Teruhide Sakurai

Teruhide Sakurai (桜井 輝秀)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 158 lb.

• High School Sumoto Jitsu High School

• Born April 12, 1948 in Sumoto, Hyogo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Teruhide Sakurai has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Sakurai was drafted by the Nankai Hawks in the fifth round of the 1966 NPB draft. He spent the first three years of his career in the NPB Farm Leagues, only playing 29 games combined with the big club. Sakurai took the starting second baseman spot in 1971, and hit .258/.316/.361 with a career-high 7 homers. He extended his stable performance and batted .260/.306/.328 in 1972. The Hyogo native was selected into the 1973 NPB All-Star Game, collected a single from Masaji Hiramatsu in the 9th inning of game 1, and had a double off Takeshi Yasuda in the 9th inning of Game 3. He started in Game 2 but recorded a 0-for-3. Sakurai ended up batting .282/.330/.350 in this year, and won both the Best Nine and NPB Gold Glove Award as a second baseman. In the 1973 Nippon Series, Sakurai started in all five games and recorded a 5-for-19. He participated in the All-Star Game again the next summer, and hit a double off Motoyasu Kaneshiro in the 2nd inning of Game 3. He played all 130 games, batted .261/.322/.333 in the 1974 season and won the Gold Glove again.

Sakurai was still a reliable infielder in the next two years, when he batted .258/.309/.335 and .255/.318/.299 respectively. However, he struggled in 1977 as his batting line declined to .203/.248/.266. Prospect [Takayuki Kono]] replaced him after the 1977 season. Sakurai then mainly played backup for Kono in his later career. He played 58, 53 and 58 games respectively in the next three years, then announced his retirement after the 1982 season. He then became the defense coach for the Hawks from 1987 to 1989 and from 1991 to 1996. He also worked for their minor team as the same position from 1983 to 1986, in 1990 and 1997.

Overall, Sakurai had hit .255/.310/.326 in 14 seasons in NPB.