Japanese baseball great Isao Harimoto, the Nippon Professional Baseball record holder with 3,085 hits, died at a hospital in Tokyo on Wednesday, the Golden Players Club said. He was 86, Kyodo reported.
Atomic bomb survivor Harimoto, a Japanese Baseball Hall of Famer, achieved the feat despite severe burns from an accident at age 4 that left him with limited mobility in the fingers of his right hand.
“He carved an immortal footprint in Japanese baseball history by becoming the first player to achieve the great feat of 3,000 hits,” the Golden Players Club said.
Born in Hiroshima to Korean parents, Harimoto survived the atomic bombing of the western Japan city by the United States on Aug. 6, 1945, at age 5.
After graduating from high school in Osaka, Harimoto entered professional baseball with the Toei Flyers in 1959 when he won Rookie of the Year.
He led the Pacific League in batting average for the first time in 1961 before claiming the MVP award in 1962 after helping the team to its first pennant. He was the batting champion for four years straight from 1967.
Harimoto moved to the Yomiuri Giants in 1976 and helped them win two straight Central League pennants from that season before becoming NPB’s only player with 3,000 hits in May 1980, the year he moved to the Lotte Orions.
Known for his spray hitting and earning the nickname “hit machine” for his remarkable consistency at the plate, Harimoto batted .319, hit 504 home runs, had 1,676 RBIs and 319 stolen bases in 2,752 games. He hit above .300 in 16 of his 23 professional years.
Harimoto is tied with Ichiro Suzuki for becoming an NPB batting champion a record seven times. Suzuki had 1,278 hits in his nine seasons with the Orix BlueWave before amassing 3,089 in Major League Baseball until retiring in 2019 for a career total of 4,367. He was inducted to the U.S. National Baseball Hall of Fame last year.
Harimoto, who was named 16 times to the NPB Best Nine, a record for an outfielder, was inducted to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.
SoftBank Hawks chairman Sadaharu Oh, NPB’s record home-run hitter at 868, who was born in the same year as Harimoto in 1940, lauded his former Giants teammate.
“He was handicapped (with the burns), but I felt his stubbornness and competitive spirit strongly at any moment. Sturdy is the best word to describe him,” Oh said. “We saw each other as a rival and that helped us get better numbers, as well as prolonging our pro careers.”
Harimoto, the only player with 500-plus home runs and 300-plus stolen bases in NPB, became a familiar face on television as a commentator after ending his career in 1981, offering snappy assessments of athletes’ performance in various sports.
Later in life, Harimoto, who lost his eldest sister in the atomic bombing, spoke about his experience as a survivor and often stressed the importance of peace in media interviews. He also spoke of the discrimination he faced in Japan because of his Korean roots.
“He made a big contribution to our country’s development of baseball,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said.
“He was loved by baseball fans for his candid yet passionate commentary. We would like to express our renewed respect and condolences,” the top government spokesman told a press conference.
An ambulance was called on Wednesday afternoon after Harimoto was found in the driver’s seat of his car along the road near his house in Tokyo, a source familiar with the matter said. Foul play is not suspected.