Tatsuyuki Uemoto

Tatsuyuki Uemoto (上本 達之)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 202 lb.

• High School Ube Shogyo High School

• Born November 8, 1980 in Ube, Yamaguchi Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Tatsuyuki Uemoto has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

After high school, Uemoto played for Kyowa Hakko in the industrial leagues. The Seibu Lions took him in the 6th round of the 2002 NPB draft. He spent a couple years in ni-gun. He debuted with the big club in 2005, going 0 for 7 with three strikeouts. He was 1 for 7 with three more whiffs in 2006; his first hit was an infield single off Yasuhiko Yabuta on July 15. That year, a former girlfriend accused him of theft; the case was settled out of court.

Uemoto went 6 for 32 with three walks and a double in 2007, then was 1 for 14 in 2008. He was a somewhat regularly-used backup in 2009, hitting .258/.284/.443 in 105 plate appearances over 58 games. He backed up Ginjiro Sumitani at catcher and Yoshihito Ishii at first base. On July 8, he hit a 2-run pinch-hit homer off Yu Darvish - Darvish had never allowed a pinch-hit home run before. It was only three days after his first home run in NPB.

Number 49 hit .264/.319/.358 in 232 plate appearances and 91 games in 2010, platooning at the catcher's job with Toru Hosokawa.

He is married to model Mai Yamamoto.

Sources: Japan Baseball Daily, Chinese Wiki Baseball