Shigeru Makino

Shigeru Makino (牧野 茂)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 6", Weight 132 lb.

• School Meiji University
• High Schools Takamatsu Shogyo High School, Aichi Shogyo High School

• Born July 26, 1928 in Takamatsu, Kagawa Japan
• Died December 2, 1984 in Chuo, Tokyo Japan

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Biographical Information

Shigeru Makino was an infielder and coach in Nippon Pro Baseball.

He was on the Nagoya/Chunichi Dragons from 1952 to 1959. As a rookie in 1952, he hit .244/.305/.289 with 27 steals in 39 tries. He made 36 errors, third in the Central League, while starting at short; he was also 7th in the CL in steals and third in times caught stealing. In 1953, the Kagawa native batted .241/.297/.332 with 21 swipes in 27 tries and 37 errors. During 1954, he hit a meek .197/.261/.257 with 17 steals (caught 6 times) but cut his error total to 24. He was 2 for 10 with a walk as Chunichi beat the Nishitetsu Lions in the 1954 Japan Series, their lone Japan Series title of the 20th Century.

Makino remained the prototypical light-hitting shortstop, hitting .202/.276/.260 with 15 SB and 3 CS in 1955 and .191/.276/.237 in 1956, when Hiroji Okajima replaced him as the SS starter. In 1957, Shigeru produced at a .217/.281/.246 clip in one last year as a starter (Okajima moving to 3B). By 1958, he was back of the bench and batting .200/.327/.232. He was 0 for 12 with two walks in 1959 to end his playing career.

Overall, the Meiji alumnus had hit .217/.286/.272 in 756 NPB games, with 98 steals in 138 tries.

In 1961, he joined the Yomiuri Giants as a coach under manager Tetsuharu Kawakami where they won a record nine consecutive Japan Series from 1965 to 1973.

Makino was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

Sources

• Japanbaseballdaily by Gary Garland
• Michael Eng's Japanese Baseball Database