PL Gakuen High School

Established in 1954 by a nondenominational church, PL Gakuen High School is a small school in Osaka known for its focus on baseball. Though the Koshien Tournament was around for 30 years before the high school was built, within 35 years it had set a Koshien record with 7 championships and had made the tournament 25 times. The club won two titles when they had Kazuhiro Kiyohara and Masumi Kuwata leading the way and also produced stars such as Hiromasa Arai, Kosuke Fukudome, Akihito Kaneishi, Hideji Kato, Kazuo Matsui and Kazuyoshi Tatsunami. In a 2006 magazine devoted to the history of the Koshien Tournaments, PL Gakuen was voted the most successful high school program in Japan.

Koshien Titles

• 1978 Summer
• 1981 Spring
• 1982 Spring
• 1983 Summer
• 1985 Summer
• 1987 Spring
• 1987 Summer

Further Reading

• You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting, pp. 249-252