,Hirayama Satoshi,February 17,1930 –September 15,2021) [2] [3] was an American baseball player who played for the Hiroshima Carp in Japan's Central League. [4] Hirayama was an All-Star twice in Japan. [5] [6]
Hirayama got the nickname "Fibber" from his father's inability to pronounce "February",the month of his birth. [4] He was originally from Exeter,California. [7] At 12 years old,following the signing of Executive Order 9066,he was interned at the Poston War Relocation Center with his father and two brothers. [4] [8] After three years,when World War II ended,he was released and began attending Exeter Union High School from which he graduated in 1947. [9]
Hirayama was a star athlete at Fresno State,playing both baseball and football as a halfback. Hirayama attended the school on a football scholarship and only played baseball because he did not want to play spring football. He wound up playing three seasons of each. [1] On the baseball field,he set a college baseball record with five stolen bases in a single game and had a .420 batting average in 1950. [10] He was voted "Nisei Player of the Year" in 1951. [4] In 1952,he led Fresno State to its first ever NCAA postseason appearance. [8] Hirayama set single-season and career school records in stolen bases which would not be surpassed until 1987 by Tom Goodwin. [11]
On April 30,2017,he became the eleventh player to have his number retired by Fresno State's baseball program. [11]
After college,Hirayama signed a professional contract with the St. Louis Browns and spent the 1952 season with the Stockton Ports. He was one of the first Japanese-American players to sign with a Major League Baseball club. [10]
In 1953,Hirayama was drafted into the military. From 1953 to 1955,he continued playing baseball as a soldier at Fort Ord. [12] After being discharged,Hirayama signed with the Hiroshima Carp of Nippon Professional Baseball on the insistence of fellow Japanese-American Kenichi Zenimura. In 1954,the Browns granted Hirayama his release and he and his wife moved to Japan. Hirayama did not speak Japanese upon arrival but became fluent after a few years. [1] Toward the end of his playing career,Hirayama was serving as a player-coach. His playing career was cut short when he ran into a wall and suffered a nerve injury which caused him to lose some vision in his right eye. [13]
After retiring as a player,Hirayama spent three years coaching and one year managing in the Japanese minor leagues before returning to the United States. [13] Hirayama returned to California where he worked as a scout for the California Angels and Hiroshima Carp. As a scout,he helped the Carp sign Tim Ireland. [10]
In 2009,Hirayama won the Al Radka Award. [14] At the time,he was the head of the Japanese Baseball Development Program in the Dominican Republic. [14]
Hirayama met his wife,Jean,while they were attending Fresno State. They were married in February 1955 and had three sons,Colin,Kevin and Brian. [15] After returning to the United States,Hirayama also worked as a teacher and administrator in the Clovis Unified School District in addition to his scouting duties. [10] [15] He retired from the school district in 1991 and his wife died that same year. [15]
In the