Hiromitsu Ochiai
| Hiromitsu Ochiai 落合 博満 |
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Born: December 9, 1953 Yuri, Akita, Japan |
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| NPB debut | |||
| May 29, 1979, for the Lotte Orions | |||
| Last appearance | |||
| October 7, 1998, for the Nippon Ham Fighters | |||
| NPB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .311 | ||
| Hits | 2371 | ||
| HRs | 510 | ||
| RBIs | 1564 | ||
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As player
As manager As general manager |
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
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| Member of the Japanese | |||
 Baseball Hall of Fame
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| Inducted | 2011 | ||
As player
As manager
As general manager
Hiromitsu Ochiai (落合 博満 Ochiai Hiromitsu, born December 9, 1953) is a former Japanese professional baseball player. He is former manager of the Chunichi Dragons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He is considered to be one of the most important people in the history of Japanese baseball, winning numerous batting awards and being the only player to receive the prestigious triple crown batting award three times. With 510 career home runs, Ochiai is sixth on the all-time NPB list.
Ochiai was born in the town of Yuri in Akita, Japan, a rice-farming area of northern Honshū. Ochiai was the youngest of seven children and grew up enjoying spending time in the cinema rather than on the baseball field. At Toyo University, he quit after one year as he did not approve of the traditional way freshman players had to cater to the senior players on the team. He joined Toshiba Fuchu, a team in the Japanese industrial league, after leaving Toyo University and went back to his home town and spent some years as a professional bowler.
In 1978, at 25 years old, the third baseman joined Lotte Orions after being selected in the third round of the draft. The Lotte manager did not care for his unorthodox right-handed batting style and Masaichi Kaneda criticized Ochiai, but Isao Harimoto supported Ochiai and Ochiai did not quit. From 1981, Ochiai played a regular role for his team, and in 1982 he won his first triple crown batting title. He also won the Triple crown in 1985 and 1986, and continued winning titles through 1991.
In 1987, Ochiai was traded to the Chunichi Dragons by the Lotte Orions. During the 1994 season, the Yomiuri Giants picked up Ochiai as a free agent. After the Giants signed Kazuhiro Kiyohara in 1997, Ochiai joined the Nippon-Ham Fighters at the age of 43. At the conclusion of the 1998 season, Ochiai retired.
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