Yukio Tanaka is a Pitcher?

That's an interesting find. But, no, they are not the same.

The current Nippon Ham infielder Yukio Tanaka was drafted in the third round of the 1986 draft (November of 1985), several months after the no hitter.

The Yukio Tanaka who threw the no hitter was born on Feburary 27, 1959 and was the #1 draft pick by the Fighters in the 1982 draft (Fall of 1981). He pitched for the Fighters from 1982 to 1989, compiling a 25 and 36 record with a 4.23 career ERA.

What's most interesting is that both players were team mates from 1986 to 1989, both with the same first and last names, including their respective Kanji (田中 幸雄).

I didn't pay much attention to the Pacific League back then. Are there any "old timers" who can tell us how the duplicate names were handled? I remember talk of two Ken Suzuki's possibly becoming team mates in the early 1990s with proposed names of "Suzuki Ke" and "Suzuki N."

Pitcher Yukio Tanaka was 田中幸.
Infielder Yukio Tanaka was 田中雄.

Nickname of Infielder Yukio Tanaka is Koyuki (small Yuki).
Pitcher Yukio Tanaka was called Ohyuki (big Yuki).

Ha. I was reading this and thought of the anime/manga called Beck. It's about a young musician named Yukio Tanaka, and since there's a bigger kid in the same class by the same name, they just call him Koyuki. I knew the reference was to Nippon Ham's slugger, but I didn't know the full story until now. Good to know.

Thank you Mr. westbaystars. I had not come across this web site for a long time! ^_^

And what I found is that the Pitcher Yukio Tanaka was traded to the Chunichi Dragons in 1989, I couldn't find any news about him after that.

The infielder Yukio Tanaka is call Mr. Fighters! And he wants to collect his career 2,000th hit, and this year maybe he can get that!