Masayuki Dobashi

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Masayuki Dobashi (土橋 正幸)

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Masayuki Dobashi won over 150 games as a pitcher in Nippon Pro Baseball and once was Nippon Series MVP. He later managed for several seasons but never had a winning record in that role.

Dobashi was signed by the Toei Flyers and went 0-1 with 8 runs in 6 1/3 IP as a rookie in 1956 then improved to 5-2, 2.50 in 1957. In 1958, he made the first of seven consecutive Pacific League All-Star teams. On May 31, he fanned nine in a row to tie Takao Kajimoto's NPB record (they would share the record until Roki Sasaki broke it in 2022, well after both had died) and whiffed 16 altogether, a NPB record at the time (later broken). He finished the season at 21-16, 2.12; the rest of his team was 36-54. He was among the PL leaders in wins (4th behind Kazuhisa Inao, Tadashi Sugiura and Tetsuya Yoneda), losses (4th after Mamoru Otsu, Bill Nishida and Kajimoto), complete games (18, 3rd behind Yoneda and Inao), innings (309 2/3, second to Yoneda), strikeouts (222, 3rd after Yoneda and Inao), games pitched (54, 2nd to Inao), hits allowed (239, 2nd to Inao), shutouts (tied for second with Inao, more than the entire Orions staff), ERA (6th, between Yoneda and Jun Aramaki) and homers allowed (18, tied for first with Kajimoto).

Dobashi saw an even heavier workload in 1959, when he went 27-16 with a 2.36 ERA, 217 strikeouts and only 43 walks in 339 innings. He was fifth in the PL in ERA (between Shoichi Ono and Yukio Shimabara), third in games pitched (63, behind Inao and Sugiura), second in complete games (21, 2 behind Inao), third in wins (after Sugiura and Inao), 5th in losses, third in innings pitched (Inao and Sugiura had more), second in hits allowed (293, 7 behind Inao), first in homers allowed again (23), fifth in whiffs (after Sugiura, Inao, Yoneda and Ono), second in runs surrendered (101, 5 fewer than Otsu) and first in earned runs given up (89).

Masayuki slumped to 22-23, 3.14 in 1960, failing to make the top 10 in either wins or ERA. He was 5th in complete games (17), first in losses, 5th in innings (263 1/3), 4th in hits (258), 4th in homers (19), 5th in strikeouts (193), first in runs allowed (113) and second in earned runs (92, one behind Yoneda).

He rebounded in 1961 to post a career year (30-16, 1.90, .216 opponent average, .91 WHIP, 298 K, 45 BB in 393 IP). He completed 25 of 37 starts, throwing nine shutouts, and relieved in 26 more games. He was not the top workhorse in the Pacific League as he finished second to Inao in games pitched (15 fewer) and innings (11 fewer). He did tie Inao for the most complete games, led in shutouts, was second in wins (12 shy of Inao), was 4th in losses (after Toshiaki Tokuhisa, Kajimoto and Yoneda), allowed the most hits (313, 5 ahead of Inao), was 5th in homers allowed (23), was second in strikeouts (55 fewer than Inao), was second in runs allowed (111, 16 shy of Yoneda), ranked 5th in earned runs allowed and was second in ERA (.21 behind Inao). His pitching helped carry Toei to second place, only 2 1/2 games back of the first-place Nankai Hawks.

The Tokyo native had a 17-14, 2.38 record in 1962, when Toei won their only PL pennant. He was second in the league in complete games (14, 9 behind Inao, with numbers down on that front), tied for second in shutouts (with teammates Osamu Kubota and Yukio Ozaki), tied for 6th in wins (with Kiyohiro Miura), 9th in losses, 4th in innings (272), 3rd in hits allowed (256), 10th in strikeouts (140) and 4th in ERA (between Motohiro Ando and Tadao Wako). He walked just 24 batters. In the 1962 Nippon Series, he pitched in six of seven games to give Toei its lone Series title. He started game one and got a no-decision in an extra-inning loss to the Hanshin Tigers, then dropped game two to Minoru Murayama. He relieved in game 3, a 14-inning tie. After a game off, he got the win in an 11-inning affair in relief. He relieved also in games 6 and 7, winning game 7 in the 12th to end the Series. Overall, he had a 2-1, 1.74 record. He split the Series MVP with his catcher, Masayuki Tanemo, the only time the Series MVP was split so far (through 2012).

Masayuki went 20-16 with a 3.05 ERA in 1963, putting him among the leaders in wins (tied for second with Shigeo Ishii), losses (tied for 8th with Inao and Sugiura), innings (301, 2nd, 87 behind Inao), hits allowed (279, 2nd, 79 behind Inao), homers (31, 2nd behind Tokuhisa), strikeouts (169, 5th), runs (128, 2nd to Yoneda) and earned runs (102, 3rd behind Yoneda and Inao). He did not make the top 10 in ERA.

He made his final All-Star team in 1964 and finished the season 20-15 with a 3.30 ERA. He was 6th in complete games (12), 6th in shutouts (3), 7th in wins (tied with Sugiura and Ozaki), tied for 8th in losses, 8th in innings (270 1/3), 7th in hits (250), 3rd in runs (behind Tokuhisa and Ishii) and second in earned runs (99, tied with Masaaki Koyama behind Ishii).

Dobashi fell to 4-10, 4.12 in 1965 then rebounded to 6-6, 2.28 in 1966. Had he qualified, he would have been 6th in ERA. He wrapped up with 9 runs in 15 innings in 1967.

Overall, Masayuki was 162-135 with a 2.66 ERA, .237 opponent average and 1.06 WHIP in 455 games. He completed 134 of 268 starts, 28 of them shutouts. He walked just 339 and had one career balk while whiffing 1,562 in 2,518 1/3 innings. At the plate, he hit .170/.177/.221 with 22 doubles, 7 home runs, 47 runs, 50 RBI, 7 walks and 156 strikeouts in 900 plate appearances. Through 2011, he was among NPB's career leaders in complete games (tied for 37th with Ishii and Hiromu Matsuoka), shutouts (tied for 34th with Masaji Hiramatsu, Manabu Kitabeppu, Toshitake Nakayama and Koichiro Sasaki), no-walk complete games (46, 4th behind Keishi Suzuki, Masaaki Koyama and Jiro Noguchi), wins (45th), losses (tied for 49th with Kazuhisa Kawaguchi, Takao Obana and Shigeyuki Takahashi), batters faced (10,048, 49th, between Yoshio Tenpo and Osamu Nomura), innings pitched (43rd, between Yoshinori Sato and Masatoshi Gondo), hits allowed (2,237, 51st, between Hiromi Makihara and Fumiya Nishiguchi), strikeouts (48th, between Ryohei Hasegawa and Satoru Komiyama), runs allowed (901, 70th, between Kazuhisa Ishii and Yasuo Yonekawa), earned runs (744, tied for 80th with Kojiro Ikegaya and Hirohisa Matsunuma), winning percentage (95th, between Sato and Hisanori Takahashi), WHIP (3rd, behind Masaru Takeda and Koji Uehara, having been first till the end of the 20th Century), lowest walk rate (71st, between Takeda and Hidetaka Kawagoe) and ERA (65th, between Katsumi Kanayama and Giichi Hayashi).

Dobashi later coached for Toei (1969-1972). He took over the reigns of the Flyers from Kenjiro Tamiya in 1973 and went 30-32-3 the remainder of the way but Futoshi Nakanishi replaced him before the next year. He worked as a commentator for Fuji TV after that, but did return to managing for periods. In 1984, he replaced Shiro Takegami at the helm of the Yakult Swallows and was 42-47-5 after the team had gone in at 9-24-3 before that. The team finished last, though, in both 1985 (46-74-10) and 1986 (49-73-4) and Dobashi was canned in favor of Junzo Sekine. He guided the Nippon Ham Fighters (the former Flyers team) to 5th place at 54-73-3 in 1992, a one-year gig between Sadao Kondo and Keiji Osawa.

Dobashi died of Lou Gehrig syndrome in 2013.

Sources[edit]

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