Tsuneo Horiuchi

Summary

Tsuneo Horiuchi (堀内 恒夫, Horiuchi Tsuneo, born January 16, 1948)[citation needed] is a former professional baseball player in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball, and a politician. A right-handed pitcher, in 2008 he was voted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.[1]

Tsuneo Horiuchi
堀内 恒夫
Horiuchi in 2010
Pitcher
Born: (1948-01-16) January 16, 1948 (age 76)
Kōfu, Yamanashi
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
NPB debut
April 14, 1966, for the Yomiuri Giants
Last appearance
October 22, 1983, for the Yomiuri Giants
NPB statistics
Win–loss203–139
Earned run average3.27
Strikeouts1,865
Career statistics
Batting average.172
Hits174
Home runs21
Run batted in82
Teams
As player

As manager

  • Yomiuri Giants (2004–2005)
Career highlights and awards
Member of the Japanese
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction2008

Baseball career edit

Horiuchi played for the Yomiuri Giants his whole career, from 1966–1983; he was an integral part of the team's ten Japan Series championships during that period (including nine in a row).

His first season he went 16-2 with a league-leading 1.39 earned run average, winning both the Eiji Sawamura Award and the Central League Rookie of the Year award. He led the league in winning percentage and also in most bases on balls allowed.

He led the league in winning percentage again in 1967, going 12-2 to post an amazing two-year stretch of 28-4. That year he also threw a no-hitter, against the Hiroshima Carp. The next three seasons were all successful. but he again led the league in walks all three years. (Horiuchi also gave up 31 home runs in 1968 to lead the league.)

1972 was Horiuchi's finest season, as he went 26-9 with a 2.91 ERA and 26 complete games, again winning the Eiji Sawamura Award (this despite the fact he led the league in hits and home runs allowed). That year he also won the Central League MVP.

In 1974 Horiuchi led the Central League in complete games with 21.[citation needed]

Horiuchi finished his career with 203 wins, earning him a spot in Meikyukai.

He managed the Yomiuri Giants in 2004–2005 (the team went 133-144 under his leadership). He has also acted as a TV analyst for Giants broadcasts.

Politics edit

Horiuchi stood as a candidate of the House of Councillors election, 2010 for the LDP[2] but lost. Receiving 101,840 preference votes nationwide, he ranked 13th on the LDP list[3] – the party received only twelve proportional seats – and was thus the top replacement candidate for a possible kuriage-tōsen, i.e. the first candidate to be elected without an additional vote if an LDP proportional seat in the 2010 class of Councillors fell vacant. As a result, he became a member of the House of Councillors in the proportional representation segment of the class of 2010 in August 2013 as the replacement for Hirohiko Nakamura, who died on July 31, 2013.[citation needed]

Statistics edit

Year No. G CG SO NoBB W L S W% BF IP Hits HR BB HBP Ks WP Balks R ER ERA
1966 21 33 14 7 1 16 2 .889 714 181.0 125 5 69 4 117 5 0 34 28 1.39
1967 18 23 13 2 0 12 2 .857 609 149.0 126 7 59 1 82 6 0 41 36 2.17
1968 40 12 3 0 17 10 .630 845 206.2 153 31 105 4 142 4 0 81 76 3.30
1969 41 12 4 0 14 13 .519 1004 236.2 211 21 107 6 160 6 1 94 82 3.11
1970 42 18 1 0 18 10 .643 1130 282.2 202 22 103 7 228 2 0 82 65 2.07
1971 40 14 3 0 14 8 .636 924 226.0 183 18 82 6 155 7 0 83 78 3.11
1972 48 26 4 1 26 9 .743 1282 312.0 292 34 95 3 203 3 0 110 101 2.91
1973 39 15 2 1 12 17 .414 953 221.0 238 28 70 6 113 1 1 117 111 4.52
1974 46 21 3 1 19 11 1 .633 1106 276.2 217 31 80 7 127 2 0 101 82 2.66
1975 38 8 2 1 10 18 0 .357 893 213.2 212 28 75 6 118 4 1 100 90 3.79
1976 34 11 2 0 14 6 0 .700 763 177.1 173 23 71 4 82 2 0 84 78 3.97
1977 34 4 1 1 10 9 3 .526 657 151.1 163 20 53 5 86 3 0 81 77 4.59
1978 35 7 3 1 12 9 0 .571 829 201.0 190 22 59 3 113 1 0 86 79 3.54
1979 24 1 0 0 4 7 0 .364 400 86.1 111 16 35 2 59 1 0 68 64 6.70
1980 19 2 0 0 3 5 1 .375 319 75.0 78 12 22 1 58 0 0 43 36 4.32
1981 9 0 0 0 1 3 0 .250 92 22.0 27 3 1 0 11 1 0 16 11 4.50
1982 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 29 7.0 8 0 0 0 2 0 0 5 3 3.86
1983 11 0 0 0 1 0 1 1.000 79 19.2 16 2 9 1 9 0 0 9 9 4.12
Career 566 178 37 7 203 139 6 .594 12628 3045 2725 323 1095 66 1865 48 3 1235 1106 3.27

References edit

  1. ^ Whiting, Robert, "Kawakami's philosophy as manager never wavered", Japan Times, 28 November 2013, p. 16, retrieved 28 November 2013
  2. ^ Parties pin poll hopes on sports star power
  3. ^ Yomiuri Shimbun, Councillors election special 2010, proportional results: Liberal Democratic Party

External links edit

  • Official website[dead link] (in Japanese)
  • Nippon Professional Baseball career statistics from JapaneseBaseball.com