Hiromu Fujii

Hiromu Fujii (Guji-san) (藤井 弘)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 182 lb.

• High School Eishin Shogyo High School

• Born September 29, 1935 in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hiromu Fujii was a three-time All-Star for the Hiroshima Carp. While never a league leader in anything (except hit-by-pitch, once), he finished second in several key offensive departments. You could make a partial analogy to Wally Pipp, as Fujii was also a first baseman and also a very good player who was succeeded by the ironman of his country and a Hall-of-Famer; in Fujii's case, Sachio Kinugasa. The comparison to Pipp has some flaws, though; Kinugasa did not start his consecutive game streak right after replacing Fujii as the starter and he served as Fujii's backup for a couple years first.

Fujii played for Kurare Okayama in the Japanese industrial leagues. He signed with the Carp and made his debut for them in 1955 at age 19. He was 4 for 53 with two doubles, six walks, 19 strikeouts, no runs and one RBI as a rookie, clearly overmatched. In the minors, he considered suicide due to his trouble hitting breaking pitches. Backing up Makoto Kozuru in 1956, he hit .225/.309/.437 in 23 games. With Kozuru moving back to the outfield, Fujii became the starter at first and hit .231/.311/.390 with 17 home runs in 1957. He finished third in the Central League in doubles (24, behind Hideshi Miyake and Tetsuharu Kawakami), tied with Noboru Inoue for 6th in home runs, 3rd in RBI (62, behind Toshio Miyamoto and Takao Sato), was second in walks (52, 17 behind Hiroji Okajima), ranked 6th in strikeouts (75) and tied Mamoru Nakajima for second with 15 double-play grounders. He made the CL All-Star team.

Fujii was very good in 1958, producing at a .272/.388/.468 clip with 76 walks, 25 doubles and 17 home runs. He was 10th in the pitcher-friendly CL that year in average, was second to Kenjiro Tamiya in OBP (.028 shy), was third in slugging (behind Shigeo Nagashima and Tamiya), was third in OPS (behind Tamiya and Nagashima), was 10th in runs (53), tied Inoue for 4th in doubles (25), was 5th in homers, was 7th in RBI (55), was second to Okajima in walks again (only 8 shy this time), was third in intentional walks (9, behind Nagashima and Tamiya) and was 7th in total bases (191, between Toru Mori and Wally Yonamine). He took Masaichi Kaneda deep May 27 to end Kaneda's shutout inning streak at 64 1/3 IP. During his career, he twice hit sayonara homers off the legendary Kaneda. On September 29, he noticed that Nagashima missed touching first base during a home run and successfully appealed it for an out. Fujii made his second straight CL All-Star team but Kawakami got the Best Nine nod at year's end.

The Hiroshima native slumped to .213/.309/.398, albeit with 20 home runs, in 1959. He finished on the CL leaderboards in home runs (6th, between Akira Owada and Miyake), RBI (54, 10th, between Miyake and Yukihiko Machida), sacrifice flies (6, second to Mori's 9), walks (52, 5th, between Takeshi Kuwata and Yonamine), strikeouts (90, 5th, between Machida and Tatsuro Hiroka) and times plunked (9, 1st). He homered in four consecutive games in 1960 but it was a miserable year for him (.238/.349/.427, 8 HR) and Tatsuo Okitsu got most of the action at 1B for the Carp.

Fujii rebounded in 1961, hitting .270/.351/.471 with 26 doubles and 15 home runs. He took Kaneda deep July 16 for the first come-from-behind sayanora shot in Carp history. He was second to Nagashima in doubles, tied Miyake for 5th in home runs, tied Miyake and Owada for 9th in RBI (56), tied Mori for second in sacrifice flies (6, 2 behind Shinichi Eto), was 8th in walks (49), was 5th in strikeouts (80, between Michael Solomko and Akiteru Kono), tied Inoue for 9th in total bases (190), was 7th in OBP (between Kuwata and Miyake), was 4th in slugging (between Solomko and Owada) and was 4th in OPS (between Kazuhiko Kondo and Solomko).

#8 hit .236/.318/.413 in 1962, homering 18 times and driving in 73. He set a Carp record by driving in 8 runs on April 15. He made his third and final All-Star team and was among the CL's leaders in runs (53, tied for 9th with Kono), doubles (24, tied for 5th with Masahiko Mori), home runs (6th), RBI (73, 3rd, behind Sadaharu Oh and Nagashima), walks (56, 4th, between Nagashima and Sadayuki Tokutake) and double play grounders (13, tied for 4th). He batted .280/.350/.481 with 28 doubles, 20 home runs and 80 RBI in 1963. He tied Nagashima and Eiji Fujii for second in doubles (2 behind Oh), tied Yasumitsu Toyoda for 8th in home runs, was 5th in RBI (between Jim Marshall and Kuwata) and was either 4th or 5th in slugging (depending on the plate appearance cutoff; he was between Eto and Toyoda).

Fujii's production faded after that. He hit .228/.334/.375 with 13 home runs in 1964, placing 8th with 61 walks (between Kondo and Kazuyoshi Yamamoto). In 1965, he batted .225/.321/.302 with 15 home runs. He hit .209/.318/.380 with 12 home runs in 253 at-bats in 1966. In his last season as the starter, he batted .252/.357/.419 with 14 HR and 56 walks in 1967. He was 4th with 75 strikeouts (between Lou Jackson and Kuwata) and 4th 4th in walks (between Isao Shibata and Dave Roberts). He was 10 for 53 with 13 walks and a home run in 1968, replaced by Kinugasa now as the starter. He went 7 for 55 with 11 walks in 68 plate appearances and 67 games in 1969, but his four hits included a double and three home runs.

Overall, Fujii batted .238/.334/.414 with 206 doubles, 177 home runs, 590 walks, 476 runs and 603 RBI in 1,504 NPB games. Through 2011, he was 45th in NPB history in walks, between Yutaka Takagi and Kiyoshi Yamada.

He later coached for Hiroshima and worked for them as a scout, minor league manager and in their Dominican academy, finishing up in 1995 in that role.

Sources

• Japan Baseball Daily by Gary Garland
• Michael Eng database