Katsunori Nomura

Katsunori Nomura
野村 克則
Yomiuri Giants — No. 92
Catcher/Catching coach
Born: July 23, 1973 (1973-07-23) (age 38)
Toyonaka, Osaka
Batted: Right Threw: Right
Professional debut
NPB: 1997 for the Yakult Swallows
Last professional appearance
October 1, 2006 for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
NPB statistics
Batting average     .185
On-base percentage     .237
Slugging percentage     .261
Teams
As player

As coach
Last update: 6 April 2009

Katsunori Nomura (野村 克則 Nomura Katsunori?, born July 23, 1973) was a NPB catcher from 1996–2006. He is currently a catching coach for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. He is the son of NPB catching-great and long-time manager Katsuya Nomura, who also managed him for five seasons—two with the Yakult Swallows, two with the Hanshin Tigers and one with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

Contents

Career

Katsunori Nomura was drafted by the Yakult Swallows in the third round of the 1995 Nippon Professional Baseball draft.[1] He played two seasons with the Yakult Swallows under his father, manager Katsuya Nomura. After the 1998 season, his father left the Swallows and Katsunori was sent to the club's farm team for the entirety of the 1999 season. He was then traded to the Hanshin Tigers, where he was again managed by his father for two more seasons. In 2003, he spent the entire season playing on the Tigers' farm team.

On January 25, 2004, his contract was purchased by the Yomiuri Giants and he was traded from the Tigers. While it was a relatively minor trade, it made headlines because of Katsunori's father's longtime resentment of the Giants. Some also saw the trade as an opportunity for Katsunori "to step out of his famous father's shadow."[2] However, Katsunori only played in three games with the Giants and was released following the end of the 2003 season. He played his final two seasons with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2005 and 2006 and announced his retirement on September 30, 2006.[3] During his time in the majors, Katsunori was utilized as a second or third-string catcher.[2] He has been a catching coach for the Golden Eagles since 2007.[4]

Some have suggested that the only reason Katsunori Nomura was given the opportunity to play in the NPB was because of his father's connections in the league. The Japan Times columnist Marty Kuehnert believes that he "hitched a ride" on his father's name, but his "statistics don't add up to a good month, or even week, of [Katsuya Nomura's] production".[5] Of the four NPB teams Katsunori played for throughout his playing career, three of them were managed by his father: the Swallows, the Tigers and the Golden Eagles.[3]

Career statistics

Year Uniform # Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SB AVG OBP SLG
1996 33 Yakult Swallows Spent season in minor leagues
1997 26 31 1 8 1 0 1 1 2 0 .258 .303 .387
1998 25 23 0 4 0 0 0 1 1 0 .174 .208 .174
1999 Spent season in minor leagues
2000 50 Hanshin Tigers 43 49 6 13 1 1 2 3 5 0 .265 .327 .449
2001 52 95 3 20 3 0 1 6 4 0 .211 .257 .274
2002 11 16 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 .188 .188 .313
2003 Spent season in minor leagues
2004 63 Yomiuri Giants 3 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 .333 .400 .333
2005 52 Golden Eagles 6 10 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .100 .100 .100
2006 56 129 8 16 4 1 0 5 7 1 .124 .186 .171
Totals 222 356 18 66 11 2 4 17 20 1 .185 .237 .261

Personal life

Katsunori Nomura is the son of NPB catching-great and long-time manager Katsuya Nomura. His stepbrother is infamous baseball agent Don Nomura. After a 2001 tax evasion scandal involving Katsunori's mother Sachiyo Nomura, Katsunori was supportive during months preceding Sachiyo's arrest. This is in contrast to Kenneth Engel and Don Nomura, Sachiyo's children from a previous marriage, who publicly disown her.[6] He has two children with his wife Yukiko.

References

  1. ^ "52 捕手 カツノリ" (in Japanese). Yahoo! Japan. http://baseball.yahoo.co.jp/npb/player?t=db&id=11405. Retrieved April 6, 2009. 
  2. ^ a b Graczyk, Wayne (February 4, 2004). "It's now or never for new Giants catcher". The Japan Times. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sb20040204wg.html. Retrieved April 6, 2009. 
  3. ^ a b "Dragons top Tigers". The Japan Times. October 1, 2006. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sb20061001j1.html. Retrieved April 6, 2009. 
  4. ^ "野村 克則" (in Japanese). Rakuten Eagles. http://www.rakuteneagles.jp/team/player/detail/73.html. Retrieved April 6, 2009. 
  5. ^ Kuehnert, Marty (June 4, 2003). "Why so few second-generation stars in Japan?". The Japan Times. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sp20030604mk.html. Retrieved April 6, 2009. 
  6. ^ Kuehnert, Marty (December 12, 2001). "The woman who toppled the toughest catcher of all time". The Japan Times. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sp20011212mk.html. Retrieved April 6, 2009.