Atsunori Inaba


Atsunori Inaba is a Japanese professional baseball manager, coach and former player. He was the Most Valuable Player of the 2006 Japan Series. He is currently the general manager for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League.
As a player, he won the Japan Series MVP in 2006 and the Fighting Spirit Award in 2012. He is one of just eight players to win both Japan Series awards alongside Hiromichi Ishige, Hiroshi Oshita, Hisashi Yamada, Isao Shibata, Joe Stanka, Kazuhisa Inao, and Takashi Nishimoto.
After the retirement, he became Japan national [baseball team] at the 2013 exhibition game against Chinese Taipei, 2014 MLB Japan All-Star Series, 2015 exhibition game against All Euro, 2015 WBSC Premier12, 2016 exhibition game against Chinese Taipei, 2016 exhibition game against Mexico and Netherlands, 2017 exhibition game against Chinese [Professional Baseball League|CPBL] All-Stars, and 2017 World Baseball Classic.
On July 31, 2017, he became Japan national baseball team manager. He managed at the 2017 Asia Professional Baseball Championship, 2018 exhibition game against Australia, 2018 U-23 Baseball World Cup and 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series.