Koji Minoda

Koji Minoda (簑田 浩二)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 150 lb.

• High School Otake High School

• Born March 11, 1952 in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Koji Minoda completed two 30-30 seasons and played 15 years in the Nippon Pro Baseball.

Minoda was drafted by the Hankyu Braves in the second round of the 1975 NPB draft. He spent the first 2 seasons in the NPB Farm Leagues, and only had 80 at-bats combined with the big club. Minoda secured a starting outfielder spot when Tadayoshi Okuma was injured in 1978, and he hit .307/.371/.501 with 61 steals. He was also selected into the 1978 NPB All-Star Game, went 2-for-4 in Game 1, then collected 4 RBI and 3 hits to won the MVP in Game 2. He was 0-for-3 in Game 3 through. Minoda ranked 8th in batting (.047 behind Kyosuke Sasaki), 2nd in runs (22 behind Yutaka Fukumoto) and 2nd in steals (9 behind Fukumoto). He also won his first Best Nine and NPB Gold Glove awards. Minoda slumped to .282/.383/.440 with 9 homers in 1979, but still won his second Gold Glove. He would win it for eight consecutive years.

The 1980 season was a historic season for Minoda. He blasted 31 homers and swiped 39 bags to become the first player in NPB history to have a 30-30 season since 1953 (when Futoshi Nakanishi did it). He was also the only player to collect 30 sacrifice bunts while completing 30-30. Minoda was 9th in homers (17 behind Charlie Manuel) and 3th in steals (15 behind Fukumoto) in this season. He then hit .285/.339/.400 with 10 homers and 26 steals in 1981, then improved to .282/.368/.482 with 22 homers and 27 steals in the next season.

The Hiroshima native had a career year in 1983. He attended the 1983 NPB All-Star Game, and went 2-for-6. Minoda ended up hitting .312/.408/.580 with 32 homers and 35 steals, and became the first player in NPB history to record multiple 30-30 seasons. He was 5th in batting (.020 behind Hiromitsu Ochiai), 5th in homers (8 behind Hiromitsu Kadota), 4th in steals (25 behind Daijiro Oishi) and won his 2nd Best Nine award. He got 45 points in the PL MVP voting, the highest for those who was not from the champion Seibu Lions team.

Minoda was selected for the 1984 NPB All-Star Games, and went 3-for-5, with a homer off Kenichi Kajima, to win the MVP in Game 1; he was 1-for-7 with a double in the rest of the games. The star outfielder ended up hitting .280/.377/.502 with 26 homers in 1984, and won his third Best Nine award. In the 1984 Japan Series, he was 5-for-22, with a homer off Manabu Kitabeppu in Game 2, but the Hiroshima Carp still beat the Braves in 7 games. Minoda still recorded a .278/.377/.527 batting line with 24 homers in 1985, and won his eighth, and last, Gold Glove award.

The 1985 season was Minoda's last productive season. He fractured his left tibia in the beginning of the 1986 season, and didn't appearewith the big club until August. The Hiroshima native recovered in 1987, but he struggled and only hit .241/.300/.382 with 13 homers. The Braves traded him to the Yomiuri Giants for cash after this season.

Minoda was a 4th outfielder for the Giants, and he had a .234/.295/.353 batting line with 6 homers in 93 games in the first year with the Giants. He only played 37 games in 1989, but went 2-for-12 with a double in the 1989 Nippon Series and won his second Nippon Series title. Minoda then announced his retirement after having only 24 at-bats in 1990. He was the defense coach for the Giants from 1991 to 1995.

Overall, Minoda had hit .279/.362/.472 with 1,286 hits, 250 steals and 204 homers in 15 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB.com bio
• Wiki Japan