Motonobu Tanishige (Japanese: 谷繁元信, born December 21, 1970, in

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

) is a retired

Japanese professional baseball Professional baseball in Japan first started in the 1920s, but it was not until the was established in 1934 that the modern professional game had continued success. History Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, and its first ...

player and manager. Tanishige played 27 seasons in

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), appearing in more games than any other player in NPB history. Making his debut for the

Taiyo Whales The are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its current ...

in 1989 at age 18, he played for the franchise for 13 years. In 2002, he moved to the Chunichi Dragons, where he played for 14 seasons, until 2015. He was the

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

of the Chunichi Dragons from 2014 to 2015, staying on as manager in 2016. Tanishige played in five

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 ...

. He played in the

2006 World Baseball Classic The 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was the inaugural tournament between national baseball teams that included players from Major League Baseball. It was held from March 3 to 20 in stadiums that are in and around Tokyo, Japan; San Juan, Puerto ...

, when Japan won the championship.

Professional career

Tanishige performed well in the

2004 Japan Series The Japan Series, the 55th edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's championship series, began on October 16 and ended on October 25, and matched the Pacific League playoffs winner Seibu Lions against the Central League Champion, Chunichi Drago ...

(which the Dragons lost 4-games-to-3 to the Seibu Lions), including hitting his first career grand slam. In 2015, Tanishige broke the NPB record for games played, passing Katsuya Nomura with 3,018"Dragons’ Tanishige plays in NPB record 3,018th game,"
''Japan Times'' (July 28, 2015). — he later extended the record. Tanishige is second on the career strikeout list with 1,838. With more than 200 career home runs, Tanshige is a member of the

Meikyukai The is one of the two baseball halls of fame in Japan, the other being the . The Meikyukai is a limited company for public benefit. Founded by Hall of Fame pitcher Masaichi Kaneda in 1978, the Meikyukai honors players born after 1926 (the begin ...

hall of fame.

Managerial career

After retiring from playing at the end of the 2015 season, Tanishige became full-time manager of the Dragons. After a rocky start to the season followed by a lacklustre continuation following the All-Star break, on August 10, 2016, he was relieved from his duties alongside fielding coach

Takahiro Saeki Takahiro Saeki (佐伯貴弘, born April 18, 1970, in Osaka, Osaka, Japan) is a former Nippon Professional Baseball infielder. Under former manager Motonobu Tanishige he was a fielding coach for the Chunichi Dragons The are a professional ...

. He was replaced by head coach,

Shigekazu Mori Shigekazu Mori (森繁和, born November 18, 1954 in Chosei, Chiba Prefecture) is a former Japanese professional baseball pitcher who played for the Seibu Lions in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseba ...

for the remainder of the season.

References

External links

* 1970 births Living people Baseball people from Hiroshima Prefecture Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball catchers Yokohama Taiyō Whales players Yokohama BayStars players Chunichi Dragons players 2006 World Baseball Classic players Managers of baseball teams in Japan Baseball player-managers Chunichi Dragons managers {{japan-baseball-catcher-stub