Tokuzo Harada

Tokuzo Harada (原田 徳光)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 6", Weight 150 lb.

• School Meiji University
• High School Chukyo Shogyo High School

• Born August 28, 1919 in Nagoya, Aichi Japan
• Died March 30, 1976

BR register page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Tokuzo Harada was a four-time All-Star in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Harada was signed by the Chunichi Dragons in 1948, and he hit .274/.340/.368 as one of their starting outfielders in his rookie year. He improved to .290/.337/.423 with 12 homers in 1949, and he ranked 9th in hits in the Japanese Professional Baseball League (162, between Shigeru Chiba and Masayasu Kaneda). When the JPBL split into two leagues in 1950, Harada hit .306/.365/.478 and he led the Central League with 12 triples (tied with Yukichi Nagatoshi and Shoji Arakawa). He was also 4th in doubles (34, tied with Tetsuharu Kawakami), 10th in steals (30, tied with Naofumi Yasui) and 10th in hits (between Michio Nishizawa and Katsumi Shiraishi).

The Nagoya native then attended the 1951 NPB All-Star Games, and he was 0-for-4. He ended up hitting .316/.396/.476 with 12 homers in 1951, ranking 6th in batting (between Fumio Fujimura and Osamu Takechi), 9th in hits (between Fujimura and Takechi), 7th in RBI (between Tsuguo Goto and Tamaichi Yasui) and 7th in steals (between Wally Yonamine and Yuko Minamimura). Harada was then selected into the 1952 NPB All-Star Games, and he was 0-for-8. He played all 120 games with 6 triples and a .272/.367/.375 batting line in 1952, and he tied Goto and Saburo Hirai for 3rd in triples.

Harada slumped to .228/.310/.324 in 1953, and he was 0-for-5 in the 1953 NPB All-Star Games. He became the first Dragons player to hit for a cycle on August 17, 1953, and he was the ninth NPB player to complete it. Harada then batted .239/.326/.310 in 1954, and he led the league in CS with 13. He also tied Kawakami with for 7th in steals with 26. Harada was 3-for-23 in the 1954 Nippon Series, and he won his first Nippon Series title as the Dragons beat the Yomiuri Giants in 7 games. He then attended the 1955 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 0-for-1. Harada recorded a .280/.339/.377 batting line in 1955, then he led the league with 23 sacrifice bunts while hitting .223/.303/.270 in 1956. Harada had a .239/.318/.307 batting line in 1957, then he announced his retirement in 1958. He also coached the Dragons from 1959 to 1960.

Overall, Harada hit .269/.341/.377 with 1,216 hits and 64 homers in 11 seasons in the NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan
• 1955 NPB All Star Game