(born February 8, 1944) is a 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 catch ...

who played his entire career with 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 h ...

from 1962 to 1981. A speedy switch-hitter, he won the

Japan Series Most Valuable Player Award The is given to the player deemed to have the most impact on his team's performance in the Japan Series, which is the final round of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) postseason. The award was first presented in 1950. The series follows a ...

in 1966, after he hit .565 with 13 hits in the 1966 Japan Series. With 579 career stolen bases, Shibata is third on the all-time

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

list. With more than 2,000 career hits, Shibata is a member of Meikyukai, otherwise known as the Golden Players Club.

External links

Baseball-Reference
1944 births Living people Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball outfielders Yomiuri Giants players Japanese baseball coaches Nippon Professional Baseball coaches {{Japan-baseball-outfielder-stub