Toshinori Yasui

Toshinori Yasui (安井 智規)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 145 lbs.

• High School Osaka High School

• Born January 25, 1943 in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Toshinori Yasui played in the Nippon Pro Baseball for 14 years and once led the league in steals .

Yasui was signed by the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 1962, but he spent part of the first two seasons in the NPB Farm Leagues, playing 99 games combined with the big club. He was the main backup infielder for Kintetsu in 1964, but he had a poor .156/.198/.198 batting line. Thus, he only had 139 at-bats with a .195/.243/.258 batting line in 1965. When Kunimitsu Yanoura left the team, Yasui was named the starting shortstop in 1966, but he still only batted .216/.258/.294.

The Hyogo native improved to .247/.272/.341 in 1967, and led the Pacific League with 54 steals while posting a .243/.296/.306 batting line in 1968. Yasui had a career year in 1969 as his batting line was solid .272/.311/.325, and he also attended the 1969 NPB All-Star Game; he went 2-for-6 with a triple in Game 2. However, he couldn't repeat his performance and slumped to .217/.248/.286 in 1970.

Yasui was unable to find back his hitting ability as his batting lines were .224/.247/.263 and .231/.262/.276 respectively in the next two seasons, and [[Shuhei Ichieda] took his spot. His batting declined again with a .186/.228/.225 batting line in 1973. Although Yasui bounced back a little with a .238/.273/.297 lines in 1974, he still couldn't get back his starting spot, and he only played 36 games with the big club in 1973. After spending the whole 1976 season in the ni-gun, Yasui announced his retirement and became a coach. He was the fielding coach for the minor team of Kintetsu from 1976 to 1981, and coached their big club from 1989 to 1990. He came back to the ni-gun from 1991 to 1994, and managed them in 1995. He was also hired as the fielding coach again from 1996 to 1997.

Overall, Yasui had hit .230/.266/.291 with 200 steals and 782 hits in 14 seasons in NPB.

Related Sites

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan