Masafumi Yamamori

Masafumi Yamamori (山森 雅文)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 165 lb.

• High School Kumamoto Kogyo High School

• Born November 26, 1960 in Shimomashiki-gun, Kumamoto Japan

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Biographical Information

Masafumi Yamamori was an outfielder in Nippon Pro Baseball for 14 years. He spent much of his career as a backup to Yutaka Fukumoto.

Yamamori was a 4th-round pick of the Hankyu Braves in the 1978 NPB draft and made it to the top club in 1980, going 0 for 1. He was a defensive sub primarily in 1981, hitting .208/.288/.283 in 62 plate appearances over 101 games. The 20-year-old made one of the most famous defensive plays of the 20th Century that year, scaling the Nishinomiya Stadium wall to backhand a liner by Sumio Hirota that should have been an easy homer. It was one of the few Nippon Pro Baseball plays that was spectacular enough to be shown widely in the USA.

Masafumi batted .191/.255/.404 in 53 plate appearances and 67 games in 1982 and went 9 for 38 with a double, two triples, two walks and two steals in 1983. In 1984, Yamamori put up a .205/.261/.354 batting line in a semiregular role. He was 3 for 8 in the 1984 Japan Series but the Braves fell to the Hiroshima Carp in seven games. Back on the bench in 1985, he hit .226/.328/.434.

Yamamori hit .283/.317/.619 with 10 homers in 113 AB in 1986. Despite not being a starter, he won a Gold Glove as a tribute to his wonderful defensive play. He fell to .186/.262/.299 in 1987. He got a career-high 334 plate appearances in 1988 and hit okay, at .275/.347/.359. He batted .289/.333/.333 in 50 games in 1989 while leading the minor Western League in average as well.

He only had 51 plate appearances (.326/.396/.605) in 1990 despite playing 88 games. He hit .154/.203/.215 in 1991 and .206/.239/.252 in 1992 before wrapping up at .316/.344/.456 in 1993. Overall, he only had 1,209 AB in 1,072 NPB games, hitting .235/.290/.375.

After retiring, Yamamori coached for the Nippon Ham Fighters and Orix BlueWave.

Source: japanbaseballdaily.com