Morimichi Takagi

Morimichi Takagi (高木 守道)
(Ibushigin, Muttsuriumon)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 158 lb.
• High School Gifu Commercial & Business High School

• Born July 17, 1941 in Nagoya, Aichi Japan
• Died January 18, 2020 in Gifu, Gifu Japan

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Biographical Information

Known for his fine combination of speed, defense and power, Morimichi Takagi is one of the top second basemen in the history of Nippon Pro Baseball. Gene Martin said "Morimichi was as slick a second baseman as I've ever seen...Oh boy, he could hit!...and he could run." Not known for his personality, Takagi was once reputedly offered a million yen if he would smile more on the field.

Takagi began his career with the Chunichi Dragons in 1960, hitting only .192/.238/.323 though he did become only the fourth NPB player to homer in his first at-bat when he went deep against Kazuyoshi Miyamoto. He muddled along over the next few years with lines of .212/.262/.302; .280/.295/.381 and .254/.294/.375. By that last season, 1963, Takagi tied Tsuneo Takabayashi and Shigeo Nagashima for the Central League lead with six triples and his 50 steals (in 62 tries) led the league. He made the first of many Best Nine selections at second.

In 1964, Morimichi had a .293/.329/.417 line with 42 SB in 56 attempts and on May 8, he stole five bases in a game. He made his second Best Nine. He ranked 8th in batting (between Shozo Shigematsu and Kazuyoshi Yamamoto), 8th in hits (between Sadayuki Tokutake and Eiji Fujii), 6th in doubles (tied with Sadaharu Oh, Yamamoto and Kazuhiro Yamauchi) and 3rd in steals (between Isao Shibata and Toshio Naka). He was so honored again in 1965 when he produced at a .302/.344/.414 rate and swiped 44 of 55 to lead the league. He led the league in steals, and he was fourth in the CL in average that season (between Kazuhiko Kondo and Nagashima) and 3rd in hits (between Shinichi Eto and Oh).

Takagi had a .306/.337/.479 line with 17 homers and 20 steals in 29 tries in 1966. He was third in the Central with 82 runs (between Nagashima and Naka), sixth in average (between Oh and Kondo), fourth in steals (between Yukinobu Kuroe and Akihito Kondo) and made his fourth Best Nine. He also made his first All-Star team, and he was 3-for-11 in the 1966 NPB All-Star Game with a double against Tetsuya Yoneda in Game 1. A Best Nine again in 1967, Morimichi had a .292/.327/.477 season with 19 homers. He was voted into the 1967 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 2-for-7 with a double against Masaaki Koyama in Game 3. He ranked 8th in batting (between Lou Jackson and Taira Fujita), 6th in doubles (tied with Nagashima), 7th in hits (tied with Eto), 8th in homers (tied with Isao Hirono and Nagashima) and 7th in RBI.

Tsuneo Horiuchi hit Takagi in the face with a pitch on May 28, 1968, and he was seriously injured so he missed several games that season. He fell to .239/.303/.399 with 11 steals. Rebounding somewhat in 1969, Morimichi batted .251/.298/.442 with a career-high 24 homers and stole 20. He was 8th in hits (between Kunio Fukutomi and Naka), 8th in doubles, 7th in homers (between Eto and Isao Ito), 6th in RBI (between Willie Kirkland and Yamamoto) and 3rd in steals (between Sachio Kinugasa and Mitsuo Imazu). Takagi had a .258/.282/.376 season the next year but hit into 17 double plays, the most in the league. He was 10th in RBI (tied with Akira Ejiri and Fujita) and 5th in steals.

Takagi hit .239/.294/.339 and stole 28, but only hit eight homers in 1971, and he was 3rd in steals (between Koji Yamamoto and Shibata). He struggled in 1972, and his batting line was .251/.282/.383 in 118 games. After that season, his new batting coach Sadayuki Tokutake changed his batting style. The 1973 season had Takagi only hitting five homers, though his 28 steals led the league, the third time he had paced in that department. He hit .273/.322/.358, and he was 8th in hits (between Kenichi Yazawa and Nagashima). Takagi made his third All-Star team, but he was hitless in 6 at-bats in the 1973 NPB All-Star Games.

The veteran infielder produced at a .276/.320/.432 rate with 15 homers in 1974, and he made his 6th Best Nine. He was 10th in hits (tied with Hiroaki Inoue), 10th in doubles and 6th in steals (between Inoue and Shibata) He won the Diamond Glove Award at second that year and Chunichi broke the Yomiuri Giants' run of 9 straight CL pennants. In the 1974 Japan Series, Takagi hit .364/.364/.545 with a homer against Tomehiro Kaneda in Game 4 but the Dragons lost to the Lotte Orions. Morimichi won the Fighting Spirit Award as the top performer on the losing entry.

The second baseman had a .294/.329/.460 batting line in 1975, and he was 4th in batting (between Koichi Tabuchi and John Sipin), 8th in doubles and 4th in hits (tied with Yazawa). Takagi then had a .265/.289/.436 season in 1976, and he made his 7th Best Nine in 1977. He tied Shigeru Chiba's record for the position, and it has not been broken as of 2026. He had a .291/.323/.470 line with 20 homers and won another Diamond Glove. The year he turned 37, Takagi batted .283/.309/.468 with 13 homers in 1978. He collected his 2,000th career hit against Satoshi Takahashi on April 5, and he was the first Chunichi developed player to get 2,000 hits. Takagi crushed 11 homers with a .300/.344/.428 batting line in 1979, and he made his fourth and last All-Star appearance; he was 0-for-2 in the 1979 NPB All-Star Game. He also led the CL with 18 sacrifice bunts and was again honored as the top fielder at second in the league. In 1980, he wrapped up his career with a .233/.288/.329 year.

After retiring as a player, Takagi coached for Chunichi and managed in their minor leagues. He went 29-35-4 as an interim manager in 1986 and replaced Senichi Hoshino at the helm in 1992, when they went 60-70 but finished last. In '93, the club was 73-57-2 and was in second and they repeated there the next year at 69-61, only one game out of first. In 1995, Chunichi slipped to a 13-26 start and Takagi was axed in June. Hoshino eventually got the job back the next year. Takagi was voted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005. Takagi returned to manage Chunichi in 2012, replacing Hiromitsu Ochiai. The team was 75-53-16 his first year at the helm but fell to 64-77 in 2013 and he was canned in favor of Motonobu Tanishige.

Overall, Morimichi had hit .272/.310/.411, stolen 369 bases in 508 tries and homered 236 times. Through 2025, he was 31th all-time in NPB with 55 triples (tied with Seizo Furukawa, Kenjiro Tamiya and Hiromi Matsunaga, 53rd in doubles (346, between Yazawa and Kazuhiro Kiyohara), 81st in homers (tied with Hiromichi Ishige), 17th in hits (2,274, between Kihachi Enomoto and Yamauchi), 22th in runs (1,120, between Michihiro Ogasawara and Daijiro Oishi), 35th in total bases (3,438, between Kazuhiro Wada and Takeshi Yamasaki), 13th in steals (between Norifumi Nishimura and Furukawa), 44th in sacrifice bunts (200, tied with Yamato Maeda), 26th with 121 double plays ground into (tied with Masaaki Mori, 18th in games (2,282, tied with Shinnosuke Abe) and 13th in at-bats (8,367, between Hayato Sakamoto and Yasunori Oshima). He was the only player in NPB history to reach 2,000 hits, 200 homers, 200 steals and 200 sacrifice bunts.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• Remembering Japanese Baseball by Rob Fitts
• Japanbaseballdaily.com by Gary Garland