Takenori Yamakawa

Takenori Yamakawa (山川 武範)
also known as Kisaku Yamakawa

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 156 lbs.

• High School Chinzei Gakuin High School

• Born August 25, 1922 in Nagasaki, Nagasaki Japan
• Died November 9, 1981

BR register page

Biographical Information

Takenori Yamakawa played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 12 years.

Yamakawa was signed by the Nagoya Kinko in 1940, and he hit .214/.290/.214 in 20 games in his rookie year. He still struggled as his batting line was .209/.327/.291 in 1941, and he hit .149/.168/.160 in 58 games in 1942. Yamakawa was then enlisted into the military and missed the next three seasons. He returned to the league in 1946, and he had a .259/.354/.352 batting line for the Tokyo Giants. He tied the JPBL record by drawing 5 walks in a game, tying Takeshi Doigaki for 6th in runs and Michinori Tsubouchi for 5th in triples.

The Nagasaki native collected 9 triples with a .278/.368/.345 batting line in 1947, and he tied Hiroyoshi Tsukamoto, Shosei Go, Eikichi Nagamochi and Hirofumi Komae for 3rd in triples. Yamakawa then hit .267/.329/.348 with 10 triples in 1948, and he was 2nd in triples (3 behind Fumio Fujimura). He hit .255/.328/.326 in 1949, and he recorded a .248/.370/.365 batting line in 1950. Yamakawa then jumped to the Hiroshima Carp in 1951, and his batting line was .260/.334/.358 for them. He hit for a cycle on June 26, 1952, and he was the first Carp player to complete a cycle. He ended up hitting .235/.288/.324 in 1952, and his batting line was .288/.355/.378 in 1953. Yamakawa played 91 games with a .241/.310/.287 batting line in 1954, then he announced his retirement.

Overall, Yamakawa hit .252/.329/.331 with 844 hits and 26 homers in 12 years in NPB. As of 2023, he was 98th in triples in NPB history, tying Akira Noguchi, Kaoru Betto, Futoshi Nakanishi, Teruyuki Takakura, Kazuyoshi Tatsunami and Keiichi Hirano.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• NPB.com Bio