Julio Ernesto Zuleta Tapia (born March 28, 1975) is a Panamanian former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player. He played parts of two seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, from 2000 to 2001, for the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

, and six seasons in

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

from 2003 to 2008, primarily as a

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

. Zuleta graduated from the Colegio Javier in

Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

and speaks five languages: Spanish, French, English and Japanese. He is tall and weighs .

Playing career

Chicago Cubs

He was signed as a free agent by the

on September 15, 1992 and spent a year with the Gulf Coast League Cubs in 1993. He began 1994 in

Huntington Huntington may refer to: Places Canada * Huntington, Nova Scotia New Zealand * Huntington, New Zealand a suburb in Hamilton, New Zealand United Kingdom * Huntington, Cheshire, England * Huntington, East Lothian, Scotland * Huntingto ...

before going back down to play with the GCL Cubs. Zuleta made his major league debut with the Cubs in 2000, ultimately playing in 30 games, hitting .294 with 3 home runs and 20 hits overall. Overall, in two MLB seasons (2000, 2001) with the Cubs, Zuleta posted a .247

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(43-for-174) with 9 home runs and 36 RBI in 79 games played.

Japan

Zuleta began playing professional baseball in Japan in 2003 with the

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. Founded on February 22, 1938, as the Nankai Club, being the first Kansai t ...

. His best year with the Hawks came in 2005, when he hit 43 home runs with a .319 batting average. He holds the Hawks club record for most home runs by a foreigner. From 2004 to 2006, he hit the most home runs in the league (109) over the three-year span. After the 2006 season, Zuleta was released by the Hawks and signed with the

Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba, Chiba, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings, Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. The Marines were a founding member of the Pacific Le ...

as a free agent. He signed a two-year contract with the Marines. During the 2007 season, Zuleta was hit by a pitch which broke his finger. He continued to play for several months and led the team in home runs with 15 home runs. On September 22, 2007, in a game against the

Rakuten Golden Eagles The , often shortened as the , are a baseball team based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It has played in Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League since the team's formation in November 2004. The team is owned by the Internet shopping c ...

, he became the 61st player in Japanese professional baseball history to

hit for the cycle Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust or HIT, a fictional organization ...

. During the 2008 season, Zuleta spent most of the season deactivated for various reasons, which has been a point of controversy. On June 7, 2008, he blasted a hit on the roof light in

Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium (whose former site is now occupied by the Tokyo Dome Hotel and a plaza for this stadium). In Japan, it is often us ...

and was given a ground-rule home run, becoming only the second player to ground a home run in the dome beside Ralph Bryant. Awards 2005: Best Nine (1st Base) June, 2005: Monthly MVP Records NPB Firsts First game: June 23, 2003 vs. Nippon Ham Fighters (16th meetup at Fukuoka Dome), batted #8 starting in right field First AB, first Hit: Same as above, bottom of 2nd, no outs, Masato Yoshizaki on the mound - line drive off the center field fence for a double First RBI: June 24, 2003 vs. Nippon Ham (17th meetup at Fukuoka Dome), bottom of 6th inning with one out against Akio Shimizu on the mound First home run: July 1, 2003 vs. Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes (16th meetup at Osaka Dome), top of 5th inning with nobody out, a solo shot to left off of Shogo Yamamoto First stolen base: June 7, 2004 vs. Nippon Ham Fighters (13th meetup at Tokyo Dome) stole second in the top of the 6th inning off of Tomokazu Iba on the mound and Shinji Takahashi behind the plate Other Records and Milestones 100th home run: May 6, 2006 vs. Seibu Lions (7th meetup at Invoice Seibu Dome) 4th inning with 2 hours against Fumiya Nishiguchi, a 3 run come from behind (gyakuten) home run to left field 4th player in NPB history to hit 100 home runsAll Star Games: 2004 and 2005 Hit home runs off of all NPB teams played against: April 1, 2007 vs. Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (3rd meetup at Chiba Marine Stadium) in the bottom of the 8th inning, a solo shot to center against Yoshiaki Fujioka th player in NPB history to do soIncludes home runs against the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes which ceased to exist in 2004, becoming the 2nd player to hit home runs against 13 teams Hit for the cycle: September 22, 2007 vs. Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (22nd meetup at Fullcast Stadium Miyagi) 1st player in NPB history to hit for the cycle2nd inn: G1, 4th inn: Double, 6th inn: Triple, 7th inn: HR, 9th inn: Single Zuleta was released by the Marines after the 2008 season, though he had previously chosen to play for

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at the

2009 World Baseball Classic The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an International Baseball Federation, international baseball competition. It began on March 5 and finished March 23. Unlike in 2006 World Baseball Classic, 2006, when the Round-robin tournament, round- ...

. The Japanese fans gave Zuleta the name "

Samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

" because of his perseverance. He was a three-time All Star. He is one of only three players in Japanese baseball to hit three home runs in one game. He achieved this feat twice: once against the

Orix BlueWave , styled as ORIX, is a Japanese diversified financial services group headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, and Osaka, Japan. ORIX offers leasing, lending, rentals, life insurance, real estate financing and development, venture capital, investment an ...

(2003) and another time against the

Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, ...

(2006). Zuleta also homered against 13 different Japanese teams; the only other player to have done so was

Fernando Seguignol Fernando Alfredo Seguignol Garcia (born January 19, 1975) is a Panamanian former Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder. Seguignol also played eight years in Nippon Professional Baseball. A switch hitter, Seguignol is regarded as t ...

Post-playing career

In 2009, Zuleta founded Zuleta's Indoor Batting Cages in

Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 86,395; it was estimated to have grown to 95,949 in 2022, making it the List o ...

, providing an upscale indoor facility for baseball and softball training and instruction, which he later sold in 2012.

Sources

External links

Zuleta's Batting Cages company website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuleta, Julio 1975 births Living people Algodoneros de Guasave players Broncos de Reynosa players Chiba Lotte Marines players Chicago Cubs players Daytona Cubs players Fukuoka Daiei Hawks players Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks players Gulf Coast Cubs players Huntington Cubs players Iowa Cubs players Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball left fielders Major League Baseball players from Panama Mexican League baseball first basemen Mexican League baseball right fielders Nippon Professional Baseball first basemen Panamanian expatriate baseball players in Japan Panamanian expatriate baseball players in Mexico Panamanian expatriate baseball players in the United States Pawtucket Red Sox players Rockford Cubbies players Baseball players from Panama City West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx players Williamsport Cubs players 2009 World Baseball Classic players