Tsuneo Horiuchi

Tsuneo Horiuchi 堀内 恒夫
Pitcher
Born: January 16, 1948 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–Loss	203–139
Earned run average	3.27
Strikeouts	1,865
Teams
As player Yomiuri Giants (1966–1983) As manager Yomiuri Giants (2004–2005)
Career highlights and awards
1966 Central League Rookie of the Year 2x Eiji Sawamura Award (1966, 1972) 1972 Central League MVP
Member of the Japanese
Baseball Hall of Fame
Inducted	2008

Tsuneo Horiuchi (堀内 恒夫 Horiuchi Tsuneo, born January 16, 1948, in Kōfu, Yamanashi) 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]

Baseball career

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.

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

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.

Statistics

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

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

• Official page (Japanese)
• Nippon Professional Baseball career statistics from Japanesebaseball.com