Yataro Oishi

From BR Bullpen

Yataro Oishi (大石 弥太郎)

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 5' 10", Weight 160 lb.

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Yataro Oishi was a four-time All-Star in 19 seasons in Nippon Pro Baseball then managed a team to consecutive Chinese Professional Baseball League titles.

Oishi had a 2.83 ERA in 15 games as a rookie for the Hankyu Braves in 1962 and allowed one run in two innings in 1963. He was 1-0 with a 4.53 ERA in 1964 and surrendered 11 runs in 5 innings in 1965 and 4 runs in 2 2/3 IP in 1966; in '66, though, he showed talent in leading the minor Western League with 13 wins. He was then traded to the Hiroshima Carp for another Oishi, Kiyoshi Oishi.

Yataro went from being a minor leaguer and bit player with Hankyu to a regular with Hiroshima, pitching 204 innings over 52 games (15 starts) in 1967. He went 10-14 with a 2.87 ERA and only walked 28. He tied Chikara Morinaka, Susumu Oba and Susumu Sato for third in the Central League in losses, was 6th in pitching appearances, ranked 8th in innings (between Shigeyuki Takahashi and Sato), tied Kunio Jonouchi for 6th in hits allowed (190) and was 9th with 122 strikeouts (between Minoru Murayama and Takahashi). He was chosen for the CL All-Star team. In the second 1967 NPB All-Star Game, he allowed two runs in two innings after relieving Kentaro Ogawa as the CL lost, 7-4, to the Pacific League All-Stars. The influence of pitching coach Ryohei Hasegawa was cited as a factor in his improvement.

The Carp were impressed enough by Oishi's 1967 to make him their Opening Day starter in 1968 but he was limited to 20 games (11 starts) and 82 1/3 IP, presumably due to injury; he had a 6-5, 3.28 record. In 1969, he was 11-8 with a 2.29 ERA, .204 opponent average and .93 WHIP. Had he qualified, he would have been 6th in the CL in ERA, between Hisatoshi Itoh and Ritsuo Yamashita. He had perhaps his finest year in 1970 (13-9, 2.22 ERA, .215 opponent average, .88 WHIP, 23 BB in 206 2/3 IP), starting 25 games and relieving in 22 others. In the first 1970 NPB All-Star Game, he was the only one of the 1st 5 CL hurlers to have a good day in a 13-9 loss to the PL. He relieved Hiroshi Kito with two outs in the first, as Hidetake Watanabe had given up 10 hits already. Oishi retired all four batters he faced, in contrast, before Masayuki Nakatsuka pinch-hit for him. He finished the year 7th in the CL in ERA (between Tomoo Wakao and Kito), tied for 6th in wins (with Kito, Wako, Yamashita and teammates Yoshiro Sotokoba and Shizuo Shiraishi), was 5th in games pitched, tied Sohachi Aniya for the most ties (3), tied Kazumi Takahashi for 6th with 10 complete games, tied Murayama and Kazumi Takahashi for 4th in shutouts (5), was 9th in IP (between Aniya and Senichi Hoshino) and was second in WHIP (.12 behind Murayama).

The Oita native was the Carp's Opening Day starter in 1971. He was 13-10 with a 2.58 ERA, .227 opponent average and .91 WHIP in another fine year and cut his walk rate even further (20 BB in 216 IP). In the second 1971 NPB All-Star Game, he relieved Yukiharu Shibuya with a 1-0 deficit in the 7th. After a scoreless inning, he ran into trouble in the 8th by walking Hideji Kato and Isao Harimoto then served up a 3-run homer to Atsushi Nagaike in a 4-0 loss. Makoto Matsubara pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the 8th. He placed on the CL leaderboard in wins (6th), games pitched (46, 3rd behind Tadakatsu Kotani and Hiromu Matsuoka), complete games (11, tied for 5th with Masaji Hiramatsu), ties (5, first, as many as the entire Chunichi Dragons team), shutouts (3, tied for 3rd), innings (6th, between Tsuneo Horiuchi and Itoh), homers allowed (23, tied for third with Matsuoka), hit batsmen (tied for 3rd with Teruo Aida at 11) and WHIP (second, only .006 behind Kazuhiro Fujimoto).

#19 was 11-15 with a 2.79 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in 1972. He made his final All-Star team. In the first 1972 NPB All-Star Game, he relieved Yukitsuru Matsumoto in the 8th and tossed a shutout inning (one hit allowed) in a 5-2 CL loss. With offensive levels up, he was back on the ERA leaderboard at 6th (between Mitsuo Inaba and Horiuchi). He tied Sotokoba and Tomohiro Tanimura for 10th in wins, tied Hiramatsu and Sotokoba for second in losses (trailing Matsuoka) and was 5th in WHIP (between Hisanobu Mizutani and Watanabe). He faded to 5-8, 3.59 in 1973 and 3-5, 3.90 in 1974 to end his successful 8-year run with Hiroshima, right before the team reached one of its strongest eras. He was then traded back to Hankyu, with Shiraishi in exchange for Yoshihiro Kodama, Yukinobu Miyamoto and Hiroki Watanabe.

The veteran's second stint with Hankyu was just as uninspired as his first one had been. He was 0-1 with a 5.59 ERA and .333 opponent average in 9 games in 1975 and 4-3 with a 3.82 ERA and .287 average allowed in 13 games in 1976. He was then traded with Yoshinori Toda, Kiyoshi Morimoto and Kenji Komatsu to the Dragons for Inaba, Kinji Shimatani and Masato Osumi. His return to the CL didn't help as he was 0-3 with a 7.30 ERA, .339 average allowed and 1.95 WHIP in 12 outings in 1977 and 2-2 with a 5.35 ERA and .318 average against in 1978. He ended up with two seasons with the Nankai Hawks, posting a 3.95 ERA with no decisions in 36 relief outings in 1979 and a .488 ERA and .343 average allowed with no decisions in 15 games the next year.

Overall, Oishi had gone 79-81 with a 3.22 ERA, .251 opponent average and 1.11 WHIP in 1,508 2/3 innings in NPB. He had pitched 462 games (136 starts) and walked only 264 while striking out 758. The control expert only threw 8 career wild pitches. Through 2011, he was 46th in NPB history in WHIP (between Watanabe and Koichiro Sasaki), tied for 47th in ties (15, even with Yoshiaki Ishimoto, Masaaki Kitaru, Kiyoshi Oishi, Yutaka Ono and Takahashi), tied for 56th in no-walk complete games (with Shigeaki Kuro, Yukio Ozaki, Yutaka Yanagida and Yasuo Yonekawa) and 11th in lowest walk rate (between Shozo Watanabe and Giichiro Shiraki).

He was hired in 1994 CPBL as the second manager in Uni-President Lions history, succeeding Kuen-Chi Cheng. He led the team to a 48-38-4 record in his first year then 62-36-2 in 1995 as the Lions won both halves to take the title. His team was 60-37-3 in 1996 and they went to the 1996 Taiwan Series, which they won. He ended his Lions managerial career 170-111-9, with Manager of the Year awards in 1995 and 1996. Chia-Hsiang Lin replaced him. He was the head coach of Meio University from 2010 to 2014.

Sources[edit]

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