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Originally Posted by seanofjapan
For sure.
The guy has the most insane “overcoming adversity” back story of any athlete in history.
At 4 years old his right hand was crushed and burned when a truck ran over it, leaving it permanently disfigured.
So he became a lefty.
A couple years later he is in Hiroshima when the bomb drops, he only survived because his mom threw herself on top of him.
He spent the next week watching his sister slowly die of her injuries in the ruins of their home.
A few months later, after the war ended, his father got on a ship sailing to Korea to get a new job to support the family.
The ship sank and his father died, leaving the family completely destitute.
All this happenned to him before his tenth birthday.
Then he went on to play 20 plus seasons in NPB, cracking out more than 500 hone runs and 3,000 hits, the only Japanese player to ever accomplish both. All done with only one functioning hand and with the threat of cancer from the bomb developing at any moment.
Incredibly, he is still alive and kicking today. Biggest bad ass in baseball history as far as I’m concerned.
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Wow! Incredible story of resilience. Harimoto and Nagashima are my two favorite Japanese players. Can you post some Harimoto?