Kazuhiro Wada
- Seibu Lions (1997-2007)
- Chunichi Dragons (since 2008)
Kazuhiro Wada (Japanese和田 一 浩, Kazuhiro Wada, born June 19, 1972 in Gifu, Gifu Prefecture) is a Japanese baseball player. The right-handed outfielder plays since 2008 for the Chunichi Dragons of the Japanese Central League, before he was eleven years for the Seibu Lions active in the Pacific League. He was five times included in the Best Nine and took part in the five times by 2010 All- Star Game.
Wada attended the " Handelsoberschule Gifu Gifu Prefecture " ( Gifu Gifu kenritsu shōgyō Kōtō Gakko ), for the spring and the summer Koshien he took part in 1989. He then visited the Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai and played in the league of ' Baseball Association of the six universities of Sendai " ( Sendai roku daigaku Yakyu renmei ). After his graduation, he was hired by Kobe SEIKOSHO ( engl. Kobe Steel ) and played as shakaijin in the factory team.
In the Draft 1996 Wada was drafted in the fourth round of the Seibu Lions. He received his first jobs at the beginning of the season 1997 - first as a catcher. 1997 and 1998, when he came increasingly used as an outfielder, he also had his first appearances in the Nippon Series, but lost the Lions in both years. Regular stood Wada from the 2000 season in the lineup as he scored a batting average of .306 in 55 missions. By 2001, he was defensive still occasionally as catcher, especially in 2000 as a first baseman in use.
As of 2002, Wada was with over 100 missions annually to the regular cast of the Lions and beats regularly since then with an average of over .300, the same year he was first added to the Best Nine of the Pacific League. Luckless he remained in Nippon Series 2002, when he scored no hit in 15 at-bats; Seibu defeated the Giants in four straight games. In the even stronger season 2003 Wada was the first time the All- Star team of the Pacific League and ended the season with the third highest batting average of the league behind Michihiro Ogasawara and Yoshitomo Tani. In 2004 he enlisted in the Nippon Series 2004, as Seibu Chunichi defeated in four games to three, with eight extra base hits, including four home runs to championship title at.
2004 was also Wada of the Japanese national team at the Olympic Games in Athens, when Japan won the bronze medal. In 2006 he was a member of the victorious Japanese team at the first World Baseball Classic in which Wada but recorded only two hitlose at-bats. He was so far the only time batting champion of the Pacific League in 2005.
After the 2007 season, Wada became a free agent and then signed a three-year contract with the Chunichi Dragons on estimated 840 million yen. 2009 and 2010 he was in each case in all 144 games of the regular season and was in use with Hirokazu Ibata 2009 and Masahiko Morino 2010 at best Battern the Dragons. In September 2010, Wada scored the 1500th hit of his career. For the season 2010 performance Wada was named MVP of the Central League.