(born August 15, 1983, in

Daitō, Osaka file:Daito city-office.jpg, 270px, Daitō City Hall is a Cities of Japan, city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 118,174 in 57299 households and a population density of 6500 persons per km2. The total a ...

) 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. 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 ...

for the

Saitama 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 ...

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). Nicknamed "" (roughly translating to second helpings) for his large, overweight frame, Nakamura is one of Japan's premier power hitters.

Career

Nakamura joined 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, ...

in 2002, and spent the year with the team's farm team (minor leagues), and also began the 2003 season at the farm. On September 28, 2003, Nakamura made his NPB debut. In 2004, Nakamura played in 28 games with the team and hit .273. Nakamura collected the most playing time he had had in a season in 2005 and slashed .262/.320/.603 with 22 home runs and 57 RBI in 80 games. In 2006, Nakamura played in 100 games with Seibu and slashed .276/.359/.428. In 2007, Nakamura played in 98 games with the team and registered a 230/.316/.394 slash line. Playing his first full season in 2008, Nakamura belted a league-high 46 home runs and drove in 101 runs despite a .244 batting average. He raised his average to .285 in the 2009 season and set a career high with 48 home runs to lead the league for the second straight year. He also increased his RBI output to 122 in just 128 games. After playing only 85 games in 2010 (still managing 25 home runs), Nakamura played all 144 games in 2011 and tied his own career high with 48 home runs. After a slight decline in production (due in part to missed time) from 2012 to 2014 (.231 with 27 home runs in 2012, .208 with 4 home run in 2013, and .257 with 34 home runs in 2014), Nakamura had another extremely productive season in 2015 with 37 home runs and a career-high 124 RBI, both of which

led A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

the

Pacific League The , or , or the , due to sponsorship reasons, 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 a ...

. He set a career high in hits (145) and his .278 average and 35 doubles were his best since 2009. By the end of 2015 at age 31, Nakamura has recorded more than 300 career home runs and 500 extra-base hits, and is climbing up the ranks of NPB's all-time home runs list. He had also be named an All-Star in 2011, In 2016, Nakamura played in 108 games with Seibu and slashed .238/.313/.447 with 21 home runs and 61 RBI. The following year, he posted a .217/.319/.446 slash with 27 home runs and 79 RBI. In 2018 with the team, Nakamura played in 97 games and recorded a .265/.329/.526 batting line with 28 home runs and 74 RBI. For the 2019 season, Nakamura logged a .286/.359/.528 batting line with 30 home runs and 123 RBI, one RBI short of his career-high. In the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

delayed 2020 season, Nakamura hit .213/.310/.372 with 9 home runs and 31 RBI in 79 games. After hitting .277/.335/.424 with 9 home runs and 38 RBI in the first half of the 2021 season, Nakamura was named an All-Star for the eighth time in his career. On July 6, 2022, Nakamura set the all-time record for strikeouts by a batter with 1,956, passing

Kazuhiro Kiyohara is a Japanese television personality, YouTuber and former professional baseball player. He played in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league for 23 seasons. He retired following the 2008 season. Born in Kishiwada, Osaka in 1967, his family w ...

References

External links

* 1983 births Japanese baseball players Living people Nippon Professional Baseball designated hitters Nippon Professional Baseball first basemen Nippon Professional Baseball third basemen People from Daitō, Osaka Saitama Seibu Lions players Seibu Lions players 2015 WBSC Premier12 players {{japan-baseball-infielder-stub