Tsutomu Kimura

Tsutomu Kimura (木村 勉)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 140 lbs.

• High School Kokawa High School

• Born January 12, 1921 in Wakayama Prefecture Japan
• Died ????

BR register page

Biographical Information

Tsutomu Kimura played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 15 years.

Kimura was signed by the Nankai Hawks in 1939, and he had a 4.50 ERA in 8 innings in his rookie year. He was turned into an outfielder in 1940, and he hit .214/.262/.293 in 69 games in that season. He tied Kenjiro Matsuki for the 6th in triples in the JPBL with 7. Kimura then recorded a .205/.284/.236 batting line in 1941, and he was enlisted into the military so he missed the next four years. He returned to the league in 1946, and he batted .265/.328/.335 in 51 games. Kimura then jumped to the Karasaki Crown of the National League, but the league collapsed after the 1947 season.

The Wakayama native then signed with the Taiyo Robins, and he hit .271/.301/.350 in 1948. Kimura's batting line was .273/.310/.318 in 1949, then he batted .292/.346/.350 in 1950. He was 5-for-23 in the 1950 Nippon Series with a triple against Takeshi Nomura in Game 5, but the Mainichi Orions beat the Robins in 6 games. Kimura recorded a .296/.355/.342 batting line in 1951, then he jumped to the Taiyo Whales in 1952. His batting line was .247/.324/.292 in 1952, and he left the team after the Whales merged with the Robins after the 1952 season. KImura signed with the Hiroshima Carp, but he only hit .206/.239/.245 in 1953 then he was released.

The Kintetsu Buffaloes picked him up, and Kimura had a .284/.348/.353 batting line with a career-high 38 steals in 1954. He was 6th in steals in the Pacific League, between Kozo Kawai and Chusuke Kizuka. He then hit .272/.321/.319 with 17 steals in 1955, and he led the league with 19 caught stealing. Kimura hit the first leadoff inside-the-park home run, against Yasuo Yonekawa on September 2, 1956, and he ended up hitting .287/.348/.362 with 9 triples in that season. He tied Tokuji Iida and Takatsugu Toguchi for 3rd in triples. After hitting .288/.345/.322 in 1957, Kimura was 4-for-42 in 1958 then he announced his retirement.

Overall, Kimura hit .264/.320/.318 with 1,118 hits and 9 homers in 15 years in NPB. He only had 202 strikeouts in 4,233 career at-bats, and that is the lowest number for those who had more than 4,000 at-bats in NPB history. As of 2023, he was 93th in triples in NPB history, tying Satoru Sugiyama, Kohei Sugiyama, Tatsuro Hirooka and Kingo Motoyashiki.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• NPB.com Bio