Nobuo Osawa

Nobuo Osawa (大沢 伸夫)

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

• School Kokugakuin University
• High School Shoko High School

• Born December 1, 1916 in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Japan
• Died July 15, 2005

BR register page

Biographical Information

Nobuo Osawa played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 14 years. His brothers is former NPB players Kimio Osawa and Keiji Osawa.

Osawa was signed by the Nagoya club in 1937, and he hit .257/.375/.324 in the spring season. His batting line was .271/.365/.356 in the fall season, then he recorded a .229/.372/.322 batting line in the spring season in 1938. He led the JPBL with 40 games played in the fall season, and his batting line was .272/.382/.313. Osawa then batted .310/.399/.380 in 1939, ranking 2nd in batting (.028 behind Tetsuharu Kawakami), 9th in RBI (between Kazuo Kito and Koichi Yamashita) and 5th in hits (between Koichi Yamashita and Kenjiro Matsuki). He also pitched 17 games, and he was 3-6 with a 3.09 ERA. Osawa slumped to .227/.376/.299 in 1940, and his batting line was .228/.372/.245 in 1941. He was then enlisted into the military, and he missed four seasons.

The Kanagawa native returned to the league in 1946, and he hit .228/.309/.294 in 57 games. He recorded a .258/.334/.336 batting line in 1947, and he hit .273/.329/.350 in 1948. Osawa jumped to the Tokyu Flyers in 1949, and he hit .284/.370/.365 with 19 doubles. When the JPBL split into two leagues, Osawa joined the Taiyo Whales and he had his career year. His batting line was .327/.377/.460, and he led the Central League with 45 doubles. He held the CL record for most doubles in a season until Kosuke Fukudome broke it in 2006. He was 5th in batting (between Isamu Fujii and Tsuguo Goto) and 2nd in hits (2 behind Fumio Fujimura). Osawa also became the first player to get 6 hits in a game in two-league era. He then recorded a .287/.367/.388 batting line in 1951, and he jumped to the Hiroshima Carp after that season. Osawa slumped to .279/.373/.342 in 1952, and his batting line was .238/.316/.301 in 1953. He hit .257/.336/.358 in 1954, and he announced his retirement. Osawa coached Kokugakuin University from 1960 to 1965.

Overall, Osawa hit .271/.359/.351 with 1,439 hits and 46 homers in 14 years in NPB. As of 2023, he was 66th in walks in NPB history, tying Katsuo Osugi and Toru Ogawa.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• NPB.com Bio