was a professional baseball player for the Osaka Tigers

Hanshin Tigers

The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Koshien, Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and are in the Central League. Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., the subsidiary of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., owns the Hanshin Tigers directly...

 (later Hanshin Tigers) in Nippon Professional Baseball. His number 11 is retired with the Tigers. A pitcher with Hanshin from 1959 to 1972, he recorded a career 2.09 ERA and 192 career complete games to go with 222 wins. Hall of Famer.

Early life

He was born on October 12, 1936 in Kita-ku, Kobe, Hyogo. He played baseball at Sumotomo Technological High School. He was on to Kansai University

Kansai University

, or , is a private non-sectarian and coeducational university located in Suita, Osaka, Japan and in two other locations: Osaka City; and Takatsuki, Osaka.-History:Kansai University was founded as Kansai Law School in November 1886, in Osaka...

 School of Commerce in 1950. He won the championship on All Japan Universities baseball championship in his sophomore at Kansai University. became a member of the Osaka Hanshin Tigers in 1959.

Career

As a rookie in 1959, Murayama pitched in 54 games, recording 19 complete games in 26 starts. He was 18-10 that season with a microscopic 1.19 ERA to lead the league and also win the first Eiji Sawamura Award of his career. It also ended Masaichi Kaneda

Masaichi Kaneda

is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He is one of the best known pitchers in Japanese baseball history, and is the only Japanese pitcher to have won 400 games. He was inducted in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988....

's run of three consecutive Sawamura Awards won. Murayama would match Kaneda's total of three Sawamura Awards over the course of his career, winning it outright in 1965 and sharing the award in 1966 with Tsuneo Horiuchi

Tsuneo Horiuchi

is a former professional baseball pitcher in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. In he was voted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. He stood as a candidate of the House of Councillors election, 2010 for the LDP but lost...

, the first time in the award's history that it had co-winners. The Sawamura would not have co-winners again until 2003, when Hanshin's Kei Igawa

Kei Igawa

is a Japanese left-handed starting pitcher who is currently a free agent, originally from Ōarai, Ibaraki, Japan. He played for the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball from to . He led all pitchers in the Central League for strikeouts in , and 2006...

 and Kazumi Saitoh of Daiei shared the award.

During his career as a player, his team, the Osaka Hanshin Tigers won the Central League Championship two times, 1962 and 1964. Although he was a player for the team, he became manager for the Osaka Hanshin Tigers from 1970 to 1972. He retired after 1972 season. His Number 11 was retired by the Osaka Hanshin Tigers. He had been a commentator for baseball for a long time. Again, he became manager for the Osaka Hanshin Tigers in 1988 and 1989. People has said that he was " Mr. Tigers" since his retirement.

Titles

• MVP : 1 time (1962)
• Most wins : 2 times (1965, 1966)
• The best ERA : 3 times (1959, 1962, 1970)
• Most strike outs : 2 times (1965, 1966)
• The best winning percentage : 1 time (1970)
• The Sawamura Award : 3 times (1959, 1965, 1966)
• The best nine : 3 times (1962, 1965, 1966)