Tsutomu Ina

Tsutomu Ina (伊奈 努)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 143 lbs.

• High School Toyokawa High School

• Born October 1, 1934 in Toyokawa, Aichi Japan
• Died September 1, 1984

BR register page

Biographical Information

Tsutomu Ina pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball for 11 years.

Ina was signed by the Nagoya Dragons in 1953, and he pitched 12 games with a 3.64 ERA in his rookie year. He only pitched 4 games in 1954, then he improved to 5-2 with a 2.28 ERA in 1955. Ina was a reliever in 1956, and he had a 3.38 ERA in 16 appearances. He broke out in 1957, and he was selected into the 1957 NPB All-Star Game. He relieved Ryohei Hasegawa in the 6th inning of Game 1, and he pitched 3 shutout innings. Ina ended up 12-12 with a 2.67 ERA in 1957.

The Toyokawa native was 9-5 with a 3.12 ERA in 1958, then he bounced back and had his career year in 1959. He pitched a career-high 57 games, and he was 16-14 with a 2.53 ERA and 158 strikeouts. He ranked 8th in wins (between Yoshio Bizen and Noboru Akiyama), 9th in ERA (between Michio Ukari and Masaichi Kaneda), 8th in strikeouts (between Motoshi Fujita and Takashi Suzuki) and 2nd in appearances (1 behind Kaneda). However, he suffered from injuries in 1960, so he slumped to 2-5 with a 5.19 ERA. The Dragons then traded him with Yokochi Yoshimatsu to the Hanshin Tigers for Shintoku Hoshiyama and Shigetaka Nishio. Ina was 4-9 with a 3.62 ERA in 1961, then he had a 2.44 ERA in 21 games in 1962. His ERA rose to 6.75 in 1963, then he announced his retirement.

Overall, Ina was 53-62 with a 3.09 ERA, struck out 539 and pitched 969 innings in 11 years in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• NPB.com Bio
• 1957 NPB All-Star Game