Hiroto Fuku
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hiroto Fuku 福 敬登 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chunichi Dragons – No. 34 | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born: June 16, 1992 Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan | |
Bats: Left Throws: Left | |
| debut | |
| March 25, 2016, for the Chunichi Dragons | |
| Career statistics (through 2025 season) | |
| Win-Loss | 13-12 |
| ERA | 3.25 |
| Strikeouts | 226 |
| Saves | 2 |
| Holds | 86 |
| Stats at Baseball Reference | |
| Teams | |
| |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Hiroto Fuku (福 敬登, Fuku Hiroto; born June 16, 1992) is a professional Japanese baseball player. He plays pitcher for the Chunichi Dragons.
Fuku was the fourth draft pick for the Dragons at the 2015 NPB draft.
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 manning Kokura Station in Fukuoka and playing baseball for the company team[1] where he played at the national baseball championships.
On 22 October 2016, at the 2015 Nippon Professional Baseball draft, Fuku was the fourth 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.[2] 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."[1] 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 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.[1]