was an American baseball player who played for the
Hiroshima Carp
The is a professional baseball team based in 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 founder Jujiro Mats ...
in Japan's
Central League
The or 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 in the annual Japan Series. It currently consi ...
.
Hirayama was an
All-Star twice in Japan.
Early life and amateur career
Hirayama got the nickname "Fibber" from his father's inability to pronounce "February", the month of his birth.
He was originally from
Exeter, California
Exeter is a city in Tulare County, California, United States. It is situated in the San Joaquin Valley near the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The population was 10,334 at the 2010 census.
Exeter is located on State Highway 65, south of Hig ...
. At 12 years old, following the signing of
Executive Order 9066, he was
interned
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
at the
Poston War Relocation Center
The Poston Internment Camp, located in Yuma County (now in La Paz County) in southwestern Arizona, was the largest (in terms of area) of the ten American concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority during World War II.
The sit ...
with his father and two brothers.
After three years, when World War II ended, he was released and began attending
Exeter Union High School
Exeter Union High School is located in Exeter, California, in Tulare County.
Academics
Exeter Union High School currently offers a curriculum that prepares its students for higher education, vocational training, and direct entry into the work ...
from which he graduated in 1947.
Hirayama was a star athlete at
Fresno State
California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...
, playing both
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 t ...
and
football as a
halfback. Hirayama attended the school on a football scholarship and only played baseball because he did not want to play spring football. He wound up playing three seasons of each.
On the baseball field, he set a
college baseball
College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...
record with five
stolen bases in a single game and had a .420 batting average in 1950.
He was voted "Nisei Player of the Year" in 1951.
In 1952, he led Fresno State to its first ever
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
postseason appearance.
Hirayama set single-season and career school records in stolen bases which would not be surpassed until 1987 by
Tom Goodwin
Thomas Jones Goodwin (born July 27, 1968) is an American professional baseball coach and former player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 14 seasons, primarily as a center fielder, from 1991 to 2004. As a player, he was listed at and ...
.
On April 30, 2017, he became the eleventh player to have his
number retired by Fresno State's baseball program.
Professional career
After college, Hirayama signed a professional contract with the
St. Louis Browns
The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they p ...
and spent the 1952 season with the
Stockton Ports. He was one of the first Japanese-American players to sign with a
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
club.
In 1953, Hirayama was drafted into the military. From 1953 to 1955, he continued playing baseball as a soldier at
Fort Ord
Fort Ord is a former United States Army post on Monterey Bay of the Pacific Ocean coast in California, which closed in 1994 due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) action. Most of the fort's land now makes up the Fort Ord National Monument, ...
.
After being discharged, Hirayama signed with the
Hiroshima Carp
The is a professional baseball team based in 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 founder Jujiro Mats ...
of
Nippon Professional Baseball
or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''.
Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...
on the insistence of fellow Japanese-American
Kenichi Zenimura
Kenichi Zenimura (January 25, 1900 – November 13, 1968) was a Japanese-American baseball player, manager, and promoter. He had a long career with semiprofessional Japanese-American baseball leagues in the western United States and Hawaii; these ...
. In 1954, the Browns granted Hirayama his release and he and his wife moved to Japan. Hirayama did not speak Japanese upon arrival but became fluent after a few years.
Toward the end of his playing career, Hirayama was serving as a player-coach. His playing career was cut short when he ran into a wall and suffered a nerve injury which caused him to lose some vision in his right eye.
After retiring as a player, Hirayama spent three years coaching and one year managing in the Japanese minor leagues before returning to the United States.
Hirayama returned to California where he worked as a scout for the
California Angels and
Hiroshima Carp
The is a professional baseball team based in 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 founder Jujiro Mats ...
. As a scout, he helped the Carp sign
Tim Ireland.
In 2009, Hirayama won the Al Radka Award.
At the time, he was the head of the Japanese Baseball Development Program in the Dominican Republic.
Personal life
Hirayama met his wife, Jean, while they were attending Fresno State. They were married in February 1955 and had three sons, Colin, Kevin and Brian.
After returning to the United States, Hirayama also worked as a teacher and administrator in the
Clovis Unified School District
Clovis Unified School District is a public school system located in Clovis, California, with its headquarters located at 1450, Herndon Avenue, Clovis. Its 43 schools serve a student population of nearly 40,000 students in a geographic area cov ...
in addition to his scouting duties.
He retired from the school district in 1991 and his wife died that same year.
In the years before his former Fresno State teammate
Tex Clevenger
Truman Eugene "Tex" Clevenger (July 9, 1932 – August 24, 2019) was an American Major League Baseball relief pitcher and spot starter who played for the Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators, Los Angeles Angels and New York Yankees from 1954 to ...
died of
Alzheimer's disease in August 2019, Hirayama (then 89 years old himself) would drive from
Fresno
Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...
to
Visalia, California
Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in ...
every week to visit Clevenger, although Clevenger eventually stopped recognizing him and lost the ability to speak.
Satoshi Hirayama died on September 15, 2021, at the age of 91.
See also
*
Nisei Baseball Research Project
The Nisei Baseball Research Project (NBRP) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization documenting, preserving and exhibiting history of Japanese American baseball. It was founded by Kerry Yo Nakagawa, the author of ''Through a Diamond: 100 Years of ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirayama, Satoshi
1930 births
2021 deaths
Fresno State Bulldogs baseball players
Stockton Ports players
Japanese-American internees
American baseball players of Japanese descent
American military personnel of Japanese descent
American expatriate baseball players in Japan
Fresno State Bulldogs football players
California Angels scouts
Hiroshima Carp players
People from Exeter, California
Baseball players from Tulare County, California
Baseball coaches from California
Nippon Professional Baseball outfielders