Jiro Noguchi

Noguchi began his professional career in 1939 with the Japanese Baseball League (JBL), as a 19-year-old with the Tokyo Senators (the team his older brother Akira Noguchi had played for in 1936–1937).[3] Jirō Noguchi played five seasons with the franchise, which, due to various pressures and changing ownership went through a number of name changes during his tenure: Tokyo Senators (1939 season), Tsubasa Baseball Club (1940), Taiyō (1941–1942), and Nishitetsu (1943).

Noguchi's rookie season of 1939 was remarkable: a workhorse, he went 33–19 with a 2.04 earned run average, setting a rookie record for victories.[2] He led the league in innings pitched, most games pitched, complete games, and hits and home runs allowed.[2] When not pitching, he often played outfield or first base (although he only hit. 251).

In 1940, Noguchi put together another remarkable season, going 30–11 with a league-leading 0.93 earned run average. He also hit .260. Noguchi went 25–12 with a league-leading 0.88 ERA in 1941, becoming the only pitcher in Japanese professional baseball history to have two consecutive sub-1 ERA seasons.[2]

Jirō Noguchi's 1942 season was his most impressive one as a pitcher, featuring a record of 40-17 and a 1.19 ERA, with a still-league-record 19 shutouts[2] to go along with 264 strikeouts. He led the league in victories.[2] That year Noguchi pitched all 28 innings of a tie game against Nagoya Club that featured Nagoya's Michio Nishizawa also pitching all 28 innings.[1] In 1942, Noguchi appeared in 66 games, throwing a total of 527-1/3 innings.

In 1943, Akira Noguchi returned to pro baseball (this time as an infielder/catcher),[3] joining Jirō on the team. (Two other Noguchi brothers briefly played in the JBL: Noboru [b. 1922, d. 1945] with the Hanshin Baseball Club,[4] and Wataru [b. 1926], who played for Kinki Nihon.)[5] Noguchi went 25–12 with a 1.45 ERA in 1943, also hitting .253. Despite finishing with a .513 winning percentage in 1943, Nishitetsu was dissolved after the season. By this time, Noguchi had been drafted by the military to serve in World War II.[2]

When the league returned after the war in 1946, Jirō and Akira joined the Hankyu Club, which a year later became the Hankyu Braves. (Altogether, Jirō and Akira played five years as teammates in the JBL.) In 1946, Jirō Noguchi had a 31-game hitting streak, a record which stood until 1971 (when it was broken by Tokuji Nagaike).[2] Noguchi hit .298 overall, finishing ninth in the league in batting average.[2] He was 13-14 for Hankyu with a 2.67 ERA, good for fifth in the league.[2]

In 1947, Noguchi had his sixth 20-win season at 24–17 with a 2.26 ERA. In 1948, Noguchi was 14–16 with a 2.94 ERA and hit .261; he also stole 18 bases in 22 attempts. That year he set a record with 13 complete games that featured no bases on balls.[2]

In 1950, the JBL reorganized into Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB); Noguchi stayed with Hankyu, playing into the 1953 season. His final notable year as a pitcher was 1950 when he went 15–9, finishing sixth in the Pacific League division in ERA with a 3.16 mark; he also hit .259.

Noguchi retired after the 1953 season, later working as a minor league manager for the Kintetsu Buffaloes, and as a coach for the Hankyu Braves and Mainichi Orions.[2]

For his career, Noguchi went 237–139 with a career 1.96 ERA, walking 647 and striking out 1,395 in 3,447-1/3 innings. He hit .248 with 9 career home runs and 368 runs batted in. He is second all-time in Japanese baseball in career ERA (behind Hideo Fujimoto)[2] and still ranks very high in a number of career pitching records, including victories, complete games, shutouts, walkless complete games, and innings pitched.[2] Baseball guru Jim Albright ranks Noguchi as number 12 on his list of the greatest players in Japanese baseball history.[6]

Noguchi was elected by the Selection Committee for Players to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.[1] He died in Takarazuka, Hyōgo,[2] on May 21, 2007, at age 87.