Kenji Johjima Explained

Kenji Johjima
Position:	Catcher
Bats:	Right
Throws:	Right
Birth Date:	8 June 1976
Birth Place:	Sasebo, Japan
Debutleague:	NPB
Debutdate:	May 31
Debutyear:	1995
Debutteam:	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks
Debut2league:	MLB
Debut2date:	April 3
Debut2year:	2006
Debut2team:	Seattle Mariners
Finalleague:	MLB
Finaldate:	October 3
Finalyear:	2009
Finalteam:	Seattle Mariners
Final2league:	NPB
Final2date:	May 9
Final2year:	2012
Final2team:	Hanshin Tigers
Statleague:	NPB
Stat1label:	Batting average
Stat1value:	.296
Stat2label:	Home runs
Stat2value:	244
Stat3label:	Runs batted in
Stat3value:	808
Stat2league:	MLB
Stat21label:	Batting average
Stat21value:	.268
Stat22label:	Home runs
Stat22value:	48
Stat23label:	Runs batted in
Stat23value:	198
Teams:	Fukuoka Daiei / Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (–) Seattle Mariners (–) Hanshin Tigers (–)
Awards:	10× NPB All-Star (1997–2005, 2010) 2× Japan Series champion (1999, 2003) Pacific League MVP (2003) 7× Golden Glove (1999–2005) 6× Best Nine Award (1999–2001, 2003–2005)

is a Japanese former professional baseball player. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball for four years with the Seattle Mariners in the American League, then returned to Japan and played for the Hanshin Tigers.

On November 21, 2005, Johjima and the Mariners agreed to a $16.5 million, three-year contract. Prior to signing with the Mariners, he played in Japan for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks team in the Pacific League who drafted him in . Johjima also played in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens for Japan. On October 19, 2009, Johjima opted out of the final two years of a three-year extension that he had signed with the Mariners in 2008 with the intention to return to playing in Japan.

Professional career

Fukuoka Daiei Hawks/Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks

Johjima was named to the Pacific League's "Best Nine" for the first time as the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks won the Japan Series and the Pacific League championship. He hit .306 with 33 double and 17 home runs, third in the league in batting average behind Ichiro Suzuki and Kazuo Matsui. He ranked third in doubles and won his first Golden Glove.

He batted .310 in 2000, again earning "Best Nine" honors. He was also named an All-Star while winning another Gold Glove, while stealing a career-best 10 bases.

In 2001, Johjima hit 31 home runs and collected 95 RBI, and was again named to "Best Nine." He was selected to All-Star team and won his third consecutive Gold Glove. He played a career-high 140 games.

In 2002 Johjima won his fourth consecutive Gold Glove while batting .293.

In 2003, he helped lead the Hawks to another Pacific League championship and was named Pacific League's Most Valuable Player. He batted .330 and hit 34 home runs and posted career highs of 101 runs, 182 hits, 39 doubles, 119 RBI, 53 walks, .655 slugging percentage and .432 on-base percentage. Kenji tied his career high of 140 games played while winning his fifth straight Gold Glove, made his fourth "Best Nine" and sixth All-Star squad. He led the Pacific League in total bases, second in hits, RBI, doubles and third in home runs and runs.

He missed part of the 2004 Japan League season while playing in the Olympics but still managed career-highs of .338 and 36 home runs. Johjima was hit by a pitch 22 times, breaking Ichiro's previous Pacific League mark of 18. He homered, doubled twice and had four RBI to lead Japan to 11–2 win over Canada for the bronze medal. He ranked fifth among Olympians with a .378 batting average and seventh with seven runs scored.

A seven-time All-Star for the Hawks, Johjima became a free agent after hitting .309 with 24 home runs and 57 RBI in 116 games, during the 2005 season, which was cut short by two injuries, including a broken leg.

From through 2005, Johjima hit .299 with 211 home runs and 699 RBI in 1,117 games. His most productive season came in, when he hit .330 with 119 RBI, and finished third with 34 home runs behind Tuffy Rhodes (51) and Alex Cabrera (50).

As a catcher, Johjima had 6,321 outs with 572 assists and 48 errors in 6,941 chances for a .993 fielding average. He posted a .376 caught stealing percentage (222-for-591).

Seattle Mariners

On November 21, 2005, Johjima and the Seattle Mariners agreed to a $16.5 million, three-year contract.

Johjima became the first Japanese player to catch full-time in the major leagues. Infielder Lenn Sakata, a Japanese-American born in Honolulu, caught one game for the Baltimore Orioles, winning a World Series ring in .

On April 3, 2006, Johjima and Ichiro Suzuki became the first pair of Japanese position players to take the field in an MLB starting lineup.

Johjima hit a home run in each of his first two Major League games against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on April 3 and April 4, in Seattle. He was the first catcher since Jerry Moore in 1884 to hit a home run in his first Major League game.^[1]

In, his first season with the Mariners, Johjima hit .291 with 18 home runs and 76 RBIs in 144 games. His 18 home runs matched the franchise record for catchers. Johjima hit .322 in August and .295 during the second half of the season. He hit two home runs and drove in a career-best five runs on June 27 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

In his rookie season he set the record for most hits by a rookie catcher, with 147. The previous record was 146.

Johjima led the AL in times reached on an error (13),https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2006-baserunning-batting.shtml ranked 5th in AL in hit-by-pitch, 11, and 6th in GIDP, 22. His 11 hit-by-pitches was tied for 5th-most in Mariners history. Among AL catchers, ranked 3rd in hits, 4th in average, doubles and RBI and 5th i..from May 1 to the end of the season caught 30 of 68 (44%). Kenji hit his first career grand slam May 26 against the Kansas City Royals off of Brian Bannister; he also hit grand slam July 14 against the Detroit Tigers.

In Kenji started 95 games at catcher, and has caught 3112.2 innings in the past three seasons, 5th-most in the majors. He threw out 18 of 69 attempted base stealers. On April, 15 he collected career hit number 1,500 on with a double (1,206 in Japan; 294 in Seattle). Johjima stole home May 31, his first career steal of home, only second steal since start of 2007.

On April 25, 2008, the Mariners and Johjima agreed to a three-year contract extension. However, after losing playing time to two other catchers in the 2009 season, Johjima opted out of the final two years of this extension so he could return to playing in Japan,^[2] where he signed with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan's Central League. He retired a month into the 2012 season.

Career statistics

NPB

Year	Age	Team	Lg
1995	18		PL	12	12	2	2	2	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	1	.167	.167	.231
1996	19	DAI	PL	17	58	5	14	2	0	4	28	9	1	0	3	9	.241	.483	.290
1997	20	DAI	PL	120	432	49	133	24	2	15	206	68	6	2	22	62	.308	.477	.343
1998	21	DAI	PL	122	395	53	99	19	0	16	166	58	5	2	27	67	.251	.420	.309
1999	22	DAI	PL	135	493	65	151	33	1	17	237	77	6	2	31	61	.306	.481	.356
2000	23	DAI	PL	84	303	38	94	22	2	9	147	50	10	2	27	48	.310	.485	.377
2001	24	DAI	PL	140	534	63	138	18	0	31	249	95	9	4	31	55	.258	.466	.305
2002	25	DAI	PL	115	416	60	122	18	0	25	215	74	8	7	30	41	.293	.517	.348
2003	26	DAI	PL	140	551	101	182	39	2	34	327	119	9	4	53	50	.330	.593	.399
2004	27	DAI	PL	116	426	91	144	25	1	36	279	91	6	5	49	45	.338	.655	.432
2005	28		PL	116	411	70	127	22	4	24	229	57	3	4	33	32	.309	.557	.381
2010	33		CL	144	554	76	168	29	0	28	281	91	9	5	27	53	.303	.507	.352
2011	34	HAN	CL	38	132	7	25	3	0	5	43	13	0	0	8	16	.189	.326	.243
2012	35	HAN	CL	24	39	4	7	1	0	0	8	5	0	0	2	4	.179	.205	.214
Totals:	1323	4756	684	1406	255	12	244	2417	808	72	37	344	547	.296	.508	.355

MLB American League

Year	Age	Team	Lg
2006	29		AL	144	542	61	147	25	1	18	228	76	3	1	20	46	.291	.451	.332
2007	30		AL	135	513	52	139	29	0	14	210	61	0	2	15	41	.287	.433	.322
2008	31		AL	112	409	29	86	19	0	7	126	39	2	0	19	33	.227	.332	.277
2009	32		AL	71	239	24	59	11	0	9	97	22	2	2	12	28	.247	.406	.296
Totals:	462	1609	166	431	84	1	48	661	198	7	5	66	148	.268	.411	.310

Personal life

• Johjima resides in Sasebo, Japan with his wife Maki and his son Yuta and daughter Miu^[3]
• He often called himself "George Mackenzie" as opposed to "Johjima Kenji", especially before he played in MLB^[4]

External links

• Johjima Kenji Baseball Memorial Hall Official Site
• Japanese Baseball Page
• Japanese league stats and info of Kenji Johjima

Notes and References

1. Web site: Charlton's Baseball Chronology . www.baseballlibrary.com . 7 March 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130801073038/http://www.baseballlibrary.com/chronology/thisday.php?month=4&day=3 . 1 August 2013 .
2. News: Johjima leaves Seattle for Japan . . 2009-10-19 . 2009-10-19.
3. http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/team/player_career.jsp?player_id=492706 Seattle Mariners Bio
4. cf.「スーパーキャッチャー城島健司(="Super catcher George Mackenzie")」 pp.10-12. In the TV-CF of Bank of Fukuoka, his name is listed as "George Mackenzie", not "Johjima Kenji". After he backed NPB, Hanshin tigers started to sell his goods as "GEORGE★McKENZIE".