, nicknamed "Nao", is a former professional baseball player from

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

, Japan. He is a starting pitcher for the

Yokohama DeNA BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japan, 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 c ...

Career

He attended Hōtoku Gakuen High School. He joined the Japanese Olympic baseball team for the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, and won a bronze medal. He also played with the Japanese national team 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 ...

. Tragedy struck in January 2008 when Shimizu's wife died. He has 3 kids. After ten seasons with the

Chiba Lotte Marines 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 inaugural ...

from 2000 to 2009, Shimizu became a free agent and signed with the

Yokohama BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japan, 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 c ...

. His career numbers with the Marines were 93 wins against 85 losses, with a career 4.02 ERA, tossing 38 complete games and nine shutouts.

References

External links

* 1975 births Living people Baseball in New Zealand Baseball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Chiba Lotte Marines players Japanese baseball coaches Japanese expatriates in New Zealand Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Nippon Professional Baseball coaches Olympic baseball players of Japan Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Olympic medalists in baseball Baseball people from Kyoto Yokohama BayStars players Yokohama DeNA BayStars players 2006 World Baseball Classic players {{Japan-Olympic-medalist-stub