Masaji Shimizu

Masaji Shimizu (清水 雅治)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 154 lb.

• High School Hamada High School

• Born July 7, 1964 in Hamada, Shimane Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Masaji Shimizu has played and coached in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Shimizu represented Japan in the 1987 Intercontinental Cup. The Chunichi Dragons drafted him in the sixth round of the 1988 NPB draft. Shimazu spent the first 3 seasons of his career in the NPB Farm Leagues, only playing 51 games combined with the top club. He was a second baseman his first two years then was moved to the outfield. He led the Western League in steals in 1991. Shimizu secured the starting center fielder spot in 1992, and hit .229/.315/.311 with 14 steals. He only had 74 at-bats with a .257/.295/.432 line in 1993. The Shimane native recorded a .275/.342/.321 batting line with a career-high 23 steals in 1994 (third in the Central League in swipes behind Kenjiro Nomura and Tetsuya Iida; he had four top-ten finished in steals), then batted .271/.327/.365 in 1995. The Dragons traded him with Hiroyuki Maehara to the Seibu Lions for Katsuyoshi Murata and Kazuaki Yamano after the 1995 season.

Shimizu struggled in the first two seasons with the Lions, only hitting .081/.205/.081 and .156/.250/.188 respectively. He bounced back and batted .303/.399/.395 with 20 swipes in 1998, but soon slumped to .180/.241/.240 in 1999. Shimizu recorded a .255/.415/.314 in 2000, then hit .262/.349/.323 in 103 games in 2001. He only had 75 at-bats in 2002, then announced his retirement after the 2002 season. He was the fielding coach for the Lions from 2003 to 2007, then transferred to the Nippon Ham Fighters and worked as the same position from 2012. He was the defense coach for the Chiba Lotte Marines from 2013 to 2017, and for the Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2018. He was the bench coach for the Hanshin Tigers from 2019 to 2020. He also coached the Japanese national team in 2019 Premier 12 (Gold), 2020 Olympics (Gold) and 2023 World Baseball Classic (first place).

Overall, Shimizu had hit .244/.327/.319 in 14 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan