Hideki Irabu

  • 2 × World Series champion (1998, 1999)
  • 2 x Best Nine (1994, 1995)
  • 4 × NPB All Star (1994-1996, 2003)

Hideki Irabu (Japanese伊 良 部 秀 辉, Hideki Irabu; born May 5, 1969 in Miyakojima, † July 27, 2011 in Rancho Palos Verdes ) was a Japanese baseball player who played the position of the pitcher in the North American Major League.

Career

In the Japanese Pacific League since 1993 he holds the record for the fastest ever thrown fastball (158 km / h).

He was born in what was then managed by the U.S. Okinawa Prefecture on the island of Miyako- jima, the son of a okinawaischen mother and an American soldier, but they left shortly after Hideki's birth. His mother then married a Japanese man and he grew up in Amagasaki Hyōgo Prefecture on the. Later the family moved to the Kagawa Prefecture, where he attended the Jinsei Gakuen High School in Zentsuji, with which he in 1986 and 1987 at the Summer Koshien participated.

From 1988 to 1996 Irabu played in the Pacific League for the Lotte Orions, who had selected him in the first round of the draft in 1987. In 1997 he came to the New York Yankees, the then defending champion of the World Series. Irabus change contributed to the agreement of the posting system in 1998, which is designed to prevent Japanese star players change compensation in the Major League. In 1998 and 1999 he won the World Series with the Yankees before he moved to the Montreal Expos (2000-2001), then to the Texas Rangers (2002) and from 2003 to 2004 played back in Japan for the Hanshin Tigers, where he was to them their first league title since 1985 helped.

After he retired from the sport and ran until 2008, udon noodle restaurant in Los Angeles. In April 2009, his comeback was then when he played for the independent American Golden Baseball League and in August for the semi-professional Kōchi Fighting Dogs in Japan. In 2010 he was living back in the U.S. in Rancho Palos Verdes in Los Angeles County.

On July 27, 2011 Irabu was found dead at his home, the police are out of suicide. Irabu left behind a wife and two children.

Rancho Palos Verdes, California July 10 July 12 Texas Rangers (Baseball) Earned Run Average Strikeout Miyakojima (Okinawa) Miyako-jima Draft (sports)
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