Takehiko Kobayakawa

Takehiko Kobayakawa (小早川 毅彦)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 204 lbs.

• School Hosei University
• High School PL Gakuen High School

• Born November 15, 1961 in Hiroshima, Hiroshima Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Takehiko Kobayakawa played in the Nippon Pro Baseball for 16 years.

Kobayakawa was drafted by his hometown team (the Hiroshima Carp) in the second round of the 1983 NPB draft, and he soon became their starting first baseman. He hit .280/.344/.459 with 16 homers in 1984, and won the Central League Rookie of the Year Award. Kobayakawa also attended the 1984 NPB All-Star Games, but went 0-for-3. In the 1984 Nippon Series, he was 2-for-12 and the Carp beat the Hankyu Braves in 7 games so he got his first Nippon Series title. He ranked 10th in CL MVP voting with 5 points.

The Hiroshima native hit .290/.375/.528 in 1985 but missed the last month due to injury. Takashi Osanai took his starting spot in 1986, so he only played 73 games with a .260/.316/.497 batting line. In the 1986 Nippon Series, he starred in Game 1 as he was 2-for-6, with a homer off Osamu Higashio to tie it. However, he only went 4-for-23 in the rest of the series, and the Seibu Lions beat them in 8 games (there was a tie). Kobayakawa bounced back in 1987 as he blasted a career-high 24 homers with a .286/.351/.502 batting line, and ranked 3rd in RBI (5 behind Carlos Ponce) and 10th in homers (15 behind Rick Lancellotti). He was also selected into the 1987 NPB All-Star Game, went 0-for-1 in Game 1 then crushed a 2-run homer off Kazuhiro Yamauchi in Game 3. He got 2 points in CL MVP voting, and ranked 13th, between Sadaaki Yoshimura and Genji Kaku.

Kobayakawa extended his solid performance, hitting .289/.395/.464 with 17 homers, ranking 9th in RBI (33 behind Carlos Ponce) and 2nd in OBP (.023 behind the great Hiromitsu Ochiai) in 1988. He improved to .301/.387/.429 with 12 homers in 1989, ranked 10th in batting average (.077 behind Warren Cromartie) and 6th in OBP (.062 behind Cromartie). However, since talented prospects such as Kenjiro Nomura and Tomonori Maeda shined, Kobayakawa's spot was taken because he could only play as a first baseman. He only got 270 at-bats with a .259/.331/.406 batting line in 1991, and hit .279/.383/.439 and .269/.363/.476 respectively. Kobayakawa had no more than 150 at-bats in each of the next two seasons, and the Carp released him after he only played 8 games in 1996.

The Yakult Swallows picked him up, and Kobayakawa came back with a .249/.351/.408 batting line with 12 homers in 1997. He was 0-for-7 in the 1997 Nippon Series, and won his second Nippon Series title as the Swallows beat the Seibu Lions in 5 games. The veteran only played 85 more games for Yakult in the next two seasons, then announced his retirement after the 1999 season. He was the batting coach for the Carp from 2006 to 2009.

Overall, Kobayakawa had hit .273/.359/.451 with 171 homers and 1,093 hits in 16 seasons in NPB.

Related Sites

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan