Photo: Cake6 (talk) / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Motonobu Tanishige holds a record I struggle to even picture: 3,021 games, more than any player in Nippon Professional Baseball history, and he did it as a catcher, the position that grinds a body down fastest. Born in Hiroshima in 1970, he debuted at eighteen with the Taiyo Whales and then simply never stopped crouching. Catchers never get the coverage sluggers do, because the real work is invisible: managing pitchers, shaping innings, making thousands of small decisions a night. That is what the number is actually measuring. He later took on managing while still playing, which suggests a man who could not get enough of the game. Quietly terrifying.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Motonobu Tanishige
- Name (Japanese)
- 谷繁元信
- Born
- December 21, 1970 (age 55)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Dog
- Origin
- Tōjō, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
- Height
- 176 cm
- Occupation
- baseball player / baseball player-manager / baseball manager
2. Background
- High school
- Iwami Chisuikan High School
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Motonobu Tanishige born?
Born December 21, 1970 (age 55).
Where is Motonobu Tanishige from?
Motonobu Tanishige is from Tōjō, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.
What does Motonobu Tanishige do?
Motonobu Tanishige works as baseball player, baseball player-manager, baseball manager.
How tall is Motonobu Tanishige?
Motonobu Tanishige is 176 cm.
Baseball player — see all → · More people from Japan →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-07-26
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.