is a retired Japanese professional baseball player. He played mostly as an outfielder for 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) ...

and 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, w ...

of the Nippon Professional Baseball league in a career spanning 18 years. Following retirement in 2015, he has become a color commentator for Dragons broadcasts for the

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

Early career

Playing for

Tohoku Fukushi University is a Japanese private university in Sendai. Notable alumni Politics *Shintaro Ito * Itsunori Onodera Sports *Baseball **Mamoru Kishida ** Takashi Saito ** Kazuhiro Sasaki **Kazuhiro Wada ** Ken Kadokura **Tomoaki Kanemoto *Figure skating ** Aki ...

, Wada was MVP of the Sendai Big Six University League as a senior and won the batting title. He hit .429 for Kobe Seiko in the industrial leagues, then in 1996 was drafted in the fourth round of the Japanese draft by the

Professional career

Seibu Lions

He hit .190 in 1997 when he first played for Seibu and was 0/1 in the 1997 Japan Series. In 1998, Wada hit .333 in 36 games for Seibu and split his time between catching and the outfield. He went 0/2 in the 1998 Japan Series. In 1999, he batted .271 while again seeing limited time behind the plate, with

Tsutomu Ito Tsutomu is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings ''Tsutomu can be written using different kanji characters. Here are some examples: *勉, "make effort" *務, "affairs" *務武, "affairs, warrior" *勤, "diligence" *努, "strive" The ...

starting. In 1998, Wada began playing semiregularly as an outfielder, batting .306, the same average he recorded the next year. He still not yet an everyday player. In 2002, Wada finally became a starter and responded by batting .319 with 33 homers. Playing left field and DH, he made the Best Nine as the top designated hitter in 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 cons ...

. He finished third in slugging behind teammates

Alex Cabrera Alexander Alberto Cabrera (born December 24, 1971) is a Venezuelan first baseman and right-handed batter who played in 2000 for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball and for 12 seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball. Also played sev ...

and

Kazuo Matsui is a Japanese retired professional baseball player who played as a shortstop and is the current manager of the Saitama Seibu Lions. He is a switch-hitter. Matsui signed with the New York Mets on December 17, 2003, becoming the first Japanese i ...

. His Japan Series woes continued with a miserable 0/15 in the

2002 Japan Series The 2002 Japan Series was the 53rd edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's postseason championship series. It matched the Central League champion Yomiuri Giants against the Pacific League champion Seibu Lions. The Giants swept the Lions in four g ...

, as Seibu got swept 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 ...

. Wada did even better in 2003, hitting .346 (.379 with runners in scoring position), homering 30 times, scoring 87 runs and driving in 89. He made his first All-Star team and was on the Best Nine as an outfielder alongside

Yoshitomo Tani Yoshitomo Tani (谷佳知, born February 9, 1973) is a former Japanese professional baseball player from Higashiōsaka, Osaka, Japan. He played as an outfielder for the Orix Buffaloes and Yomiuri Giants. He holds the Pacific League record for hi ...

and Tuffy Rhodes. Wada finished third in the Pacific League in average (behind

Michihiro Ogasawara Michihiro Ogasawara (小笠原道大, born October 25, 1973 in Mihama-ku, Chiba, Chiba Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese former professional baseball player. He is currently the first team head coach for Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He had an ...

and Tani) and slugging (behind Cabera and Ogasawara). He was fourth in OBP behind Ogasawara,

Tadahito Iguchi , nicknamed "Gucci", is a Japanese served professional baseball second baseman and from manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). As a member of the Chicago White Sox in 2005, Iguchi became the first Japanese-bor ...

and

Nobuhiko Matsunaka is a former left fielder and designated hitter for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He played in the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics as well as the 2006 World Baseball Classic, hitting cleanup in and . Early life and amateur career Mats ...

. 2004 was an eventful year for Wada. He hit .320 (.375 with RISP), homered 30 times and drove in 89 despite missing time for the 2004 Olympics. For the bronze medal-winning Japanese club in the Olympics, he hit .333 and slugged .636. Hitting cleanup or fifth for Seibu, he was honored again as an All-Star and Best Nine. In the 2004 Japan Series, he finally broke his postseason struggles in a big way by batting .310 with four homers in Seibu's victory over the

. Wada broke a 54-year-old record for most extra-base hits in a

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 ...

with eight, breaking

Isao Harimoto is a Korean former Nippon Professional Baseball player and holder of the record for most hits in the Japanese professional leagues. An ethnic Korean, his birth name is Jang Hun (Hangul: 장훈, Hanja: 張勳). Harimoto has spent his life as a resi ...

's record of 7 in the

1950 Japan Series The 1950 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1950 season. It was the first Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champions, the Mainichi Orions, against the Central League champions, the Shoch ...

. His 26 total bases were a Japan Series record, breaking

Yasumitsu Toyoda was a Japanese professional baseball player and coach, who played as a shortstop. He played and coached for the Nishitetsu Lions and the Swallows franchise of Nippon Professional Baseball. In 1972, he coached the Kintetsu Buffaloes. Playing c ...

's 46-year-old record of 25; he tied the record with four homers in a series and his two homers in game six helped Seibu to a 4-2 victory to tie the series at three. Takashi Ishii beat him out for Series MVP honors, though. Wada continued his dazzling pace in 2005, batting .322, though his 27 homers were his lowest total in four years. He made his fourth straight All-Star contingent. He edged Julio Zuleta (.319) and Matsunaka (.315) for the first Pacific League batting title won by a right-handed hitter since Hatsuhiko Tsuji in 1993. He was fourth in slugging, third in OBP, tied for third in runs (80), first in hits (153), second in doubles (32). Wada was on the winning Japanese club in the 2006 World Baseball Classic and went 0 of 2 with one strikeout in two games as the backup left fielder to

Hitoshi Tamura Hitoshi Tamura (多村仁志, born March 28, 1977) is a retired Japanese professional baseball player who last played with the Chunichi Dragons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Following his release from the Yokohama DeNA Baystars in 20 ...

. Wada hit .298 in 2006 and finished third in the PL with 95 RBI, second to

Fernando Seguignol Fernando Alfredo Seguignol Garcia (born January 19, 1975) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder. Seguignol also played eight years in Nippon Professional Baseball. A switch hitter, Seguignol is regarded as the best swi ...

with 34 doubles, eighth with 144 hits, seventh with 239 total bases, tied for seventh with 72 runs, second with 78 walks (trailing only Matsunaka). He was fourth in OBP and eighth in slugging. His home run total continued to fall, down to 19, but still tied for seventh in the PL. He re-signed for Seibu for ¥275 million plus incentives.

Chunichi Dragons

At the end of the 2007 season, Wada opted for free agency and joined boyhood club and reigning Japan Series champions, the

in a 3-year, ¥840 million deal to replace

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

bound right-fielder, Kosuke Fukudome.

Personal

Wada's hobbies are fishing,

pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...

and mah jong.

Sources

*This is a shortened version of the Baseball-Reference.com Bullpen articl
Kazuhiro Wada
accessed February 21, 2007. The Bullpen is a wiki, and its content is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

External links

Japanbaseballdaily.com by Gary Garland

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wada, Kazuhiro 1972 births Living people Baseball people from Gifu Prefecture Sportspeople from Gifu category:Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball outfielders Seibu Lions players Chunichi Dragons players 2006 World Baseball Classic players Olympic baseball players for Japan Baseball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Nippon Professional Baseball MVP Award winners Olympic medalists in baseball Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics category:Japanese baseball coaches Nippon Professional Baseball coaches