is a Japanese former baseball pitcher. He had previously pitched in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians. He is currently the

Pitching Coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisio ...

for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters farm team in Nippon Professional Baseball's Eastern League.

Biography

Tadano was the

ace pitcher In baseball, an ace is a starting pitcher considered the best pitcher on a team and nearly always the first pitcher in the team's starting rotation. Barring injury or exceptional circumstances, an ace typically starts on Opening Day. In additio ...

for

Yachiyo Shoin High School Yachiyo Shoin Junior and Senior High School (八千代松陰中学校・高等学校) are private schools located in Yachiyo Chiba prefecture, Japan. Yachiyo Shoin Junior High School & Senior High School are coeducational schools. About Yachiyo ...

, and led the school to the summer Koshien tournament for the first time. He was a highly regarded pitcher coming out of Rikkyo University and was expected to be a high draft pick in the Nippon Professional Baseball draft in 2002. However, no Japanese team drafted him due to a

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video scandal; he ultimately left Japan. The Cleveland Indians signed Tadano as a free agent in 2003, and he rose through the Cleveland farm system, making his debut in . He made 14 appearances and four starts with a 4.65 ERA in 50⅓ innings. In January 2004, it was widely reported in America that Tadano was featured in a gay porn video , three years previously, with Tadano appearing at a press conference organized by the team. Tadano said, "I was young, playing baseball, and going to college and my teammates and I needed money." He was sidelined due to an injury early in the season, but recovered and was shuttled between Cleveland and the Buffalo Bisons for the rest of the year. On April 4, 2006, Tadano was traded to 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 ...

for outfielder Ramon Alvarado. In 2007, Tadano was sent down to Oakland's Double-A team,

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, after being invited to

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 ...

. He was eventually promoted back up to Triple-A and started off well, looking sharp with a plus splitter. Curiously, he ran into trouble in June. His ERA ballooned as he gave up 29 runs over 5 games. He was moved to the

bullpen In baseball, the bullpen (or simply the pen) is the area where relief pitchers warm up before entering a game. A team's roster of relief pitchers is also metonymically referred to as "the bullpen". These pitchers usually wait in the bullpen if t ...

in July after Oakland demoted

Colby Lewis Colby Preston Lewis (born August 2, 1979), popularly nicknamed "Cobra", is a former American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, Oakland Athletics, and Texas Rangers and in Nippon Pro ...

and Shane Komine. In 2007, he was the 1st pick by the Nippon Ham Fighters in the university/company player draft. He would become the last player of the

Matsuzaka Generation The is a term used to collectively describe the (usually Japanese) baseball players that belong to current Chunichi Dragons starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka's age group. As per Japanese laws on how children are to be divided into grade levels, t ...

to start his

NPB 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 ...

career. He missed the start of the 2008 season with an injury. In 2012, he played in his first

Nippon 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 ...

against the Yomiuri Giants. However, he was thrown out of the game because he was judged to have thrown a

bean ball "Beanball" is a colloquialism used in baseball, for a ball thrown at an opposing player with the intention of striking them such as to cause harm, often connoting a throw at the player's head (or "bean" in old-fashioned slang). A pitcher who thro ...

Ken Katoh is a Nippon Professional Baseball player for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan's Central League. When he played in Nippon Series on November 1, 2012, Kazuhito Tadano is a Japanese former baseball pitcher. He had previously pitched in Major Leagu ...

, the Giants' catcher. He is the first pitcher to be thrown out of the game for a dangerous pitch in Nippon Series, though his pitch did not hit Katoh.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tadano, Kazuhito 1980 births Akron Aeros players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Cleveland Indians players Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters players Japanese expatriate baseball players in the United States Ishikawa Million Stars players Kinston Indians players Living people Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball players from Japan Nippon Professional Baseball coaches Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Sacramento River Cats players Baseball people from Tokyo Stockton Ports players Rikkyo University alumni