, also known as Kazuto Yamamoto, was a former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

infielder and manager in the Japan Baseball League (JBL) and

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). Tsuroka played for the same franchise in 1939, and from 1946 to 1952, which during his career changed names from the Nankai Club to Kinki Great Ring, and ultimately to the

Nankai 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. ...

. (Tsuroka did not play professional baseball from 1940 to 1945.) In 1939 he won the JBL home run title with 10. Returning to the JBL after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, in 1946 he won the JBL Most Valuable Player Award, repeating the feat in 1948. His team won the JBL championship both those years. In 1949, he was named player-manager of the Hawks. His playing career ended after the 1952 season, but he stayed on as the team's manager through the 1968 season, guiding the team to

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 ...

championships in 1959 and 1964. His managerial record overall was 1773–1140, for a winning percentage of .609. Tsuroka was elected by the Selection Committee for the Players to the

Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame The is a museum which includes a library, reference rooms and . It first opened in 1959 next door to Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. In 1988, the museum moved to a new site within the Tokyo Dome. The Hall of Fame and Museum was created as a ...

in 1965.

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsuruoka, Kazuto 1916 births 2000 deaths Baseball people from Hiroshima Prefecture category:Hosei University alumni Japanese baseball players Nankai Hawks players category:Nippon Professional Baseball MVP Award winners Managers of baseball teams in Japan category:Baseball player-managers Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks managers Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame inductees