The sporting world in Japan is mourning the loss of one of its all-time stars, Katsuya Nomura, who died on February 11, aged 84, from a heart attack. Nomura was one of the most prolific batters in the history of Japanese baseball.
Over a 26-year career, spent mostly as a catcher with the Nankai Hawks, now the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Nomura won the Pacific League Most Valuable Player title five times; became the first batter in the postwar era to win a Triple Crown in the Nippon Professional Baseball, in 1965; and, with 657 career home runs and 1,988 RBIs, is second only on the lifetime list to Sadaharu Oh.
