Tokuji Iida

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Iida sliding

Tokuji Iida (飯田 徳治)

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Biographical Information[edit]

Tokuji Iida played 17 years and won a MVP in the Nippon Pro Baseball.

Iida was signed by the Nankai Hawks in 1947, and he soon became the regular starting first baseman of the Hawks. He hit .253/.322/.351 with 4 homers in his rookie year. Iida improved to .280/.334/.430 with 14 homers in the next season, then crushed 27 homers with a .322/.389/.542 batting line in 1949. He was 6th in the Japanese Professional Baseball League in batting (.039 behind Makoto Kozuru), 6th in hits (15 behind Fumio Fujimura), 7th in homers (19 behind Fujimura) and 8th in RBI (41 behind Fujimura).

When the JPBL split into two leagues in 1950, Iida retained his stable performance and hit .327/.422/.574 with 23 homers. He led the Pacific League in walks, and won his first Best Nine as an first baseman. Iida ranked 3rd in batting (.012 behind Hiroshi Oshita), 2nd in hits (9 behind Kaoru Betto), 4th in homers (20 behind Betto) and 3rd in RBI (8 behind Betto). The Yokohama native was selected into the first NPB All-Star Games - the 1951 NPB All-Star Games, and went 1-for-11 in the 3 games; the only hit was a solo shot off Hideo Fujimoto in Game 3. He ended up hitting .296/.358/.478 with 15 homers and 19 steals in 1951, and won his second Best Nine award. He also led the league in RBI with 87, ranked 5th in hits (11 behind Chusuke Kizuka) and 5th in homers (11 behind Oshita). He only went 3-for-19 in the 1951 Nippon Series and the Hawks were beaten by the Yomiuri Giants.

Iida had a career-year in 1952. He batted .323/.396/.516 with 18 homers and 40 steals, and won the Best Nine again. He also led the PL in game played, runs, hits doubles, RBI and total bases, ranked 3rd in homers (7 behind Yasuhiro Fukami), 3rd in steals (15 behind Kizuka) and 2nd in batting (.012 behind Shigeya Iijima). He made it onto the PL roster for the 1952 NPB All-Star Games, but only went 2-for-12. In the 1952 Nippon Series, Iida went 7-for-23, with a two-run shot off Takehiko Bessho in Game 1, but the Giants still beat them in 6 games.

He composed the famous Million Dollar Infield with 2B Isami Okamoto, SS Kizuka and 3B Kazuo Kageyama in 1953, and helped the Hawks win their third PL pennant. Iida hit .296/.373/.468 with 48 steals, ranked 5th in hits (8 behind Futoshi Nakanishi), 4th in RBI (13 behind Nakanishi) and 2nd in steals (13 behind Larry Raines). He won his third Best Nine award, and attended the All-Star Game for the third consecutive year. He collected a clutch RBI double from Shigeru Sugishita in the 11th inning of Game 1, and won the MVP; he went 1-for-5 in the rest of the games. The Hawks met the Giants again in the 1953 Nippon Series, and this time they played 7 games. Iida was 6-for-26, with a solo shot off Fujimoto in Game 2, but the Hawks still lost to the Giants again.

The Yokohama native extended his solid performance in 1954, hitting .281/.372/.444 with 18 homers and 44 steals. He was selected into the 1954 NPB All-Star Game, but went 0-for-5. Iida was turned into a outfielder in 1955, and his batting was still elite. He hit .310/.396/.450 with 14 homers and 42 steals, led the league in hits and ranked 3rd in steals (17 behind Nobushige Morishita). Iida also hit for a cycle on August 24. He and the Hawks met the Giants for the fourth time in the 1955 Nippon Series. Although Iida went 11-for-22 with 2 homers - a solo shot off Takumi Otomo in Game 1 and a 3-run homer off Otomo in Game 4 - the Giants still beat the Hawks in 7 games. He won his first Best Nine as an outfielder, and took his only PL MVP award.

Iida set the NPB record for games played with 154 in 1956 (tied with Shinya Sasaki and Kohei Sugiyama), and recorded a .252/.328/.361 batting line with 45 steals. After this season, he announced that he would be a free agent. However, the Hawks needed a slugger, so they got rid of Iida and he transferred to the Kokutetsu Swallows. He had a .293/.351/.417 batting line with 40 steals, and led the Central League in swipes. He also attended the 1957 NPB All-Star Games, but went 1-for-5.

The veteran was not as productive as playing for Nankai in the rest of his career, and he tore his Achilles tendon on 1958, and his 1,246 consecutive games played record ended. It was the longest at that time, and still the 4th as of 2023. (behind Sachio Kinugasa, Hideki Matsui and Tomoaki Kanemoto. He came back with a .296/.352/.412 batting line in 1959, but then slumped to .272/.333/.368 in 1960. Iida still attended his ninth, and last, NPB All-Star Game in 1960, but went 1-for-6. He became a player-coach in 1961, and his batting declined to .230/.290/.316. He was 13-for-109 in 1962, and announced his retirement after hitting .209/.248/.278 in 1963.

After retiring, Iida was the bench coach for the Kokutetsu from 1964 to 1965, and managed them from 1966 to 1967. He left the team because the Sankei Atoms (Kokutetsu was sold in 1965) only had a .411 winning percentage in 1967. Iida then became the bench coach for the Nankai Hawks in 1968, and managed them in 1969. However, the Hawks were only 50-76 in 1969, and Iida was fired after that season. He was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.

Overall, Iida had hit .284/.354/.431 with 1,978 hits, 390 steals and 183 homers in 17 seasons in NPB. He was 144-214-13 as a manager.

Related Sites[edit]

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