Narihiro Abe

Narihiro Abe (阿部 成宏)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 8", Weight 154 lb.
• High School Hanamaki Shogyo High School
• Born March 27, 1947 in Iwate Prefecture Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Narihiro Abe played in Nippon Professional Baseball for 13 seasons and was noted primarily for his speed. Usually used in a reserve role, often as a pinch runner, the speedy ballplayer earned significant starting time in 1975 and 1976 for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. He also won two minor league batting titles.

Abe signed with the Taiyo Whales after high school. He got into one game apiece in 1965 and 1966 and three in 1967, not getting an at-bat. In 1969, he pitched for Taiyo, giving up 5 hits, a walk, two homers and five runs in 1 1/3 IP over two games.

Moving to the Yomiuri Giants, he finally came to the plate in 1971, going 4 for 13 with a double. He led the Eastern League in average for his first minor league batting crown. He did not play in the 1971 Japan Series, when Yomiuri beat the Hankyu Braves. After not playing for the top club in 1972, he was sold to Kintetsu in the off-season, spending a year with their farm team. He led the minor Western League in average.

Used as a pinch-runner and defensive sub primarily in 1974, he hit .284/.284/.358 in 82 plate appearances over 100 games, stealing 19 bases in 23 tries. That earned him a regular role in 1975 when Masahiro Abe left the Buffaloes. Abe batted .261/.297/.318 with 6 triples and swiped 27 bases in 37 tries over 127 games. He tied Takahiro Tokutsu for 10th in the Pacific League in hits (128), tied for first in triples (with Bobby Marcano, Sumio Hirota and Kazuo Hasegawa), ranked sixth in steals (between Ikuo Shimano and Yoshihiro Iizuka), tied Hideji Kato for 6th in caught stealing tied Hirota and Yutaka Fukumoto for second in at-bats behind Don Buford.

The next campaign, he stole 22 bags in 28 attempts in 123 games. He hit .266/.286/.317. He was again sixth in steals (between Iizuka and Hiromasa Arai). Mitsuyasu Hirano replaced him as a starter in 1977 and Abe hit only .200/.216/.265 in 194 plate appearances with just six steals in 11 tries. He hit .276/.317/.310 in 63 plate appearances over 56 games in 1978.

The Iwate native produced at a .261/.290/.307 clip in 1979, stealing 13 bases but being caught 13 times. He was 0 for 6 with a steal and a run in the 1979 Japan Series, when Kintetsu lost to the Hiroshima Carp. Abe got just 44 plate appearances (.293/.341/.366) in 1980. He played in five of the seven games in the 1980 Japan Series, going 0 for 3 as Kintetsu again lost in 7 to Hiroshima. He was 3 for 11 with two runs and a RBI in his final season, 1981.

Overall, he hit .258/.285/.313 with 91 stolen bases (caught only 36 times) in 644 games over 13 seasons.

Sources

• Japan Baseball Daily website by Gary Garland
• Michael Eng's NPB database
• Japanese Wikipedia entry