Masayuki Kakefu

Masayuki Kakefu (掛布 雅之) (Mr. Tigers)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 170 lbs.

• High School Narashino High School

• Born May 9, 1955 in Chiba, Chiba Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Masayuki Kakefu was a third baseman who played 15 years and blasted 349 homers in Nippon Pro Baseball. He was called "Mr. Tigers", a nickname previously given to Fumio Fujimura, Minoru Murayama and Koichi Tabuchi respectively.

Kakefu was drafted by the Hanshin Tigers in the sixth round of the 1973 NPB draft. He only had a .204/.325/.309 batting line in his rookie year, then improved to .246/.299/.416 in 1975. The talented infielder broke out in 1976, hitting .325/.407/.608 with 27 homers, and won his first Best Nine award as a third baseman. He was 5th in batting (.03 behind Isao Harimoto), 9th in homers (22 behind Sadaharu Oh) and 8th in RBI (40 behind Oh). Kakefu was also selected into the 1976 NPB All-Star Game, but went 0-for-3.

The Chiba native attended the All-Star Game again in the next summer, but went 1-for-8. Kakefu extended his solid batting, hitting .331/.405/.580 with 23 homers and won his second Best Nine award in 1977. He improved to .318/.400/.570 with 32 homers in the in next season, and broke the NPB record for crushing a homer in 4 consecutive at-bats (broken by Munetaka Murakami in 2022). Kakefu ranked 7th in batting (.03 behind Jitsuo Mizutani), 6th in RBI (16 behind Oh), 8th in homers (12 behind Koji Yamamoto) and won both the Diamond Glove Award and Best Nine. He also shined in the 1978 NPB All-Star Game, as he went 2-for-3 in Game 1, and collected 2 hits in Game 2. In the third game, Kakefu blasted 3 homers in 3 consecutive at-bats (from Kazushi Saeki, Yoshinori Sato and Takashi Yamaguchi respectively) and won the MVP. He was the only player ever in NPB All-Star history to accomplish this achievement.

Kakefu had a career year in 1979, and attended the 1979 NPB All-Star Game again; this time he only went 3-for-13. The slugger had a .327/.398/.690 batting line this season, and blasted a league-leading 48 homers. He broke the team record held for 30 years by Fujimura for most homers in a season, and won the Diamond Glove award again. He also led the league in runs scored and slugging, ranked 2nd in hits (6 behind Yasunori Oshima), 3rd in RBI (18 behind Yamamoto) and 2nd in batting (.019 behind Felix Millan). However, he suffered a left knee injury, and only hit .229/.302/.384 with 11 homers in 70 games in 1980.

After recovering from injury, "Mr. Tigers" had a productive season again in 1981. He had a .341/.443/.550 batting line with 23 homers, and led the league with 85 walks. He was 2nd in hits (1 behind Jim Lyttle), 8th in homers (20 behind Yamamoto), 3rd in RBI (17 behind Yamamoto) and 4th in batting (.017 behind Taira Fujita). In 1981 NPB All-Star Game 1, Kakefu went 2-for-4, and he shined in Game 2. He blasted a solo shot in the 9th inning off Yutaka Enatsu, then crushed a walk-off 3-run homer off Yutaka Yanagida to win the MVP. He collected another homer, off Masayuki Matsunuma, in Game 3.

Kakefu collected his third All-Star MVP as he crushed another home run - a two-run shot off Takanori Yamauchi in 1982 NPB All-Star Game 3; he was 0-for-5 in the other games. He blasted a league-leading 35 homers in the 1982 season, and recorded a .325/.423/.610 batting line. He also led the league in doubles, RBI, total bases, slugging and OBP and ranked 3rd in batting (.026 behind Keiji Nagasaki). Kakefu won his 6th Best Nine and 4th Diamond Glove, but lost the CL MVP to Takayoshi Nakao, who led the Dragons win the pennant. Kakefu gained 349 points in the CL MVP voting, the highest among those who weren't from Chunichi.

The Chiba native extended his solid batting, crushing 33 homers with a .296/.388/.561 batting line in 1983. He was 4th in homers (3 behind Yamamoto), 5th in RBI (10 behind Tatsunori Hara) and won his fifth Diamond Glove. Kakefu was also selected into the All-Star Game for the eighth consecutive year, but went 1-for-5. The star third baseman blasted a league-leading 37 homers with a .269/.406/.557 batting line in 1984, and also led the league in walks. He and Chunichi's Masaru Uno were chasing the home run king title, and they were tied until the last two games. The Tigers and the Dragons met each other in that series, and they took the same action - intentionally walking the other team's slugger in all his appearances! Therefore, Kakefu shared the title with Uno.

The 1985 season was Kakefu's last productive campaign. He recorded a .300/.415/.603 batting line with 40 homers, and led the league in walks again. "Mr.Tigers" was 3rd in homers (14 behind Randy Bass), 4th in RBI (32 behind Bass) and won his 7th Best Nine and 6th Diamond Glove. He was the first third baseman in NPB history to win 6 Diamond Gloves. In the 1985 Nippon Series, Kakefu was 7-for-20 with 2 homers - a 3-run shot off Kazuyuki Ono in game 5 and a two-run homer off Hisanobu Watanabe in Game 6. Kakefu went 3-for-4 in Game 6 with 3 RBI, and helped the Tigers win their first Nippon Series title. When their manager Yoshio Yoshida was asked why they could win the title, he answered "because we had the best cleanup hitter in Japan".

Kakefu was plunked by Manabu Saito in April in the next season, and he only played 70 games with a .252/.323/.409 batting line. He slumped to .227/.288/.372 due to a waist injury, and he only blasted 12 homers in 1987. What made matters worse, he was caught drunk driving in the same year. Kakefu's batting couldn't bounce back in 1988, and he announced his retirement after this season. He then managed the minor league team of the Tigers from 2016 to 2017.

Overall, Kakefu had hit .292/.381/.531 with 1,656 hits and 349 homers in 15 seasons in NPB.

Related Sites

• NPB bio
• Wiki Japan