Yutaka Nakamura

Yutaka Nakamura (中村 豊)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 182 lb.

• School Meiji University
• High School Uenomiya High School

• Born April 23, 1973 in Sakai, Osaka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Yutaka Nakamura has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Nakamura represented Japan in the 1994 Baseball World Cup, going 1 for 7 with a walk, double, run and a RBI while backing up Takayuki Takabayashi in right, Daishin Nakamura in center and Tomoaki Sato in left. The Nippon Ham Fighters drafted him in the second round of the 1995 NPB draft. He spent the first four seasons primarily in the NPB Farm Leagues, and only played 72 games combined with the big club. Nakamura played 103 games in 2000 as a 4th outfielder, and hit .250/.342/.313. He improved to .268/.340/.362 with 3 homers in a career-high 120 games played in 2001.

However, he slumped to .190/.240/.293 in 2002. The Fighters then traded him with Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi to the Hanshin Tigers for Masashi Date and Katsuhiko Yamada after the 2002 season. Nakamura was still a backup outfielder with the Tigers, only played .250/.294/.344in 55 games. He was often used as a defensive replacement mostly, and he only got 44 at-bats combined in the next four seasons. He announced his retirement after the 2007 season. After retiring, he coached for the Tigers from 2008 to 2021, and he transferred to the Chunichi Dragons and served as their ni-gun defense coach since 2022.

Overall, Nakamura had hit .248/.311/.339 in 12 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan
• Defunct IBAF site