Wladimir Ramon "Coco" Balentien (; born July 2, 1984) is a

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

an- Dutch 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 ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

. He played 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 ...

(MLB) for the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. The Mariners compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. The team joined the American ...

and

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

, and 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 ...

(NPB) for the

Tokyo Yakult Swallows The Tokyo Yakult Swallows () are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams in Tokyo, the other being the Yomiuri G ...

and

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 ...

. In 2013, he broke the NPB single-season home run record of 55, previously held by professional baseball's all-time home run leader

Sadaharu Oh Sadaharu Oh ( Japanese: , ''Ō Sadaharu''; born May 20, 1940), also known as Wang Chen-chih (), is a Japanese-born Chinese former professional baseball player and manager who is currently the chairman of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of N ...

, American Tuffy Rhodes, and Venezuelan Alex Cabrera. Balentien finished the season with 60 home runs, becoming the only player to ever do so in NPB history.

Professional career

Seattle Mariners

Balentien was signed as an undrafted

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

by the Mariners in . He made his professional debut in 2003 with the AZL Mariners. He split the 2004 season between the

Single-A Single-A, formerly known as Class A and sometimes as Low-A, is the fourth-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States, below Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A, Double-A (baseball), Double-A, and High-A. There are 30 teams cl ...

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and the

High-A High-A, officially Class High-A, formerly known as Class A-Advanced, and sometimes abbreviated "A+" in writing, is the third-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States and Canada, below Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A and D ...

Inland Empire 66ers The Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. The 66ers are based in San Bernardino, California, and play at San Manuel Stadium. Franchi ...

, accumulating a .279/.321/.513 batting line with 17

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and 51 runs batted in (RBI). The next year, Balentien spent the season with Inland Empire, batting .291/.338/.553 with 25 home runs and 93 RBI in 123 games. In 2006, Balentien played for the Double-A

San Antonio Missions The San Antonio Missions are a Minor League Baseball team based in San Antonio, Texas. The Missions compete in the Texas League as the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. The team plays its home games at Nelson W. W ...

, posting a batting line of .230/.337/.435 to go along with 22 home runs and 82 RBI. In , he was assigned to the Triple-A

Tacoma Rainiers The Tacoma Rainiers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Tacoma, Washington, and play their home games at Cheney Stadium, ...

for the season. Balentien was selected to the

All-Star Futures Game The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball (MLB) in conjunction with the mid-summer MLB All-Star Game. A team of American League-affiliated prospects competes against a team of National League- ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

that year, a result of his .328

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

, 20 home runs, and 66 RBI by that point. He was called up to the major leagues with the Mariners on September 4, 2007, and made his MLB debut that night against the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx in New York City. It is the home field of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. The stadium opened in April 2009, replacing the Yankee S ...

. Balentien pinch-hit for José Guillén in the 8th inning and hit a two-run

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

in his first major league at bat. Balentien was invited to

spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...

with the Mariners in 2008. However, the starting

right field A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In t ...

job went to Brad Wilkerson, and Balentien was optioned to Tacoma on March 24. When Wilkerson and

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 ...

Greg Norton Gregory James Norton (born 13 March 1959) is an American bassist, formerly of the band Hüsker Dü. Early life Norton was born in Davenport, Iowa, as this was the most local Catholic hospital to his family’s home in Rock Island, Illinois. He ...

were

designated for assignment Designated for assignment (DFA) is a contractual term used in Major League Baseball (MLB). A player who is designated for assignment is immediately removed from the team's 40-man roster, after which the team must, within seven days, return the pla ...

on April 30, Balentien and Jeff Clement were called up to the big leagues for a game in Cleveland against the Indians. Facing Indians starter Cliff Lee in the top of the seventh inning, Balentien hit a three-run homer to end Lee's streak of 27 scoreless innings pitched. His homer was one of only 12 Lee gave up in a

Cy Young Award The Cy Young Award is given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB), one each for the American League (AL) and National League (baseball), National League (NL). The award was introduced in 1956 by Commissioner of Baseball ( ...

-winning season. Balentien was sent down to Tacoma in mid-June after batting .196 in 32 games. He returned to the Mariners in early August, after the team designated José Vidro for assignment. He finished his rookie season with a .202 batting average and 7 home runs in 71 games. Balentien was on the Mariners opening day roster in 2009. He started the season strong, batting .313 with five walks and five extra base hits in his first 16 games. However, his contact issues returned, and on July 25, the Mariners designated him for assignment. He hit .213 with 4 home runs and 13 RBI in 170 plate appearances for the Mariners. Outfielder Michael Saunders was called up to replace Balentien.

Cincinnati Reds

On July 29, 2009, the Mariners traded Balentien to the

for reliever Robert Manuel. He remained a part-time player for the Reds, starting 28 games in the last two months of the season. In his final MLB game, against the

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

on October 2, Balentien hit a 495-foot home run into the upper deck beyond left field. On April 14, 2010, Balentien was outrighted off of the 40-man roster. He spent the 2010 season with the Triple-A

Louisville Bats The Louisville Bats are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. They are located in Louisville, Kentucky, and are named in dual reference to the bat, wi ...

, hitting .282 with 25 home runs in 116 games. He elected free agency on November 6.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows

On November 16, 2010, Balentien signed with the

in the Japanese

. In the 2011 season, he led the

Central League The or , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League i ...

with 31 home runs. In 2012, Balentien led the league with 31 home runs, but did not reach the minimum requirement of plate appearances, having only taken 422 trips to the plate.

2013: home run record

On August 29, 2013, Balentien hit his 51st home run of the 2013 season. With over a month of the regular season remaining at that date, many speculated that Balentien could break the

league season record. The record of 55 home runs in a single season was originally set by

in 1964 and later tied by Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera. The Swallows added a "Coco Meter" to their website, tracking his progress through the season. On September 10, Balentien hit his 55th home run. He subsequently broke the record, hitting his 56th and 57th home runs on September 15, at home against the

Hanshin Tigers The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, next to their main stadium, Hanshin Koshien Stadium. The Tigers are owned by Hanshin Electric Railway Co., ...

. He finished the season with 60 home runs and 131 RBI in 130 games. Late in the 2013 season, it was revealed that NPB had secretly introduced a livelier baseball, resulting in a marked increase in home runs across the league. The scandal over the juiced baseball led NPB commissioner Ryozo Kato to resign in September 2013."Ryozo Kato resigns as commish,"
ESPN.com (September 13, 2013).

2014–2019

In 2014, Balentien played in 112 games for Yakult, slashing .301/.419/.587 with 31 home runs and 69 RBI. Balentien only appeared in 15 games in 2015 due to injury, and in 2016 he batted .269/.369/.516 with 31 home runs and 96 RBI. In 2017, Balentien hit .254/.358/.506 with 32 home runs and 80 RBI in 125 games. In 2018 for Yakult, Balentien posted a .268/.370/.533 batting line with 38 home runs and 131 RBI on the year and was selected to the 2018 NPB All-Star game. In 2019, Balentien slashed .280/.363/.554 with 33 home runs and 93 RBI in 120 games. On December 2, 2019, he became a free agent.

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks

On December 16, 2019, Balentien signed with the

. In 2020, Balentien finished the regular season with a batting average of .168, 9 home runs, and 22 RBI in 60 games. He was selected to the

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series between the winning cl ...

roster for the Hawks in the 2020 Japan Series but did not play in the Hawks' four-game sweep of the

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 h ...

. Balentien began the 2021 season with the Hawks' minor league team in the Japan Western League. He returned to the NPB team in May. On June 13, he passed two statistical milestones in one game against the Yakult Swallows: he hit his 300th NPB home run and his 1,000th hit. He hit a home run in his final at bat with the Hawks' Western League team on September 30. On October 12, 2021, the Hawks announced Balentien would not return to the club. On January 22, 2022, Balentien announced his retirement from Japanese baseball.

Saraperos de Saltillo

On February 13, 2022, Balentien signed with the Saraperos de Saltillo of the

Mexican League The Mexican Baseball League (, or LMB, ) is a professional baseball league in Mexico. It is the oldest running professional sports league in the country. The league has 20 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games ...

. In 18 games, he batted .231/.351/.477 with four home runs and 11 RBI. Balentien was placed on the injured list on May 15, then released by the team on May 25.

International career

Balentien represented

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

, the

2013 World Baseball Classic The 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, held from March 2 to 19, 2013. This was the third iteration of the WBC, following the two previous tournaments, held in 2006 and 2009. Unlike the tw ...

, 2015 WBSC Premier12, the

2017 World Baseball Classic The 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts wer ...

, 2022 Haarlem Baseball Week, and the

2023 World Baseball Classic The 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball tournament and the fifth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. It began on March 8, 2023, and ran until March 21. It was originally scheduled to take place in ...

. Balentien hit a home run in the Netherlands 11–0 blowout of home team

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

in the 2004 Olympics. Balentien received the Guus van der Heijden Memorial Trophy in 2004, awarded to the best Dutch international baseball player under the age of 23. Balentien was named to the 2017 All-World Baseball Classic team after leading the tournament with 4 home runs, 12 RBI, and 29

total bases In baseball statistics, total bases is the number of bases a player gains with hit (baseball), hits. It is a weighted sum with values of 1 for a single (baseball), single, 2 for a double (baseball), double, 3 for a triple (baseball), triple and 4 ...

Coaching career

Balentien became the manager of the Santa María Pirates of the Curaçao National Championship AA League and led them during the 2025 Baseball Champions League Americas.

Personal life

Balentien lives in Willemstad, Curaçao with his daughter, Jeniliee. He had a second child, born in 2019. A street in Willemstad was renamed after him in 2013, celebrating his Japanese home run record. Balentien was one of several Curaçaoan athletes that supported the Food Bank of Curaçao in 2020. On January 13, 2014, Balentien was arrested on domestic violence charges in Florida after an incident with his wife, Karla, as the couple was in the midst of divorce proceedings. According to police records, Balentien allegedly visited Karla's home, pulled out window screens to enter the house, grabbed her arm as she ran upstairs, and then locked her bedroom door with him, her, and their young daughter inside. That month, Balentien was freed on bail, pled not guilty, and returned to Japan, where he apologized to fans. Days after the incident, Karla said that he had never been violent against her before. Prosecutors decided to stop prosecuting the case in September 2014, after Karla said she would no longer cooperate on the case and did not feel threatened by her husband. Prosecutors also cited a lack of evidence, as witnesses could not return to Miami for a trial. Court records show Karla filed for divorce again in 2022.

References

External links

*
Wladimir Balentien at Retrosheet

(archived)

at Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (archived)
Wladimir Balentien at Pura Pelota (Venezuelan Winter League)
(archived) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balentien, Wladimir 1984 births Living people Arizona League Mariners players Baseball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Cardenales de Lara players Cañeros de Los Mochis players Cincinnati Reds players Curaçao expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic Curaçao expatriate baseball players in Japan Curaçao expatriate baseball players in Mexico Curaçao expatriate baseball players in the United States Dutch people of Curaçao descent Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks players Inland Empire 66ers players Louisville Bats players Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball players from Curaçao Navegantes del Magallanes players Curaçao expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Nippon Professional Baseball left fielders Nippon Professional Baseball MVP Award winners Nippon Professional Baseball right fielders Olympic baseball players for the Netherlands Baseball players from Willemstad San Antonio Missions players Saraperos de Saltillo players Seattle Mariners players Tacoma Rainiers players Tokyo Yakult Swallows players Wisconsin Timber Rattlers players 2015 WBSC Premier12 players 2013 World Baseball Classic players 2017 World Baseball Classic players 2023 World Baseball Classic players Gigantes del Cibao players