Yoshio Mizukami

Yoshio Mizukami (水上 善雄)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 156 lb.

• High School Toin Gakuen High School

• Born August 9, 1957 in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Yoshio Mizukami played for 17 years in Nippon Pro Baseball, making one Best Nine team.

Mizukami was picked by the Lotte Orions in the third round of the 1975 NPB draft. He went 1 for 7 wit ha double in 1976, 6 for 46 with 3 doubles and a walk in 1977 and 9 for 40 with a double in 1978. Becoming Lotte's starter at short in 1979, the youngster hit .199/.222/.264 with only 7 walks in 375 plate appearances. He stole 11 bases in 15 tries. He also led the Pacific League with 24 sacrifice hits. He set a record with 33 sacrifice hits the next year (the mark was later broken); he hit .248/.300/.404 with 15 home runs. He won the Diamond Glove Award at short, but lost the Best Nine to Nobuhiro Takashiro, who had a lower OPS.

Yoshio's home run total dropped to 8 in 1981 while he produced at a .259/.316/.373 and led the PL for a third time in sacrifice hits (32). He slipped to .231/.296/.341 in 1982. Mizukami had his most productive season in 1983, hitting .302/.352/.436. He was 10th in the league in average, 6th among Japanese players. The Best Nine went to Hiromichi Ishige, who had a better average, OBP, slugging, more homers and more steals.

Mizukami hit .254/.336/.402 with 10 home runs and 13 steals (in 17 tries) in 1984. He batted .243/.313/.399 with 20 swipes (in 27 tries) and 15 home runs in 1985. He was second on Lotte in both home runs (behind Leron Lee) and steals (behind Norifumi Nishimura). His numbers fell off drastically in 1986 (.198/.261/.302, 4 HR, 6 SB).

He rebounded in 1987, the Yokosuka native hit .263/.301/.388 with 14 steals but was caught 12 times. With Ishige moving to third base, Mizukami won his only Best Nine at short. In 1988, he produced at a .236/.299/.373 clip. He hit .258/.332/.429 in 1989, ending his career with the Orions.

Mizukami spent 1990 with the Hiroshima Carp, falling under the Mendoza Line at .194/.273/.351 in his only Central League season. He was used as a utility infielder, backing up Kenjiro Nomura at short, Kozo Shoda at second, Ryuzo Yamasaki at third and Takehiko Kobayakawa at first. He returned to the PL for two years with the Daiei Hawks. He hit .242/.290/.347 as a utility man in 1991 and went 0 for 2 in 1992. He was the minor league fielding coach for the Nippon Ham Fighters in 2007, and managed them from 2008 to 2009. He then managed the minor league team of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks from 2015 to 2017, and worked as fielding coach for their big club in 2018.

Overall, he had hit .244/.301/.371 in 1,546 NPB games, with 105 home runs and 115 steals (in 181 tries). He later worked as a youth baseball coach and baseball commentator as well as in real estate.

Source: Japan Baseball Daily