is a professional 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 tea ...

player. He plays

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 draw ...

for the Chunichi Dragons. Fuku was the 4th draft pick for the Dragons at the 2015 NPB draft.

Early career

Fuku started playing rubber ball baseball in elementary school. He reached the semi-finals of the Hyogo prefectural high school tournament with his school, Kobe West High School, but was unable to make an appearance at the summer koshien. He worked for

JR Kyushu The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan and the JR Kyushu Jet Ferry Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait ...

manning Kokura Station in

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

and playing baseball for the company team where he played at the national baseball championships. On 22 October 2016, at the

2015 Nippon Professional Baseball draft The 2015 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Draft was held on October 22, , for the 51st time at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa to assign amateur baseball players to the NPB. It was arranged with the special cooperation of Taisho Pharmaceutica ...

, Fuku was the 4th pick for the Chunichi Dragons. At the press conference for the unveiling of the new draftees, it was announced that Fuku would be presented with the number 34 previously worn by the long-serving, 217 win taking pitcher, Masahiro Yamamoto. At the conference, Fuku promised that "the responsibility of carrying on the legacy of a number worn by such a legend as Yamamoto is heavy but I don't think of that as a minus, rather is spurs me on to go out and do it. A professional never uses the word impossible." At the conference Fuku was asked in a playful way whether he would give an impression of his time working with JR, and he replied with "This is a call for customers riding the express train to Hakata. For those customers taking the number 34

Sonic Sonic or Sonics may refer to: Companies *Sonic Drive-In, an American drive-in fast-food restaurant chain *Sonic (ISP), an Internet provider and CLEC, serving more than 100 California communities *Sonic Foundry, a computer software company whic ...

express please move to the number 4 platform." This playfully mixed in a reference to his new number to the applause and laughter of the crowd.

Professional career

Chunichi Dragons

Rookie Year

Fuku was the only rookie in the 2015 draft class to make the opening day roster and he made his professional debut on March 26, 2016, as a relief pitcher in a 7–3 second day loss to the

Hanshin Tigers The Hanshin Tigers (Japanese: 阪神タイガース ''Hanshin Taigāsu'') are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and is owned by Hanshin Electric Railway ...

. On 31 March 2016 he made his starting debut against the

Hiroshima Carp The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda ...

Nagoya Dome The Nagoya Dome (ナゴヤドーム), known as Vantelin Dome Nagoya (バンテリンドームナゴヤ) for sponsoring reasons, is a baseball field, constructed in 1997, located in the city of Nagoya, Japan. The dome has the capacity to seat up ...

. Fuku registered his first win against 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 ...

at the Tokyo Dome on May 7, 2016, as a reliever following starter

Drew Naylor Drew Roy Naylor (born 31 May 1986) is an Australian former professional baseball pitcher. Naylor pitched for the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball from 2015 to 2016. He played in the minor league system of the Philadelphia Philli ...

's withdrawal with injury. On 25 August, he returned to the mound after a long absence from the first team in an extended innings game against 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 based in Tokyo, the other being the Yom ...

Meiji Jingu Stadium The is a baseball stadium in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It opened in 1926 and holds 37,933 spectators. Property of the Meiji Shrine, it is the home field of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows professional baseball team. It also hosts college baseball, incl ...

where he gave up a walk-off

wild pitch In baseball, a wild pitch (WP) is charged against a pitcher when his pitch is too high, too short, or too wide of home plate for the catcher to control with ordinary effort, thereby allowing a baserunner, or the batter (on an uncaught third stri ...

in the 11th inning resulting in a 9–8 loss.

2017-2018

At the end of the 2017 season, due to an left shoulder injury, Fuku was demoted to a development contract and assigned the 234 while he was rehabilitating. On July 19, 2018, after the trade of southpaw reliever, Ryuya Ogawa to the

Saitama Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, wh ...

, Fuku was reinstated to the full-time roster and reassigned the 34. Fuku made one appearance with the top team to finish the season.

2019

Fuku became a key part of the Dragons bullpen in 2019 pitching in 52 games, 52.2 innings and a 2.05 ERA.

External links

NPB.jp (English)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuku, Hiroto 1992 births Living people Baseball people from Hyōgo Prefecture Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Chunichi Dragons players