Tadashi Kashima

Tadashi Kashima (鹿島 忠)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 167 lb.

• High School Kagoshima Jitsugyo High School

• Born October 7, 1961 in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Tadashi Kashima pitched over 400 games in Nippon Pro Baseball.

After high school, Kashima played for Kagoshima Tetsudo Kanrikyoku in the industrial leagues. The Chunichi Dragons picked him in the first round of the 1982 NPB draft. He was 0-1 with a 2.57 ERA in 7 games for them as a rookie in 1984. In 1985, he was 2-3 with two saves and a 4.93 ERA in 41 outings, with 41 BB to 39 K in 76 2/3 IP.

In 1986, the 24-year-old went 3-4 with a 4.60 ERA while cutting his walks to 22 in 78 1/3. He fell to 1-2, 6.59 with a save in 13 outings in 1987. During 1988, he had a 3-2, 3.67 record in 44 outings. He tied Masaru Ishikawa and Noriaki Okabe for 8th in the Central League in games pitched. He excelled in the 1988 Japan Series (1 R, 4 H in 8 IP, 8 K) but Chunichi fell to the Seibu Lions in five games; it was his lone Japan Series appearance.

The Nagoya native had a career year for his hometown club in 1989 (9-3, 2.56 in 54 G), allowing only 75 hits in 105 2/3 IP. He was second in the league in games pitched (7 behind Makoto Kito) but was 10th in walks (46), the lone down point. In 1990, the right-hander was 7-4 with a 2.90 ERA in 45 games, walking 45 in 77 2/3 IP. He tied Kazuhiko Endo, Koji Nakada and Yoshihiro Nakada for 4th in the CL in games pitched and he tied for 5th with 7 hit batsmen. He was ejected from a game after throwing at Warren Cromartie; earlier in the game, Cromartie's teammate Hiromi Makihara had thrown at Vance Law.

#18 slumped in 1991 (6.43 ERA in 19 G) but rebounded to 3-1, 6 Sv, 2.81 in 38 G in 1992. He was 7th in the CL in saves that year. He had a 3-5, 3.47 record with two saves in 57 games in 1993. He finished second in appearances for the second time (3 behind Yoshihisa Kondo) and led in intentional walks issued (8).

In 1994, Kashima was 2-1 with 3 saves and a 4.88 ERA in 23 games. He went 3-1 with a 4.71 ERA in 31 outings in 1995. Though he worked 42 innings, he tied for 7th with 6 wild pitches. He was 0-1 with a 7.62 ERA in 9 games in 1996.

Overall, Kashima was 36-28 with 14 saves and a 3.95 ERA in 405 NPB games (17 starts). In 688 IP, he allowed 666 hits and walked 343 while fanning 496. Through 2011, he was tied for 84th in NPB history with 46 save points (even with Seiji Kobayashi, Akira Kuramochi, Hisashi Ogura, Hiroshi Shibakusa and Katsuo So), tied for 80th with 37 wild pitches and tied for 66th with 42 intentional walks. In 92 plate appearances, he hit .100/.122/.138.

After his playing career ended, he was a TV and radio announcer (1997-2000), coached for Chunichi (2001-2002), was a minor league coach for Chunichi (2003), coached in the minors for the Rakuten Golden Eagles (2005) and was Rakuten's pitching coach in 2006 before returning to an announcing role.

Sources

• Old Japan Baseball Daily website
• Michael Eng database
• Japanese Wikipedia