Shozo Shigematsu

Shozo Shigematsu (重松 省三)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 5", Weight 158 lb.

• School Matsuyama University
• High School Imabari Nishi High School

• Born January 5, 1940 in Imabari, Ehime Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Shozo Shigematsu has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Shigematsu was signed by the Taiyo Whales in 1962. He debuted on August 30, 1962, then collected his first career hit from Masaichi Kaneda in the same game. Shigematsu batted .210/.272/.248 in 1963, then had a career year in 1964. In 1964 NPB All-Star Game 2, he blasted a solo shot off Yukio Ozaki in the 6th inning. He ended up batting .296/.324/.440 with a career-high 15 homers, and won the Best Nine as an outfielder. He was 5th in hits (12 behind Takeshi Kuwata), 7th in batting average (.027 behind Shinichi Eto) and 10th in runs.

Shigematsu slumped in 1965, only hitting .225/.275/.355 with 6 homers. He bounced back soon, when he recorded a .261/.300/.454 with 14 homers in 1966. The Ehime native became the second player to hit a walk-off homer and lead-off homer in back-to-back at-bats in October 11, 1967. However, he struggled in this year and only had a .196/.230/.294 batting line.

Shigematsu came back and hit .279/.302/.424 with 10 homers in 1968. He extended his stable performance, batted .241/.284/.408 with 11 homers and .266/.304/.381 with 11 homers in the next two years. He blasted a walk-off homer off Yutaka Enatsu on July 19, 1971, and ended up hitting .245/.306/.346. He still had a .241/.302/.387 batting line in 1972, but his performance started to decline after that year, and the Whales moved him from the starting lineup in 1973. Shigematsu announced his retirement after the 1975 season, and became a coach. He coached the Whales in 1976, then served as hitting coach for the Whales' minor team from 1978 to 1979 and 1987 to 1988. He was a scout for the Whales from 1980 to 1986.

Overall, Shigematsu had hit .251/.293/.382 in 14 seasons in NPB.