Masatake Yamanaka

Masatake Yamanaka (山中 正竹)

• Bats Left, Throws Left

• School Hosei University
• High School Saiki Kakujo High School

• Born April 24, 1947 in Oita Prefecture Japan

Biographical Information

Masatake Yamanaka is a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

He was 48-13 with a 1.86 ERA in college, setting a Tokyo Big Six University League record for wins. He was part of a stellar college team which boasted Koji Yamamoto, Koichi Tabuchi and Masaru Tomita. He pitched for Sumitomo Metal Industries in the industrial leagues from 1970-1976, never playing pro ball. He won Gold with the Japanese national team in the 1969 Asian Championship and Silver in the 1971 Asian Championship. He managed Sumitomo Metal Industries from 1981-1984, winning titles the last three years.

Yamanaka coached for the Japanese national team in the 1985 Asian Championship (Gold Medal), 1985 Intercontinental Cup (Bronze), 1987 Asian Championship (Silver), 1987 Intercontinental Cup (Bronze), 1988 Baseball World Cup, 1988 Olympics (Silver; not officially a medal event), 1990 Asian Games (Bronze) and 1990 Baseball World Cup. He then managed Japan to a Silver Medal in the 1991 Intercontinental Cup, a Gold in the 1991 Asian Championship, a Bronze in the 1992 Olympics and a Bronze in the 2002 World University Championship.

He coached Hosei University from 1994-2002 and also was an engineering professor there. He led them to an All-Japan University Baseball Championship in 1995. He was a baseball commentator for NHK in 1977 and 1993. From 2004-2009, he was managing director of the Yokohama BayStars and he was on the technical committee for the 2006 World Baseball Classic and 2010 Asian Games.

He was voted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016.

Sources include Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, Japanese Wikipedia