Isao Harimoto (Jang Hun) Autograph

I have been meaning to post for a long time and I haven't. I have also been meaning to do an individual post for a card that I pulled a couple of years ago that remains one of my favorite autographs that I pulled.

Back in 2017, I bought my 1st boxes of NPB cards. I wasn't really sure what I was getting and I wasn't very familiar with most NPB players. Anyway, one of the boxes that I bought was a 2012 BBM Suntory Dream Match box. I picked it up for a fairly cheap price and I thought that it looked interesting. What was inside blew me away once I realized who the autographed card was. It was Isao Harimoto or Jang Hun as he is known in Korea.

Harimoto is a retired NPB player that is an ethnic Korean. He was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1940. He remains a Korean citizen, but adopted a Japanese name and has spent his life as a resident of Japan. Having been born in Hiroshima and growing up there, his family was a victim of the atomic bombing that happened there in 1945. While he survived the bombing without injuries, he did lose a sister that was in the blast zone. He is also identified as the only Hiroshima bombing survivor to play professional baseball in Japan.

As a professional player in the NPB, Harimoto went on to become a legend. He debuted in the NPB in 1959 at the age on 18 with the Toei Flyers and continued to play until 1981 when he retired from baseball as a member of the Lotte Orions. Over his career he earned Pacific League Rookie of the Year honors, was and 18 time all-star pick, and a 7 time batting champ. He also holds the NPB career hits record with 3,085 hits. In 1990 he was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

Listed below are some of his NPB final numbers.

Batting Average: .319
Hits: 3,085
Home Runs: 504
RBI: 1,676
Stolen Bases: 319

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I hope you enjoyed this post and I will try to get on here more regularly in the future. Cheers!