Kazuhiro Kiyohara
| Kazuhiro Kiyohara | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Infielder | |||
| Born: August 18, 1967 | |||
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| NPB debut | |||
| April 5, 1986, for the Seibu Lions | |||
| Last appearance | |||
| October 1, 2008, for the Orix Buffaloes | |||
| NPB statistics (through 2008) |
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| Batting average | .273 | ||
| Hits | 2122 | ||
| HRs | 525 | ||
| RBIs | 1,530 | ||
| Teams | |||
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As Player |
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
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As Player
Kazuhiro Kiyohara (清原 和博 Kiyohara Kazuhiro?, born August 18, 1967 in Kishiwada, Osaka) is a former professional baseball player in Japan, having played in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league for 23 seasons. He retired following the 2008 season.
Kazuhiro Kiyohara became a household name in Japan as a home run hitter for the Osaka PL Gakuen high school baseball team in the mid-1980s. His team won two Japanese High School Baseball Championships, finished second twice, and was fourth on one occasion. (There are spring and summer national high school baseball tournaments annually in Japan, held at the famous Koshien Stadium.)
Kiyohara was one part of a dominant duo on his high school team with his teammate, pitcher Masumi Kuwata. They became known in the popular vernacular of the time as the "K-K Combi", which stood for the Kiyohara and Kuwata combination. They were widely respected as high school players, and their individual and team accomplishments became memorable parts of the history of schoolboy baseball in Japan.
Kiyohara was selected by the Seibu Lions with their first pick of the 1985 draft. This was reportedly a huge disappointment for him because the Yomiuri Giants, the most popular NPB team of the day, had promised to choose him in the draft. However, the Giants decided to take Masumi Kuwata with their initial pick in '85, instead of Kiyohara, which made for great theater in the Japanese mass media at the time.
His rookie season with the Seibu Lions produced a .304 average with 31 Home Runs and 78 RBIs. He tied the rookie HR record for Japanese professional baseball, and all three previously mentioned statistics were the best totals for a rookie in his first professional season out of high school. He became a top cleanup hitter for the Lions in his eleven seasons with the club, accumulating 332 HRs and 915 RBIs. During his time in a Lions uniform, the team won six Japan Series titles.
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