Kozo Kawai

Kozo Kawai (川合 幸三)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 145 lb.

• High School Ichinomiya High School

• Born April 29, 1927 in Ichinomiya, Aichi Japan
• Died March 27, 1994

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kozo Kawai has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Kawai was signed by the Hankyu Braves in 1948. He tied the record for most triples in a game with three as a rookie on November 1, and batted .219/.240/.305 with 6 triples that season. Kawai hit .239/.282/.332 with 24 steals in the 1949 season. The Braves named Kawai as their starting first baseman in 1950. He played all 120 games with a .283/.317/.376 batting line, and ranked 4th in steals (33, 45 behind Chusuke Kizuka) and 2nd in triples (11, 4 behind Kazuo Kageyama).

The Aichi native led the league in game played again in 1951, batted .274/.317/.334 and stole a career-high 44 bases. He was 10th in batting average, and 2nd in steals (11 behind Kizuka). The speedy infielder extended his stable performance, when he hit .270/.312/.346 with 38 steals and .269/.318/.365 with 32 steals respectively in the next two years. 1954 was Kawai's career year. He recorded a .315/.374/.412 batting line with 42 steals, and won the Best Nine award as a first baseman. He ranked 3rd in batting average (.022 behind Larry Raines), 2nd in hits (12 behind Raines), 3rd in runs (10 behind Raines) and 5th in steals (29 behind Takeshi Suzuki). Kawai still batted .267/.332/.317 with 40 steals in 1955, and ranked 4th in steals (17 behind Nobushige Morishita). However, he suffered from injury and only played 24 games in 1956. Kawai came back in 1957 with a .268/.350/.303 batting line, but declined to .208/.288/.255 in 1958. He announced his retirement after hitting .195/.235/.274in the 1959 season. He served as an umpire for the league from 1960 to 1968, and became the only umpire who had more than 1,000 hits in NPB history.

Overall, Kawai had hit .265/.316/.342 with 284 steals in 12 seasons in NPB. He is famous for his elite defense and speed.