is a former 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. Moder ...

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. He played in

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 ...

(NPB) 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 ...

from to 2009. He was drafted in the first round in the NPB Draft.

Career

Playing career

Tatsunami holds the all-time NPB

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

record with 487, and is a member of the

Meikyukai The is one of the two baseball halls of fame in Japan, the other being the . The Meikyukai is a limited company for public benefit. Founded by Hall of Fame pitcher Masaichi Kaneda in 1978, the Meikyukai honors players born after 1926 (the begi ...

(Association of Great Players, or Golden Players Club). After the 2009 season, Tatsunami retired, having seen his skills and playing time diminish for the last few seasons. He retired with a career .285 batting average, 171 home runs, 1,037 RBI, and 2,480 hits. On 15 January 2019, Tatsunami was inducted into the

Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame The , commonly known outside of Japan as the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, is a hall of fame and museum in Tokyo dedicated to professional baseball, with a prominent focus on professional baseball in Japan. The Hall is intended to honor and co ...

for his achievements as a player.

Coaching career

On 13 October 2021, it was confirmed that Tatsunami has been approached to become the new manager of the

ahead of the 2022 NPB season. On 18 September 2024, Tatsunami announced that he would be resigning following the season after lackluster results with the team.

References

External links

* * 1969 births Living people People from Settsu, Osaka Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball infielders Chunichi Dragons players Chunichi Dragons managers Nippon Professional Baseball Rookie of the Year Award winners Japanese baseball coaches Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Managers of baseball teams in Japan {{japan-baseball-infielder-stub