is a Japanese

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 ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

. He pitched for 14 seasons for the

Seibu 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 Railway, wh ...

and made three All-Star teams. His brother Akio Ishii was drafted in 1986 but never made it into

Nippon Pro 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 ...

Career

Takashi Ishii played for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Yokohama in the industrial leagues out of high school. While with Mitsubishi, he was timed at 94 mph. Seibu drafted him in the first round in 1993. In

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, the rookie was roughed up for 14 hits and 13 runs in 6 2/3 innings for Seibu. He improved to 2-2, 4.03 as a

swingman A swingman is an athlete capable of playing multiple positions in their sport. Basketball In basketball, the term “swingman” (a.k.a. “wing” or “guard-forward”) denotes a player who can play both the shooting guard (2) and small forwa ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

but allowed a .304 average. In

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, Ishii was 3-6 with four saves and a 2.93 ERA. Among Lions hurlers with 50+ innings, only closer

Tetsuya Shiozaki is a 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 t ...

had a better ERA. Takashi was 10-8 with nine saves and a 3.61 ERA in 59 outings in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

. He was second on Seibu in appearances after

LOOGY In baseball, a left-handed specialist (also known as lefty specialist) is a relief pitcher who throws left-handed and specializes in pitching to left-handed batters, weak right-handed batters, and switch-hitters who bat poorly right-handed. Beca ...

Takehiro Hashimoto Takehiro (written: , , , , , , , , , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese baseball player *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese actor *Takehiro Honda (born 1945), Japanese jazz pianist *, Jap ...

, tied

Shinji Mori Shinji Mori ( ja, 森慎二, September 12, 1974 – June 28, 2017) was a right-handed pitcher in professional baseball. Career From -, he played for the Seibu Lions in Nippon Professional Baseball. After the 2005 season, he was acquired by the ...

for the most saves and tied

Kiyoshi Toyoda Kiyoshi Toyoda (豊田清, born February 2, 1971) is a Japanese professional baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the co ...

for third in wins. He made the

Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consis ...

All-Star team for the first time. He allowed eight hits and four runs (three earned) in 5 2/3 IP in the 1997 Japan Series, but the team fell to the

Yakult Swallows The Tokyo Yakult Swallows () are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Yom ...

. The Kanagawa native was 9-3 with a 3.29 ERA in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

while moving primarily into the rotation. He tied

Tomohiro Kuroki Tomohiro Kuroki (黒木知宏, born December 13, 1973, in Hyūga, Miyazaki, Japan) is a former Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. ...

for second in the circuit in ERA behind Satoru Kanemura but failed to make the All-Star team. He started and won game four of the

1998 Japan Series The 1998 Japan Series was the 49th edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's postseason championship series. The Seibu Lions represented the Pacific League, while the Yokohama BayStars represented the Central League. The BayStars won the series ...

after relieving in game two; he was 1-0 with a 2.61 ERA and 0.67

WHIP A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

for the Series, which Seibu dropped to 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 ...

in six games. Ishii turned in a 13-8, 3.07 campaign in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, his first year full-time as a starter. He made his second All-Star team. He was sixth in the circuit in ERA and fifth in wins. He had the second-best ERA on the Seibu starting staff, trailing

Daisuke Matsuzaka is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher, who pitched professionally for 23 seasons, 16 of them in NPB, 7 in MLB. He is currently a baseball color commentator, critic, reporter, and YouTuber. Daisuke is nicknamed in Japan and "Dice-K ...

, on a strong rotation including Toyoda, Shiozaki (at times), Mori (at times),

Fumiya Nishiguchi , (born September 26, 1972) is a Japanese baseball player. He is a right-handed pitcher in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball for the Saitama Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo i ...

and Matsuzaka. In

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, Takashi fell to 10-7, 4.31. In May, he was hit in the head by a Koji Akiyama liner but did not sustain serious injury. He made his last All-Star team that season. He tied six others for the league lead with two shutouts. In

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, Ishii was 5-9 with a 3.76 ERA. The veteran right-hander rebounded to 8-3, 3.11 in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. Had he qualified, he would have ranked fifth in the PL in ERA. Among Seibu's regularly-used starting pitchers, only Chih-Chia Chang had a better ERA while Ishii out-pitched Koji Mitsui, Nishiguchi,

Ming-Chieh Hsu Hsu Ming-Chieh (), born December 1, 1976 is a baseball pitcher currently playing for Chinese Professional Baseball League's Lamigo Monkeys in Taiwan. He previously played for Nippon Professional Baseball's Saitama Seibu Lions and Orix Buffaloes. ...

, Shiozaki and Matsuzaka. Seibu was swept in the 2002 Japan Series by 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 ...

; Ishii started and lost game two. He was roughed up for seven hits and six runs in just two innings before Hsu relieved him. Ishii was 1-2 with a 4.24 ERA in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

while battling shoulder problems. Not fully healthy in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, he was just 1-5 with a 4.65 ERA. Matsuzaka, Nishiguchi, Chang and

Kazuyuki Hoashi is a Japanese 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 ...

all had better regular seasons, but Seibu skipper Tsutomu Itō still went with Ishii to start game one of 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 ...

. He turned in a gem, a combined shutout of 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) ...

for the win. He did not pitch again until game seven, when he was called on to face

Domingo Guzmán Domingo Guzmán (born April 5, 1975) is a former Major League Baseball player. He made his major league debut with the San Diego Padres in 1999, and played in 8 games from 1999 to 2000. He traveled to Taiwan, and played one season in the Chinese ...

in the finale. Ishii again pitched shutout ball to get the win (his bullpen did allow two late runs). He finished 2-0 with 13 scoreless innings and only five hits for the Series, having won more games than he had in the entire regular season, something no one had ever done before. He was named

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 ...

MVP, presumably his career highlight. Ishii fell to 2-4, 8.04 in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

with a .353 opponent average. He rebounded to 4-1, 3.49 in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

while pitching full-time as a reliever for the first time in nine years. He allowed six runs in 7 1/3 innings in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

to end his playing career. He later was Seibu's pitching coach. Overall, Takashi Ishii was 68-58 with 13 saves and a 3.78 ERA in 321 games in Nippon Pro Baseball. Ishii retired after the 2007 season, and became a pitching coach for the Lions.

References

External links

Japanbaseballdaily.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ishii, Takashi 1971 births Living people People from Ayase, Kanagawa Baseball people from Kanagawa Prefecture Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Seibu Lions players Managers of baseball teams in Japan