BREAKING·
Isao Harimoto, the first person in history to reach 3,000 hits, dies at age 86
It was announced on the afternoon of the 9th that Isao Harimoto, who played for professional baseball team Toei (currently Nippon-Ham) and was the first player in history to reach 3,000 hits, passed away. He was 86 years old. Born in Hiroshima City, he transferred from Hiroshima Matsumoto Commercial High School to Osaka Naniwa Commercial High School and joined Toei in 1959. He became a regular player in his first year and won Rookie of the Year. He produced a large number of hits using his ``spray batting method,'' which involved hitting at wide angles, and was active as a strong hitter with long-hitting power. He won the leadoff hitter title for the first time in 1961, and was the leadoff hitter in the Pacific League seven times, including four years in a row from 1967 to 1970. He also has a batting average of .300 with a mark of 16 times. He moved to the Giants in 1976 and to Lotte in 1980, becoming the first player in Japanese professional baseball to achieve 3,000 total hits. He retired as a professional player in 1981, playing 2,752 games, 3,085 hits, a batting average of .319, 504 home runs, 1,676 RBIs, and 319 stolen bases in 23 years as a professional player. Ichiro has surpassed the record for total hits between Japan and the United States. Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990. After retiring, he became a baseball commentator and was popular for his harsh comments. He openly declared that he was a second-generation Korean living in Japan from an early stage, and contributed to the development of Korean baseball by serving as a special assistant to the commissioner of Korean professional baseball.
