Masahiko Morino

• Chunichi Dragons (since 1997)

Masahiko Morino (Japanese森 野 将 彦, Masahiko Morino, born July 28, 1978 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture) is a Japanese baseball player who plays since 1997 mainly as a infielder for the Chunichi Dragons of the Japanese Central League. With the national team he took to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing part.

Morino visited the Sagami High School of Tōkai University in Sagamihara, with which he in 1995 at Spring Koshien participated and was eliminated in the second round. In the 1996 Draft, he was selected in the second round of the Chunichi Dragons. His debut in the first team, he was back in 1997 when he was employed in 13 games. After that, he was only used from 2000 as in the first team, from 2002 he was a regular in the lineup. Defensive he initially played often at shortstop, then as First or Second Baseman; Since 2005 he is mainly used as a third baseman, 2007 and 2008 he played mainly as an Outfielder.

2007 Morino played in 142 games for the Dragons, where he achieved a batting average of .294, was first elected to the All-Star team in the Central League, and celebrated in the Nippon Series 2007 (4-1 against Nippon Ham) with Chunichi the second championship the team's history after 1954. 2008 he retired, although in a Spring Training injury and only had 96 missions, but achieved a batting average of .321. In the summer he took with the national team in the Olympic tournament, struck with two hits against the Netherlands in 17 at-bats in the tournament weak in the defeat against the United States in the bronze medal match ended his brief appearance as a pinch hitter with a strikeout.

2009 and 2010 Morino stood each in all 144 games of the regular season on the pitch and scored in two years, most doubles in the Central League. In 2010 he again took part in the All- Star Game and was first recorded in the Best Nine. In 2011, he hit .232 with an average of - but as the entire Chunichi offensive - much weaker than in previous years. In April 2011, Morino scored against the Hanshin Tigers the 1000th hit of his career.