, nicknamed "Nakaji", is a Japanese professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

for the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

(NPB). He previously played for the

Saitama Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, wh ...

and

Orix Buffaloes The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefectur ...

(NPB) and the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

organization. Nakajima played for the Japanese national team in the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

and the

2009 World Baseball Classic The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international baseball competition. It began on 5 9 and finished 5 26. Unlike in 2006, when the round-robin format of the first two rounds led to some eliminations being decided by run-difference ti ...

. After the 2011 season, the Lions posted Nakajima to

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

, but Nakajima failed to reach an agreement with the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

. After the 2012 season, he signed a two-year contract with the Athletics. After spending two years in Minor League Baseball, Nakajima returned to Japan with Buffaloes in 2015. He played for them through 2018, before joining the Giants.

Early life and high school career

Nakajima was born in Itami, a city in Hyōgo, Japan. He was a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

during his days at Itami Municipal Sakuradai Elementary School, playing in a national tournament alongside batterymate

Katsuki Yamazaki Katsuki Yamazaki (山崎勝己, born August 16, 1982) is a Japanese former professional baseball catcher. He has played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks / Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Orix Buffaloes. Career Fukuok ...

(who would become a

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

for the rival

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...

a decade later). He played for Takarazuka Senior while attending Itami Municipal Tennōjigawa

Junior High School A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

, receiving offers to play for

high school baseball High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

powerhouses in other

prefectures A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

who came to see him play. Nakajima opted to apply to the prestigious Hōtoku Gakuen High School within the prefecture but was rejected and ended up enrolling in Itami Kita Senior High School, a local school and a complete unknown in high school baseball. He worked his way into the starting lineup in his first year (the equivalent of

tenth grade Tenth grade or grade 10 (called Year Eleven in England and Wales, and sophomore year in the US) is the tenth year of school post-kindergarten or the tenth year after the first introductory year upon entering compulsory schooling. In many parts of ...

in the United States), playing

right field A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the ...

that summer and becoming the team's

leadoff hitter In baseball, a leadoff hitter is a batter who bats first in the lineup. It can also refer to any batter who bats first in any inning. Strategy Traditionally, the leadoff hitter has been utilized as a contact-oriented position. The leadoff hit ...

by his

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

. Nakajima

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s out of the leadoff spot in his high school career and took the

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...

as the team's ace pitcher in his last two years, but his team never came particularly close to making a national tournament, losing in the fourth round of the Hyōgo Tournament in the last summer of Nakajima's high school career. However, despite such relative anonymity, Nakajima was picked by the Seibu Lions in the fifth round of the 2000 NPB amateur draft. He was the 57th overall pick (out of 86 players) in that year's draft.

Professional career

Seibu Lions / Saitama Seibu Lions

Nakajima struggled mightily in his

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

(2001). He recorded seven errors at shortstop, a

position Position often refers to: * Position (geometry), the spatial location (rather than orientation) of an entity * Position, a job or occupation Position may also refer to: Games and recreation * Position (poker), location relative to the dealer * ...

he rarely played in high school, and hit just .105 (2-for-19) in 30 games with the Lions' ''nigun'' team (Japanese for "

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

" or "

farm team In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

"). He made substantial improvements in his second season (2002), winning the starting shortstop job at the ''nigun'' level and becoming the only player in the

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

to play all 90 games. He led the Eastern League in

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

runs scored In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted balls ...

sacrifice flies In baseball, a sacrifice fly (sometimes abbreviated to sac fly) is defined by Rule 9.08(d): "Score a sacrifice fly when, before two are out, the batter hits a ball in flight handled by an outfielder or an infielder running in the outfield in fair o ...

and hit-batters and came second in

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(.299) and fourth in

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

(47), hitting 11 home runs to top it off. However, he also grounded into 10

double play In baseball and softball, a double play (denoted as DP in baseball statistics) is the act of making two outs during the same continuous play. Double plays can occur any time there is at least one baserunner and fewer than two outs. In Major Leag ...

s and committed 25 errors, leading the league in both categories. He was called up to the ''ichigun'' ("major league") team for the first time towards the end of the season, making his professional debut at the level in a game against the

Nippon-Ham Fighters The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaidō. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the majority of their home games at ES CON Field Hokkaido. The Fighters also host a s ...

on October 6 as the

designated hitter The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. The position is authorized by Major League Baseball Rule 5.11. It was adopted by the American League in 1973 and later by th ...

and getting his first career hit off

right-hander In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

Satoru Kanemura in the same game. Nakajima hit a team-high .306 with 13 home runs for the Lions' ''nigun'' team in . He played 44 games at the ''ichigun'' level, hitting his first career home run off then-

Fukuoka Daiei Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...

Hayato Terahara on August 5 and recording his first career

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

on August 12 against the

Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes The were a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team based in Osaka, Japan, which was in the Pacific League. In 2005 the team was merged with the Orix BlueWave to become the team now known as the Orix Buffaloes. The team played in Fujiidera Stadiu ...

. He finished the year with a .258 batting average, four homers and 11 RBI, and was given the uniform number 3 during the

off-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

as a testament to the organization's hopes that he would become the successor to former shortstop and franchise player

Kazuo Matsui is a Japanese retired professional baseball player who played as a shortstop and is the current manager of the Saitama Seibu Lions. He is a switch-hitter. Matsui signed with the New York Mets on December 17, 2003, becoming the first Japanese i ...

, who left for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

via

free agency In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

. The season proved to be a breakout year for Nakajima, earning a spot in the starting lineup as the No. 7 hitter for the ''ichigun'' team's season opener.

Manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Tsutomu Ito Tsutomu is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings ''Tsutomu can be written using different kanji characters. Here are some examples: *勉, "make effort" *務, "affairs" *務武, "affairs, warrior" *勤, "diligence" *努, "strive" The ...

continued to start him despite criticism that he wasn't ready to be the starting shortstop, and Nakajima lived up to expectations by hitting over .300 until May and finishing the year with a .287 batting average, 27 home runs, 90 RBI and 18 stolen bases, contributing to the Lions' league title and

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, :File:2014_JS_logo.png is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series ...

championship. Nakajima was the only player in the

Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consis ...

to play all 133 games without missing an

inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other team ...

. He was also voted to the Pacific League All-Star team by the managers and coaches. On May 7 , in an interleague game against the

Hiroshima Toyo Carp The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda ...

, Nakajima took a grounder that took a bad hop to the face, breaking his cheekbone and missing a significant amount of playing time. While he still finished the season with enough

plate appearance In baseball statistics, a player is credited with a plate appearance (denoted by PA) each time he completes a turn batting. Under Rule 5.04(c) of the Official Baseball Rules, a player completes a turn batting when he is put out or becomes a runner ...

s to qualify for the batting title, he hit just .274 with 11 home runs and 11 stolen bases, grounding into 17 double plays (third in the Pacific League) and committing 10 errors (more than any other shortstop in the league). Rebounding from a disappointing 2005 campaign, Nakajima led all players with a .390 batting average in interleague play in and was chosen to the All-Star team for the second time in his career. However, he was hit by a pitch by

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles The , often shortened as the , are a baseball team based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It has played in Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League since the team's formation in November 2004. The team is owned by the Internet shopping c ...

right-hander Hiroki Yamamura on July 30, breaking the fourth

metacarpal bone In human anatomy, the metacarpal bones or metacarpus form the intermediate part of the skeletal hand located between the phalanges of the fingers and the carpal bones of the wrist, which forms the connection to the forearm. The metacarpal bones ar ...

in his left hand. After returning to the team on September 12, Nakajima hit well, even ranking among the league leaders in batting average for a short span of time (he finished the season with a .306 average, fourth-highest in the league). However, he left much to be desired with his glovework, leading all Pacific League shortstops in errors (16) for the second straight year. Hiroyuki Nakajima 2009

Nakajima was promoted to the 3-hole in the batting lineup for the , playing in his third All-Star Game and finishing among the league leaders in average (.300, fifth in the Pacific League) and hits (160, third) with 74 RBI. He was also the only player in either of the leagues to record an RBI in nine straight games. On the other hand, his 134 strikeouts were more than those in his previous two seasons ''combined'' (67 and 66 in 2005 and 2006, respectively) and his 20 errors led all Pacific League shortstops for the third consecutive season. The season brought Nakajima his first stint with the Japanese national team as he was chosen to play in the

. He hit .343 and led the league in batting average in the first half of the season, playing in the All-Star Game for the fourth time of his career (though he was relegated to

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

due to the selections of shortstops

Munenori Kawasaki is a Japanese professional baseball shortstop and second baseman for the Tochigi Golden Braves of Baseball Challenge League in Japan. He has played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and in Major League Baseb ...

of the Hawks and

Tsuyoshi Nishioka is a Japanese former professional baseball infielder. He played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Chiba Lotte Marines and Hanshin Tigers, as well as Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins. Nishioka played in the 2006 ...

of the

Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural ...

and committed an error on a bad throw) and even seeing time as the team's

cleanup hitter In baseball, a cleanup hitter is the fourth hitter in the batting order. The cleanup hitter is traditionally the team's most powerful hitter. His job is to "clean up the bases", i.e., drive in base runners. Theory The thinking behind the us ...

when teammates and resident

power hitter Power hitter is a term used in baseball for a skilled player that has a higher than average ability in terms of his batting, featuring a combination of dexterity and personal strength that likely leads to a high number of home-runs as well as do ...

s Craig Brazell and G.G. Sato were slumping. While his batting average dipped after returning to Japan following the Olympics, Nakajima hit .331 for the season, finishing second to Eagles

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

Rick Short Richard Ryan Short (born December 6, 1972) is an American former professional baseball second baseman who was the co-Hitting coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Wash ...

, who won the batting title by a mere .0007 points. He hit 21 home runs and recorded career highs in

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

(.410, leading the league),

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

(.527), walks (55) and stolen bases (25). Nakajima also made improvements with his

glove A glove is a garment covering the hand. Gloves usually have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb. If there is an opening but no (or a short) covering sheath for each finger they are called fingerless gloves. Fingerless glov ...

, cutting his errors to 12 and winning his first Golden Glove award. He was chosen to the

Best Nine Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...

that year and even prompted many sportswriters to name him the league

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

(though the award eventually went to Eagles ace

Hisashi Iwakuma is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He has played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes from 2000 to 2004, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2005 to 2011, and Yomiuri Giants in 2019, and all of ...

, who went 21–4 with a 1.87

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

). Coming off of the

World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Leagu ...

, Nakajima had a somewhat quiet start to the regular season, hitting .292 with 14 RBIs in the month of April but failing to hit a single home run. At the conclusion of the 2011 season, Nakajima was posted to

. The

won the posting with a $2 million bid. Nakajima and the Yankees failed to reach an agreement on a contract, and Nakajima remained with Seibu.

Oakland Athletics

On December 17, 2012, Nakajima signed a two-year contract worth $6.5 million with the

. As of March 25, 2013, Nakajima was batting only .150 with one double and one RBI in

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

, and John Shea of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' correctly predicted that he would be sent down to the minor leagues. Nakajima was placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 27, and was sent to the

Sacramento River Cats The Sacramento River Cats are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and are the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Prior to 2015, the River Cats were the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics for 15 yea ...

, the Athletics' Triple-A affiliate. On August 17, Nakajima was

designated for assignment Designated for assignment (DFA) is a contractual term used in Major League Baseball (MLB). A player who is designated for assignment is immediately removed from the team's 40-man roster, after which the team must within seven days, return the pla ...

, removing him from the Athletics'

40 man roster A Major League Baseball roster is a list of players who are allowed, by league agreement, to play for a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Each MLB team maintains two rosters: an active roster of players eligible to participate in an MLB game, and ...

. He spent the entire 2013 season in Sacramento, batting .283 in 90 games. Nakajima also started the 2014 season in the minor leagues. Some commentators speculated that Nakajima would need to improve his defense, ''e.g.'', learning how to move faster toward the ball on MLB's grass infields and being more aggressive around the bag, before his play was up to Major League standards.

Orix Buffaloes

In December 2014, Nakajima announced that he had reached a three-year agreement with the

, citing frustration at not being able to make the Athletics' major league roster as the reason for wanting to return to Japan. It was reported that the deal is worth 1.2 billion yen, with being able to join his high school teammate Yamazaki also considered as a factor in his decision to join the Buffaloes. He played for Orix through 2018.

Yomiuri Giants

On November 12, 2018, Nakajima signed with the

International career

2008 Beijing Olympics

Chosen to the Japanese national team for the first time in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Nakajima was expected to

platoon A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may range ...

at third base with veteran Shinya Miyamoto as a result of fellow

middle infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

s Munenori Kawasaki and Tsuyoshi Nishioka (who both had better defensive reputations than Nakajima) being chosen, but ended up playing at his natural position from the second game onwards due to Kawasaki's

injury An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, o ...

in the first game of the tournament against

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. Nakajima played in all nine games, hitting .296 and driving in five runs out of both the 9- and 3-hole, but Japan lost in the

semi-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

on August 22 and dropped the

bronze medal match Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on August 23 in a disappointing fourth-place finish behind South Korea, Cuba and the United States.

2009 World Baseball Classic

Nakajima played in the second World Baseball Classic as a member of the national team, batting

behind leadoff man and current

outfielder

Ichiro Suzuki , also known mononymously as , is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played professionally for 28 seasons. He played nine years of his career with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), where he began his ...

. He went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and two RBI in Japan's 14–2 rout of South Korea in the

first round First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

on March 7 and 2-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI in Japan's 9–4 win over the United States in the

. Though he missed two games due to a high fever in the

second round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...

that was held in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, he played an instrumental role in Japan's

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

run, hitting .364 with a .516 on-base percentage (leading all hitters on the Japanese team with 20 or more plate appearances) and driving in seven runs.

Playing style

Hitting

Listed at and , Nakajima has a combination of speed and power that is rare among Japanese players. He is easily recognizable by his distinct batting stance in which he holds the

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

high above his head, much like the ''jōdan no kamae'' seen in

Kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords (shinai) as well as protective armor (bōgu). Today, it is widely practiced within Japan and has spread ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

martial art Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the preserv ...

). The No. 3 hitter in the Lions lineup, Nakajima is an aggressive hitter who likes to swing early in the count, drawing few walks (though he has improved in this regard in the last few seasons) but often being hit by pitches. He is a spray hitter with moderate power and good speed on the basepaths."Japan's Up-And-Coming Baseball Stars"
''Forbes''

Fielding

Although he has occasionally manned third base during his professional career, Nakajima's primary position for the Lions was shortstop. While he has been known to be somewhat sloppy at times, particularly on the throwing end, he has made strides in his glovework and won the Golden Glove award at shortstop for the first time in 2008. In 2012, one major league executive told

Ken Rosenthal Ken Rosenthal (born September 19, 1962) is an American sportswriter and reporter. He serves as a field reporter for ''Fox Major League Baseball'' since 2005, and was an in-studio reporter for MLB Network from 2009 to 2022. Since August 2017, h ...

of Fox Sports that Nakajima's range at shortstop is average "at best", and a different evaluator told

Buster Olney Robert "Buster" Olney (born ) is an American sports journalist for ESPN, ''ESPN: The Magazine'', and ESPN.com. He previously covered the New York Giants and New York Yankees for ''The New York Times''. He is also a regular analyst for the ES ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

that he is not an everyday player.

References

External links

Career statistics - NPB.jp
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakajima, Hiroyuki 1982 births Living people Baseball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Midland RockHounds players Japanese expatriate baseball players in the United States Nippon Professional Baseball first basemen Nippon Professional Baseball shortstops Nippon Professional Baseball third basemen Olympic baseball players for Japan Orix Buffaloes players People from Itami, Hyōgo Sacramento River Cats players Saitama Seibu Lions players Seibu Lions players Yomiuri Giants players 2009 World Baseball Classic players