Product Code Database
born October 8, 1971 is a Japanese former professional baseball infielder, and current manager for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He played in NPB for the Hawks and Yomiuri Giants, and had 2,000 hits.
He debuted in the Pacific League in his rookie season of 1994, playing in 78 games.
Kokubo was one of Japan'
/ref> He was suddenly given away to the Yomiuri Giants in November of that year despite being the team's cleanup hitter. Kokubo was seemingly given away for free, since the Giants did not give a player to the Hawks in exchange. The motives behind this transaction remain a mystery. The Hawks replaced him during his injuries with foreigner Julio Zuleta.
He played with the Yomiuri Giants for three years before signing with his former team (now the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks) during the 2006 off-season as a free agent.
In 2011, as team captain, he helped lead the Hawks to victory in the Japan Series, winning the Most Valuable Player Award.
On June 24, 2012, Kokubo recorded his 2,000th career hit, becoming the 41st Japanese professional baseball player to reach the milestone. On August 14 he announced his intention to retire at the end of the 2012 season. His retirement ceremony was held on October 8, after the last regular-season match against the Orix Buffaloes, which SoftBank lost after being No-hitter.
On December 3, 2020, Kokubo became the head coach of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
He had been the second squad manager until the 2023 season, when he was set to replace Hiroshi Fujimoto as the manager of the first team in 2024, after Fujimoto announced he was going to step down as manager.
In October 2013, Kokubo was named the manager of the Japan national baseball team. He led the team to a third place finish at the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
|
|
