Weighing in at over 600 lbs (or approximately two William Howard Tafts), Hawaiian sumo wrestler Konishiki throws out the first pitch at the 1998 Super Dome All-Star Series in Tokyo

29 comments
  1. Inspired by u/andapeartree’s recent posts. I assume this is probably the record for heaviest person to ever throw out a first pitch.

    To keep this educational, here’s [a SABR article about the 1998 MLB all-star exhibition tour in Japan](https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-1998-super-dome-all-star-series-in-japan/) that this was a part of.

    And for fun, [here’s a bit of Konishiki in action off the diamond](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8luVYmg3fI).

  2. Is his jersey number his weight in kilograms?

    Edit: 333 kg is just over 734 lbs, but I’m not skilled enough at guessing weight to say he looks 734 lbs with confidence.

  3. Laugh all you want, the guy was an ozeki, meaning that he was a better athlete than 98 percent of us.

  4. Honestly his arm action from the two pictures looks pretty good. Might have played ball in HS

  5. Bravo to the people who made a reasonable baseball uniform for someone with the body shape of Patrick Star.

  6. And here I thought I was the only person who weighed things on the William Howard Taft scale.

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