Kazumasa Azuma
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is a retired Japanese
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 ...
pitcher with 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 ...
in Japan's
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 ...
.


Career

He started playing baseball in the second grade of elementary school and won the national tournament in the third year of junior high school. He received invitations from strong schools in the prefecture, but he refused and went to the local Sukumo High School, and in the summer of his third year, he lost to Meitoku Gijuku in the semifinals of the prefectural tournament. He joined the team after being selected 4th overall by the Yokohama BayStars in the 2000 draft. Although he graduated from high school, he started pitching in the first team from his first year.プロ野球人名事典 2003(2003年、日外アソシエーツ)、13ページ In 2002, he pitched in 28 games for the first team. On May 25, 2003, he made his first professional start against the Yomiuri Giants (Yokohama Stadium). He competed in Fresh All-Stars. He was the starting pitcher for the Eastern selection. He is the Eastern League's best pitcher with an ERA of 1.55. On June 23, 2004, he was traded to the Seibu Lions along with pitcher Masahiro Tasaki in an exchange trade with pitcher Yoshihiro Doi. On July 4, 2006, he pitched as a reliever in a game against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and got his first win after transferring to the Seibu Lions, even though he only faced one batter. In 2008, he did not appear in the first team for the second year in a row and was notified that he was out of action. He was announced as a free agent on December 2. He makes a fresh start as a company employee.


References


External links

* Living people 1982 births Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Yokohama BayStars players Seibu Lions players Saitama Seibu Lions players Baseball people from Kōchi Prefecture Sportspeople from Kōchi, Kōchi {{japan-baseball-pitcher-stub