 29-39-1 in that role. In 1947, he fell to .245/.320/.341 and stole 18 bases. He managed the team to a 67-50-2, second-place record. He made the Best Nine as the top shortstop in the Japanese Professional Baseball League.

Kiyoshi batted just .229/.308/.355 in 1948 and piloted his club (now the Chunichi Dragons) to a 52-83-5, last-place season. After the season, he was replaced as manager by Shunichi Amachi. He hit .266/.324/.474 with 34 doubles, 23 home runs and 13 steals in 1949. He was two doubles shy of JPBL leader Tetsuharu Kawakami.

Sugiura put up a .296/.387/.542 line with 26 home runs, 83 runs and 96 RBI in 1950. Moving to the Taiyo Whales, he faded to .251/.357/.431 with 17 homers in 1951. He switched clubs again, playing for the Kokutetsu Swallows in 1952 and hitting .244/.299/.442 with 25 home runs. He was two homers behind Central League leader Satoru Sugiyama. On June 4, he hit his 100th career home run. The veteran ended his career with a .232/.306/.347 batting line in 1953.

Overall, Sugiura had batted .255/.330/.426 in 899 games in NPB, with 125 homers. He later was a baseball commentator for Chubu Nihon Broadcasting. He returned to Chunichi as manager in 1963, succeeding Wataru Nounin and guiding them to a second-place finish (80-57-3). Chunichi just finished 2 1/2 games back of the Yomiuri Giants. After a slower start (21-35) in 1964, Sugiura was canned in favor of Michio Nishizawa.

Source: Japan Baseball Daily