(also known as Hideo Nakagami) (May 10, 1918 – April 26, 1997) was a Japanese

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or dr ...

. He holds the Japanese records for lowest career ERA (1.90) and seasonal ERA (0.73), as well as best all-time winning percentage (.697). During his career, which spanned the one-league and two-league era, he played for the

Tokyo Kyojin The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

and the

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...

. He was the

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

of the Giants in 1944 and part of 1946 (the league cancelled all games in 1945 because of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vas ...

Biography

Fujimoto, born as Lee Pal-ryong, was born in

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

which was part of Japanese Empire at that time, moving to Japan at age eight. He attended Shimonoseki Shogyo High School and

Meiji University , abbreviated as Meiji (明治) or Meidai (明大'')'', is a private research university located in Chiyoda City, the heart of Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1881 as Meiji Law School (明治法律学校, ''Meiji Hōritsu Gakkō'') by three Meiji-er ...

."Hideo Fujimoto,"
Baseball-Reference.com. Accessed April 2, 2015. In 1943, he enjoyed one of the greatest seasons ever by a pitcher in Japan, winning the

pitching triple crown In baseball, a player earns a Triple Crown when he leads a league in three specific statistical categories in the same season. The term "Triple Crown" generally refers to the batting achievement of leading a league in batting average, home runs, ...

. He won 34 games for the Kyojin, leading the league in wins, complete games (39), innings () and strikeouts (253). He threw a Japanese-record 19 shutouts and set the single-season mark for ERA at 0.73. In May 1943 he also pitched his first no-hitter, defeating

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...

. Between August and September he threw a record six straight shutouts, going innings without allowing a run, and 100 innings without allowing an earned run. In 1944, in addition to pitching and managing, Nakagami occasionally played outfield. (He also spent significant time in the outfield in 1948.) Nakagami was a good hitter for someone who primarily played pitcher, hitting .245 with 15 career home runs (including 7 round-trippers in 1950). In 1946, Nakagami led the

Japanese Baseball League was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936 to 1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball. The league's dominant team was Tokyo Kyojin (renamed the Yomiuri Giants in 1947), which won nine league c ...

in earned run average, with a mark of 2.11. Nakagami played for the

for one season in 1947, winning 17 games with a 1.83 ERA and 27 complete games. In 1949, Nakagami went 24-7 with a 1.94 ERA and 29 complete games, winning the ERA title and the

Eiji Sawamura Award The , commonly known as the Sawamura Award, is an honor bestowed upon the top starting pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball each year. The award was originally established by Japanese magazine "Nekkyū" in 1947 to honor the career of Eiji Sawa ...

. At

Aomori Stadium was an athletic stadium in Aomori, Aomori, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Jap ...

, in he pitched the first perfect game in NPB history. He was the winning pitcher in games 1 and 5 (the clinching game) in the

1951 Japan Series The 1951 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1951 Nippon Professional Baseball season, 1951 season. It was the second Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champions, the Nankai Hawks, against ...

, as the Giants beats the

Nankai 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. The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...

4-games-to-1. He picked up a win the

1952 Japan Series The 1952 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1952 season. It was the third Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champions, the Nankai Hawks, against the Central League champions, the Yomiuri ...

(as well as hitting a home run) as the Giants were again champions, defeating the Hawks 4-games-to-2. Nakagami won another game in the

1953 Japan Series The 1953 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1953 season. It was the fourth Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champions, the Nankai Hawks, against the Central League champions, the Yomiuri ...

, as the Giants defeated the Hawks for the championship for the third year in a row. After his playing career, he coached for the Giants and managed in the Japanese minor leagues, Later, he managed in the industrial leagues. He also worked as the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

correspondent for ''

Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ...

''. Fujimoto/Nakagami was elected to the

Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame The is a museum which includes a library, reference rooms and . It first opened in 1959 next door to Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. In 1988, the museum moved to a new site within the Tokyo Dome. The Hall of Fame and Museum was created as a ...

in 1976.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fujimoto, Hideo 1918 births 1997 deaths Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Yomiuri Giants players Chunichi Dragons players Managers of baseball teams in Japan Baseball player-managers Yomiuri Giants managers Korean emigrants to Japan Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers who have pitched a perfect game Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame inductees