Takayoshi Nakao

Takayoshi Nakao (中尾 孝義)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 170 lbs.
• High School Takikawa High School
• School Senshu University

• Born February 16, 1956 in Kasai, Hyogo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Takayoshi Nakao won a MVP and played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 13 years.

Nakao represented Japan in the 1975 Asian Championship, 1979 Intercontinental Cup and 1980 Amateur World Series; they won Silver in the first two events and Bronze in the third. The Chunichi Dragons drafted him in the first round of the 1980 NPB draft. He took the starting catcher spot from veteran Tatsuhiko Kimata as a rookie and batted .243/.287/.347 with 5 homers.

He broke out in the 1982 season. He was selected for the 1982 NPB All-Star Games, and went 2-for-7 in 3 games. He ended up hitting .282/.325/.459 with a career-high 18 homers, led the league in CS% with 42.9 and won his first Best Nine award and Diamond Glove. Although his batting stats were not as outstanding as his teammates (ex. Yasushi Tao hit .350 and Masaru Uno blasted 30 homers), Nakao was highly praised for his defense and the ability to guide pitchers. Thus, Nakao gained 130 votes to win his first CL MVP. In the 1982 Nippon Series, Nakao started as catcher in all six games, had a 9-for-24 record and won the Outstanding Player award but Chunichi fell to the Seibu Lions.

The Hyogo native slumped to .244/.320/.458 with 16 homers in 1983 due to injuries. He bounced back and attended the 1984 NPB All-Star Games, and went 2-for-6 with a double. He ended up hitting .322/.385/.572 with 12 homers, and led the league in CS% with 45.9. Nakao was still productive in 1985 with a .284/.341/.495 batting line, but then slumped to .238/.290/.391 in 1986. He bounced back in 1987, hitting .291/.330/.527 with 16 homers. In 1988, Nakao had a dispute with his manager Senichi Hoshino because Hoshino wanted to turned him into a outfielder. Nakao was very angry because he thought that Hoshino didn't trust his ability as a catcher. Therefore, he requested a trade after the 1988 season and went to the Yomiuri Giants for Takashi Nishimoto and Shigeharu Kamogawa.

The 33-year-old veteran came back behind the plate again in 1989, and won the competition with another MVP catcher Kazuhiro Yamakura and 2-time Gold Glove winner Shuzo Arita. Nakao only hit .228/.294/.333 with 5 homers, but he helped the Giants' rotation make a huge improvement. Masaki Saito won 20 wins with his guiding, and the ERA of the pitchers of the Giants was the lowest in the league. He was also voted into the 1989 NPB All-Star Game, but went 0-for-1. Nakao won his second Best Nine and Gold Glove awards, and shared the NPB Comeback Player of the Year with Nishimoto. In the 1989 Nippon Series, Nakao had a 5-for-24 record, with a homer off Hideaki Sato in Game 3, and won his first Nippon Series title as the Giants beat the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 7 games.

Nakao suffered an injury again, and he only played 56 games in 1990. He was used as the 3rd catcher the rest of his career, so he only got 81 at-bats combined with the Giants in the next two seasons. The Giants traded him to the Seibu Lions for Hiromoto Okubo in the middle of the 1992 season. Nakao only played 39 more games for the Lions, then announced his retirement after the 1993 season.

After retiring, he became the battery coach for the Lions from 1995 to 1996, and worked as the same position for their minor league team from 1997 to 1998. He joined the Mercuries Tigers in Taiwan and became their manager in 1999, and the Tigers were expelled after that season. Nakao came back to NPB and became the battery coach for the minor league team of the Yokohama BayStars from 2000 to 2001. He was the ni-gun manager for the Orix BlueWave in 2002, and served as their bench coach for the big club in 2003. Nakao then transferred to the Hanshin Tigers, coached their minor league team as the hitting coach in 2004, and worked as hitting coach from 2005 to 2006. He was also a scout of the Tigers from 2009 to 2016.

Overall, Nakao had hit .263/.317/.441 with 699 hits and 109 homers in 13 seasons in NPB.

Related Sites

• Taiwanese Baseball Wiki
• Wiki Japan