Yoshio Yoshida

From BR Bullpen

Yoshida baseball card.jpg

Yoshio Yoshida (吉田 義男)

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 5' 6", Weight 123 lb.

BR Register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Yoshio Yoshida played shortstop in the Nippon Pro Baseball for 17 years and managed the Tigers to win their only Nippon Series title.

Yoshida was signed by the Osaka Tigers in 1953. Originally he di't have confidence to become a pro player, so Tigers scout Ichizo Aoki deceived him, saying that Fumio Fujimura also thought that Yoshida had the ability to be a star player. (Fujimura in fact hadn't watched any of Yoshida's games). Although he was only 5' 6" tall, Yoshida won the starting shortstop spot of the Tigers as a rookie. He hit .267/.297/.344 with a league-leading 28 sacrifice bunts.

The Kyoto native broke out in 1954, hitting .273/.343/.345 and led the league with 51 steals; he was the youngest player to led the league in steals. He was also selected into the 1954 NPB All-Star Game, and wouldn't missed any All-Star competition in the next 12 years; he was only 0-for-5 in this year. Yoshida extended his solid batting in 1955, hitting .281/.313/.363 with 38 steals, and led the league in hits. He was 9th in batting (.057 behind Tetsuharu Kawakami), 3rd in steals (4 behind Itsuro Honda) and won his first Best Nine award. He started both 1954 NPB All-Star Games, and went 3-for-8 with a double.

In 1956 NPB All-Star Game 1, Yoshida went 1-for-4 and hit a clutch RBI single off Takao Kajimoto to win the MVP in Game 2. He ended up hitting .290/.351/.409 in 1956, and led the league in steals with 50. He ranked 4th in batting (.049 behind Wally Yonamine), 2nd in runs (21 behind Yonamine), 3rd in hits (19 behind Kawakami) and won another Best Nine.

Yoshida was steady at .297/.355/.409 with 25 steals in 1957, and won his third Best Nine at shortstop. He was 3rd in batting (.046 behind Yonamine), 5th in steals (15 behind Tokuji Iida) and 5th in hits (35 behind Yonamine). He started in both of the 1957 NPB All-Star Games, and went 2-for-5 with 3 walks. He was still stable in 1958 as he hit .286/.335/.358 with 18 steals. Yoshida only went 1-for-5 in the 1958 NPB All-Star Games, but still won his fourth Best Nine. The Kyoto native played all 130 games in 1959 with a .272/.319/.377 line, and led the league with 21 sacrifice bunts. He was 2-for-6 with 2 walks in the 1959 NPB All-Star Games and won another Best Nine.

The talented shortstop struggled on offense in 1960, as he only hit .249/.318/.367 with 20 steals. He still managed to win another Best Nine with his elite defense (and his numbers were still good in a low-offense league that hit .230/.284/.343 as a whole), and attended the 1960 NPB All-Star Game; he was 1-for-2 as a backup as usual 3B Shigeo Nagashima played short. Yoshida slumped again in 1961, only had a .228/.298/.320 batting line with 18 steals, and ended his 6-year streak for winning Best Nine honors; Akiteru Kono got the nod instead. He was still selected into the 1961 NPB All-Star Game, and went 1-for-4 with a walk.

Yoshida bounced back soon, hitting .261/.311/.340 with 22 steals and took back his 7th Best Nine award in 1962. He attended the All-Star Games again, and went 0-for-2 with 3 walks. The Tigers finally won the Central League pennant, and Yoshida played well in the 1962 Nippon Series. He was 16-for-34 with 5 RBI, and a homer off Motohiro Ando in Game 6. The Toei Flyers beat the Tigers in 7 games, and Yoshida won the Fighting Spirit Award (as MVP of the losing team) with his series-leading .470 batting average.

The Kyoto native extended his solid performance in 1963, hitting .262/.330/.370 and attended the 1963 NPB All-Star Game; he was 0-for-3. Yoshida had his only .300 batting average season in 1964 as his batting line was .318/.383/.429, and won his 8th Best Nine award. He was 3rd in batting (.005 behind Shinichi Eto) and 5th in swipes (34 behind Takeshi Koba). He also set the NPB record for 179 consecutive at-bats without a strikeout (broken by Toru Ogawa in 1975). The Tigers advanced to the 1964 Nippon Series again, and Yoshida went 6-for-27 and the Nankai Hawks beat them in 7 games.

Yoshida hit .265/.317/.332 in 1965, and became the only shortstop to win 9 Best Nine awards (through 2022). He also attended the 1965 NPB All-Star Games, but went 0-fo-4. He still batted .263/.322/.328 in 1966, but then Taira Fujita took his shortstop spot in 1967. Yoshida went to second base and hit .234/.266/.282 and .230/.283/.302 respectively in the next two seasons. He became the second player to play 2,000 games, in 1969 (following Kazuhiro Yamauchi), but only hit .194/.246/.226 that season. Yoshida then announced his retirement after the 1969 season.

After retiring, Yoshida managed the Tigers from 1975 to 1977. Yoshida emphasized slugging as a manager, so he hired two foreign players - Mike Reinbach and Hal Breeden - in 1976 and led the Tigers to break the NPB record when they blasted 193 homers (Breeden had 40, Koichi Tabuchi 39, Masayuki Kakefu 27 and Reinbach 22 with four others in double-digits). However, he couldn't improve the defense and the Tigers had a .466 winning percentage in 1977. That was the lowest in team history (to that point; since then, they've had worse seasons) and Yoshida was fired. He came back to the team in 1985, and immediately won the only Nippon Series title in Tigers' history. His Tigers broke the NPB record again, this time crushing 219 homers (Randy Bass's 54 were one shy of the record, Kakefu had 40, Akinobu Okada smacked 35 and Akinobu Mayumi 34), and Yoshida won the Matsutaro Shoriki Award. However, he got into conflict with pitching coach Tetsuya Yoneda in 1986 and Yoneda left the team. The Tigers struggled again in 1987 as their winning percentage was .331, and Yoshida left the team. His number "23" was retired after this year.

When he retired from NPB, he moved to France, where he was manager for the French national team from 1989 to 1995. He guided France in the 1991 Intercontinental Cup (their first Intercontinental Cup), 1993 European Championship, 1993 Intercontinental Cup, 1994 Baseball World Cup (their first Baseball World Cup) and 1995 European Championship. He was now affectionately known as "Monsieur Yoshida" in Japan owing to his time spent in France. France has held a Yoshio Yoshida tournament in his honor. When Fujita had a dispute with players like Tsuyoshi Shinjo and resigned in 1996, the Tigers turned to Yoshida again. However, he couldn't lead the Tigers to more than a .470 winning percentage in this stint and he left the team after the 1998 season. Yoshida was named to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992, and was one of the inaugural inductees in the Kyoto Sports Hall of Fame by the city of Kyoto, Japan in January 2011.

Yoshida was one of the best defensive shortstop in NPB history. He hit .267/.321/.355 with 1,864 hits and 350 steals in 17 years in NPB. As a manager, he was 484-511-56 with a pennant in 8 years.

Related Sites[edit]

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