Makoto Kosaka

There are plenty of good defensive infielders. There are very few whose peers hand them the title outright. Shinya Miyamoto — himself no slouch with a glove — called Makoto Kosaka the greatest defensive shortstop in the history of Nippon Professional Baseball, and that single sentence tells you more than a stat line would. Kosaka was born in Yamamoto, Miyagi, in July 1973, and he is listed at 167 cm, which is small for a professional. He was also genuinely fast: 5.6 seconds over 50 metres, 11.2 over 100. Put those together and you get a very specific kind of career. He was never going to bulldoze his way into a lineup with power, so he built a place for himself out of range, hands and legs — the parts of the game that rarely lead a highlight reel but decide close ones. He later coached with the Chiba Lotte Marines. Whether that instinct can be taught is an open question, but if anyone should try, it is him.

Name (English)

Makoto Kosaka

Name (Japanese)

小坂誠

Reading

こさか まこと

Born

July 2, 1973 (age 53)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Ox

Origin

Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan

Height

167 cm

Occupation

baseball player / baseball coach

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makoto%20Kosaka
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%8F%E5%9D%82%E8%AA%A0
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q484604

Tags

• Miyagi Prefecture
• baseball player
• baseball coach

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.