was a Japanese professional baseball pitcher. Listed at 5' 10" , 162 lb. , Minagawa batted and threw right handed. He was born in

Yonezawa, Yamagata Yonezawa City Hall is a city in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 81,707 in 33,278 households, and a population density of 150 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Yonezawa is most famous for i ...

.Japan Pacific League Register Statistics and History
''Baseball Reference''. Retrieved on August 14, 2016. A tough three quarters, side arm pitcher, Minagawa spent 18 seasons in the Pacific Coast League during three different decades spanning 1954–1971, all of them with 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. ...

, which is currently known as the Softbank Hawks.Minagawa, Mutsuo - Sidearm pitcher, a mainprop of the heyday of the Nankai Hawks
''Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Website''. Retrieved on August 19, 2016. By using a wide array of breaking pitches, his command of

slider Slider or Sliders may refer to: Arts * K.K. Slider, a fictional character within the ''Animal Crossing'' franchise * '' The Slider'', a 1972 album by T. Rex * ''Sliders'' (TV series), an American science fiction and fantasy television series * ...

s and

screwball A screwball is a baseball and fastpitch softball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action. The pitch is sometimes known ...

s secured him double-digit victories during 11 seasons, including eight consecutive years from 1956 through 1963. A six-time All-Star, Minagawa also received

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 present ...

honors and was a member of Hawks teams that won six pennant titles and two

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. Overall, he posted a career 221-139 record highlighted by a 31-win season in 1968. Since then there has been no other pitchers in the

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 ...

who won 30 or more games in a regular season.Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 2011
''Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Website''. Retrieved on August 19, 2016.

Pitching career

1950s

Minagawa debuted in 1954 with Nankai at age 18 and was used sparingly in his first three seasons, being part of the pitching staff of the 1955 Pacific League pennant winner, even though he did not play in the Japan Series. He improved in 1956, ending with an 11-10 mark, 2.17

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

and innings pitched in 60 appearances, starting 16 games and pitching his first career

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

. Then in 1957 he had 23 outings in 56 appearances, winning 18 games while losing 10. In addition, he posted a 2.64

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

for the seventh-best of the league, pitched an eight-best innings, and earned his first All-Star selection. Afterwards, Minagawa had a breakthrough season in 1958, going 17-8 with a 1.83 ERA in 52 pitching appearances, ending second in the league in ERA and shutouts (6), fourth in win-lost percentage (.680) and eighth in innings. (). But the 1959 season was memorable for Minagawa and the Hawks in many ways. The breaking-ball pitcher played in 51 of the 130 games of his team (39%), amassing a 10-6 record with a 1.92 ERA and 0.947 WHIP in 14 starts and 37 relief appearances, while Nankai contended 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 ...

the Pacific League pennant for most of the summer. Finally, Nankai captured the pennant with a six-game cushion in the standings, claiming the right to face the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

of the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consi ...

in the Japan Series. And the Hawks prevailed, blanking Yomiuri 4–0 in the best-of-seven series, to clinch its first Japan Series after four failed attempts. Minagawa made a brief relief appearance in the Series, allowing a run in just one inning of work.

1960s

Then in 1960, Minagawa went 11-8 with a 2.89 ERA in limited action due to an injury. He rebounded in 1961, running his record to 16-7 with a 1.98 ERA in 51 games as a swingman pitcher, helping the Hawks win a pennant for a third time. Moreover, Minagawa would face again the Yomiuri Giants in the 1961 Japan Series. He then lost a pitcher's duel to

Ritsuo Horimoto was a Japanese baseball pitcher. He played for the Yomiuri Giants from 1960 to 1962, winning both the Central League Rookie of the Year Award and the Eiji Sawamura Award in his first season. The Giants won the Japan Series the next year, and ...

in Game 2, and was 0-1 with a 2.92 ERA in the tournament, which was won by Yomiuri in six hard-battled games. Once more, Minagawa would pitch effectively in 1962 with another dominating performance for the second-place Hawks, winning 19 games and losing just four for a respectable .826 W–L%, ranked as the best mark in the league. He also ended third in BB/9 (1.04), fifth in wins and tenth in ERA (2.50),

striking out ''Striking Out'' is an Irish television legal drama series, broadcast on RTÉ, that first aired on 1 January 2017. Produced by Bl!nder F!lms for RTÉ Television, ''Striking Out'' stars Amy Huberman as Dublin-based solicitor Tara Rafferty, who is ...

119 batters and allowing only 33 walks over innings to complement his efforts. In 1963 the Hawks came close to winning the pennant, but faded in the stretch and finished in second place five games behind 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 ...

. Minagawa pitched well this year, but not enough to propel his team to the title. He went 12-9 with a 2.54 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in 188.0 innings, while appearing in 53 of the 150 games of the Hawks. Nevertheless, he would help his team clinch three pennants in a row from 1964 through 1966 and a second title in the Japan Series. Minagawa then saw the most time out of the bullpen in 1964, going 7-5 with a 2.91 ERA for the Hawks pennant-winning team. Eventually, Nankai won its Japan Series second title after defeating the

Hanshin 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 Railwa ...

in a maximum of seven games. Minagawa was 0-1 in the Series. In 1965, Minagawa was used mostly as a

spot starter S sabermetrics :Sabermetrics is the analysis of baseball through objective evidence, especially baseball statistics. The term is derived from the SABR – the Society for American Baseball Research. The term was coined by Bill James, an ...

, as he opened 18 of his 40 games and hurled two shutouts in the process. Furthermore, he made his second All-Star team. Overall, he had a record of 14-10 with a 264 ERA in innings, while the Hawks won the pennant title with a lead of 12 games over the Flyers. But Nankai was unable to maintain its winning pace in the Japan Series, falling in five games to Yomiuri. As a result of his improvement in 1965, Minagawa rejoined the starting rotation in the 1966 season and led the Hawks in wins (18), ERA (2.12), starts (29), complete games (11), shutouts (6) and innings (212.0). Additionally, he topped the league's qualified starters in W–L% (.720), tied for the second in ERA, finished third in shutouts, fifth in wins and tenth in complete games, while earning a third All-Star berth. Nankai claimed the pennant title, four games ahead of the

Nishitetsu 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 Rail ...

, but again lost the Japan Series to the Yomiuri Giants in six games. Minagawa was 0-2 with a 4.26 ERA in the Series, losing both Games 4 and 6. Minagawa went on to have another solid season for the fourth-place Hawks in 1967, going 17-13 with a 2.29 ERA in 45 games and being named for the fourth time to the All-Star Game. His 17 victories ranked him third on the Pacific League list, while his ERA was the fifth-best. He also finished third in starts (35), fifth in complete games (9) and shutouts (3), and seventh in innings (). His most productive season came in 1968, when he posted a 31-10 record with a 1.61 ERA and worked hard to pitch a career-high innings. Yet Minagawa was thorough. He led the league in wins, ERA, complete games (27), shutouts (8), innings, WHIP (0.905), BB/9 (1.6) and K/BB (3.06).1968 Japan Pacific League Pitching Leaders
''Baseball Reference''. Retrieved on August 20, 2016. Minagawa also received

honors as the best pitcher in the Pacific League, and made his fourth consecutive All-Star team and fifth overall. Nevertheless, the Hawks finished in second place one game behind the PL champions the

Hankyu Braves The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefectur ...

. But things changed after that. In 1969 Minagawa thrown only innings due to arm fatigue. He had a 5-14 record with a 2.61 ERA in 33 games, 20 of them in relief duties, while collecting one shutout and four complete games.

1970s

In the 1970 season, Minagawa tried to make a comeback as starter but failed in his effort. He went 9-10 in 27 contests, completing eight of his 24 starts with two shutouts, while posting a 3.79 ERA in innings of work. Even so, he made his sixth and last appearance in the All-Star Game. Fittingly, Minagawa ended his career with the Hawks, the team with which he had enjoyed his finest years in the Pacific League. The right-hander pitched his final season in 1971, going 6-5 with a 4.26 in 25 games over innings. For good measure, in 18 starts he hurled five complete games and logged his 37th career shutout. Minagawa retired at the age of 35 with 221 wins and 139 losses for a winning percentage of .614, in addition to a 2.42 ERA. He allowed a

batting average against In baseball statistics, batting average against (denoted by BAA or AVG), also known as opponents' batting average (denoted by OBA), is a statistic that measures a pitcher's ability to prevent hits during official at bats. It can alternatively be ...

of just .215 while facing 12,552 hitters in 3,158.0 innings of work. A notorious ground ball pitcher, he was able to induce double plays and provided solid numbers in hits and

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s allowed per nine innings, recording 7.7 H/9 and 0.6 HR/9, respectively.

Later years

Following his playing retirement, Minagawa served as pitching coach for Yomiuri, Hanshin and the

Kintetsu Buffaloes The were a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team based in Osaka, Japan, which was in the Pacific League. In 2005 the team was merged with the Orix BlueWave to become the team now known as the Orix Buffaloes. The team played in Fujiidera Stadiu ...

between the 1970s and 1980s. He died from a blood disease in 2005 at a hospital in Sakai, Osaka, at the age of 69.Minagawa, last pitcher to reach 30 wins
''AFSpot.net''. Retrieved on August 14, 2016. Minagawa was enshrined 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 ...

as part of its 2011 class, along with three-time Triple Crown winner and manager

Hiromitsu Ochiai Hiromitsu Ochiai (落合博満 ''Ochiai Hiromitsu'', born December 9, 1953) is a Japanese professional baseball manager and former player. He is former manager of the Chunichi Dragons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He is considered to ...

. He is also a distinguished Meikyukai Member. Even though he was never recognized with an

Eiji Sawamura Award The , commonly known as the Sawamura Award, is an honor bestowed upon the top starting pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball each year. The award was originally established by Japanese magazine "Nekkyū" in 1947 to honor the career of Eiji Sawa ...

, Minagawa is well remembered as the last pitcher in Japanese professional baseball to post 30 wins or more in a single season, as was aforementioned before.

Pitching career

1950s

1960s

1970s

Later years

Sources

Further reading