was a Japanese former

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 ...

player and manager. In his first few years as a major league player, Tamiya was utilized as a pitcher and first baseman, but in the prime of his career, he was an outfielder. He was inducted into 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 2002.

Early life

Tamiya was born in

Shimodate, Ibaraki was a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the city had an estimated population of 64,467 and the density of 747.44 persons per km2. The total area was 86.25 km2. On March 28, 2005, Shimodate, along with the towns of Ake ...

and attended Shimodate Shogyo High School. Tamiya also attended

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

, where he won a Tokyo Metropolitan University League batting title in 1947, before dropping out.

Professional career

Tamiya first started for the

Osaka Tigers The Hanshin Tigers (Japanese: 阪神タイガース ''Hanshin Taigāsu'') are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and is owned by Hanshin Electric Railway ...

of the

Japanese Baseball League was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936 to 1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball. The league's dominant team was Tokyo Kyojin (renamed the Yomiuri Giants in 1947), which won nine league c ...

, as a pitcher and, occasionally, a first baseman. On March 16, 1950, he almost threw the first

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

history, coming within one out, before Sakae Nakamura got a hit that ended the bid. A shoulder injury in 1952 would see him move to the outfield, where he spent the rest of his career. As a Tiger, Tamiya won the

Best Nine Award The Best Nine Award is awarded annually to the best player at each position in both the Central League and Pacific League of Japanese professional baseball as determined by a pool of journalists. History While the Best Nine Award was first presen ...

3 times, in 1956, 1957, and 1958. He also led the league in

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, ...

and

triple Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row * ...

s in 1957, as well as

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 ...

and triples in 1958. Tamiya would sign with the

Daimai Orions 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 inaugura ...

in 1959 and immediately tied as league leader in doubles with

Kazuhiro Yamauchi was a Japanese baseball player and manager. He played for the Mainichi Orions, the Hanshin Tigers and the Hiroshima Toyo Carp over the span of an 18 season-long career (1952–1970). Yamauchi was the first Japanese professional baseball playe ...

. He would win the Best Nine Award two more times, in 1960 and 1961. He retired in 1963. He is one of only six NPB players who have hit 100 homers and pitched a win.

Managerial career

In 1969, Tamiya became a

hitting 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

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...

, but, in the next year, he became the manager of the

Toei Flyers 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 ...

, and led for three years, finishing with a record of 155–209–21 as the Flyer's skipper. In 1995 and 1996, he was the manager for the

Chinese Professional Baseball League The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL; ) is the top-tier professional baseball league in Taiwan. The league was established in 1989 and played the first season in 1990. CPBL eventually absorbed the competing Taiwan Major League in 20 ...

team

Wei Chuan Dragons The Wei Chuan Dragons () are a professional baseball team in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) that originally existed between 1990 and 1999. In 2019, negotiations regarding the franchise's revival and return to the CPBL took ...

and finished with a record of 83–104–3.

Later life and death

Tamiya would serve as a council member for his hometown, Shimodate. He died on May 5, 2010, at the age of 82 due to

brain hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamiya, Kenjiro 1928 births 2010 deaths Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Nippon Professional Baseball outfielders Osaka Tigers players Daimai Orions players Managers of baseball teams in Japan Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters managers Japanese sportsperson-politicians Wei Chuan Dragons managers Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame inductees