Tokuji "Atsushi" Nagaike (長池 徳士, born February 21, 1944) is a Japanese former professional baseball
outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...
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 ...
. He played 14 seasons in NPB, all for 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 ...
, from 1966 to 1979. A two-time
Pacific League Most Valuable Player and seven-time
Best Nine Award-winner,
[Albright, Jim]
"Japanese Best Nine Winners,"
The Baseball Guru. Retrieved July 26, 2020. Nagaike was one of his era's best players in Japan's
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 ...
.
In 1967, Nagaike hit .281 with 27 home runs and 78 RBI, and was given a Best Nine Award as an outfielder.
In 1969, Nagaike hit .316 with 95 runs scored, 41 home runs, 101 RBI, 21 stolen bases, and a 1.005 OPS, to win the
Pacific League MVP Award. That year he led the Pacific League in runs, home runs, and RBI, and won his second Best Nine Award.
Nagaike won another Best Nine Award in 1970 with 28 home runs and 102 RBI to go along with a .309 batting average.
In 1971 he hit .317 with 40 home runs and 114 RBI, to go with a 1.022 OPS, to win his second Pacific League MVP Award and third Best Nine Award. Nagaikie's 87 runs scored led the league. That year he also had a then-league record 32-game hitting streak.
He surpassed 40 home runs and 1.000 OPS each of the following two seasons, with his .290 average, 41 home runs and 95 RBI in 1972 earning him another Best Nine Award. His 1973 stats of 43 home runs and 109 RBI, to go with a .313 average garnered Nagaike his sixth Best Nine Award.
Nagaike won his seventh and final Best Nine Award in 1975 on the strength of his 25 home runs.
Late in his career, as he became a part-time player, Nagaike's Braves won three straight
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, in 1975, 1976, and 1977.
After retiring as a player, Nagaike stayed on as a coach in the NPB through the 1980s and 1990s.
See also
*
List of top Nippon Professional Baseball home run hitters This is a list of the top 40 Nippon Professional Baseball home run hitters. In the sport of baseball, a ''home run'' is a hit in which the batter scores by circling all the bases and reaching home plate in one play, without the benefit of a fielding ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagaike, Tokuji
1944 births
Living people
Baseball people from Tokushima Prefecture
Japanese baseball players
Hankyu Braves players
Nippon Professional Baseball outfielders
Nippon Professional Baseball MVP Award winners
Japanese baseball coaches
Nippon Professional Baseball coaches