Japanese HOF Project

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I’m way behind in keeping this thread updated. Two reasons. Mostly, I’ve got lots of deadlines pressing and really shouldn’t be spending time writing about Japanese baseball. (This post included…) And, secondly, I’ve been working on other parts of my collection lately. But anyways, I’ve got a bunch of cards on-hand that need a write-up, including today’s featured player.

Just like the American hall, there are two doors to the Japanese hall. The front door is induction via the Player’s Division. The committee responsible for this group has as its purview recently retired players. The back door is induction via the Expert’s Division vote; players retired for at least 21 years are eligible. This past year no one was elected on the Player’s Division ballot, although Shingo Takatsu fell just short at 73%. Meanwhile, Koichi “home run artist” Tabuchi was named on 80% of the Expert’s Division ballots (voted on by living hall of famers), and therefore elected to the hall of fame. He was the only player selected. (The Japanese hall also elects a large number of executives and other non-players.) The big problem with collecting the hall of fame is that it’s always getting larger. So I expect that I’ll be picking up a Japanese card or two each year.

Tabuchi was a power hitting catcher who played for Hanshin and Seibu from 1969 to 1984. It’s really a surprise that he wasn’t elected earlier than this, and that he had to wait for the Japanese equivalent of the Vet’s committee. (Or whatever they’re calling it these days. I guess it’s been replaced by the various Era Committees.) He didn’t manage Meikyukai membership, but the man is a catcher so a certain amount of leeway ought to be granted. Nearly 1/3 of his career hits went for home runs, and he hit 474 of them in total. Three times he cleared 40 homers in a season: 1974-75 and 1980. At his peak he was walking more than he struck out, but that pretty clearly reflects the fact that pitchers were terrified of him, rather than an especially keen batting eye. For his career he posted a 260/361/535 batting line. That would be okay for a first baseman, for a catcher it’s crazy pants. It also tells you what kind of batter he must have been. A 260 batting average with a 535 slugging percentage means that he swings from his heels. A fair number of walks gave him a respectable on base percentage, but I’m still imagining a gigantic upper cut.

That supposition is supported by what is probably the most striking thing about his stat line. Despite being one of the better home run hitters in Japanese history, he hit very few doubles. Often he was in the single digits, and he managed just 167 of them for his career. The only way you manage that is if the balls that you hit are towering moon shots. If he had been a line-drive hitter more of those balls would have bounced off the top of the wall and he would have had a lower HR/2B ratio. Compare him to Ted Williams, the paradigm line-drive hitter. Despite clearing 500 HR for his career, Williams had more doubles than homers. (I write that then I go to read the B-R bullpen entry and it notes the HR/2B disparity in the very first paragraph.)

It’s possible that I’m forgetting someone, but I think that Tabuchi was the greatest catcher of the 1970s. Katsuya Nomura played the entire decade, but he was really a man of the 60s. Great though he was in the 70s, Tabuchi was better. Tabuchi was named to the best-nine five times, and was an 11-time all-star. Although his game was offense, he doesn’t seem to have been a defensive slouch, winning the gold glove (well, diamond glove, but you know what I mean) twice. But regarding that offense: it was he who broke Oh’s streak of 14 consecutive years leading the league in home runs, and he once hit home runs in seven consecutive at bats.

The deal from Hanshin to Seibu was a big one. It was Tabuchi with Kenji Furusawa for Akinobu Mayumi, Masafumi Takeda, Masashi Takenouchi, Yoshiharu Wakana, and cash. Let’s look at this deal. Furusawa was a 30 year old pitcher who had been pretty good but was starting to slip. Seibu would turn him into a reliever. Mayumi was a 24 yo SS who had spent many years playing part time, but would go on to be a star for the Tigers. If the Lions hadn’t been so stingy with playing time when he was young he almost certainly would have made the Meikyukai. Takeda was a bad relief pitcher who pitched five innings for Hanshin before retiring. Takenouchi was an older first baseman who had one good year left. Wakana was evidently intended to be Tabuchi’s replacement, but he was a defense-first catcher who couldn’t hit at all. This was a questionable deal for the Tigers at the time, but it ended up working out pretty well. Mayumi had a long and successful career, and played for Hanshin into his 40s. On the other hand, it’s not like the Lions got burned: Tabuchi was still a star, and he his 43 home runs in his first season playing for them. That’s pretty good.

And the Lions were the team to be on in the 1980s. He was only around for the beginning of their great run, but Tabuchi won the Japan series with them twice.

After retiring Tabuchi coached for a while and did some TV commentary, but now seems mostly to be retired.

As usual with great Tigers, The Hanshin Tigers has a nice biography of him.

Meikyukai: No – Hall of Fame: Yes

JCM 15a. This is another satisfyingly thick menko card. It's late for a menko card, but they knew how to make menko in the 70s. Tabuchi is the guy with the portrait in front. The batter (#12) in the back is, Engel says, unknown.