Feb 12 (Japan Times) - Hall of Famer slugged 657 homers in 26-season career, won 1,565 games as longtime manager
Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame catcher and renowned manager Katsuya Nomura died of ischemic heart failure early Tuesday morning, according to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, the last club he managed. He was 84.
Nomura was one of NPB’s greatest slugging catchers, amassing 657 home runs, 1,988 RBIs and 2,901 hits in 3,017 games over 26 seasons spent mostly with the Hawks, currently known as the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
In 1965, he became the first NPB batter to win the Triple Crown in the postwar era.
As a manager, he led the Hawks from 1970 to 1977 and later skippered the Yakult Swallows to four Central League and three Japan Series titles in the 1990s. He went on to manage the Hanshin Tigers before his final stint with the Eagles.
