Koju Hirohashi

Koju Hirohashi (広橋 公寿)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 162 lb.

• School Yawata University
• High School Tokai University Fukuoka High School

• Born January 11, 1957 in Munakata, Fukuoka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Utility man Koju Hirohashi played for 11 seasons in Nippon Pro Baseball. He is the father-in-law of Hisashi Iwakuma, a more successful player.

Hirohashi played for Toshiba in the industrial leagues after college. Undrafted, he signed with the Seibu Lions. He hit .272/.310/.383 in 91 games as a rookie in 1981, then .266/.344/.396 in 64 contests in 1982. He was 0 for 1 as a pinch-hitter in the 1982 Japan Series, which Seibu won. In 1983, Koju batted .237/.324/.301 in 112 plate appearances over 83 games. He mostly pinch-ran in the 1983 Japan Series, stealing a base and going 0 for 1 in 5 games as Seibu beat the Yomiuri Giants.

The Fukuoka native put up a .296/.361/.408 line in a career-high 200 plate appearances in 1984. He hit .301/.358/.455 with 14 doubles in 123 at-bats over 82 games in 1985. He went 1 for 3 with a run in the 1985 Japan Series, backing up Hatsuhiko Tsuji at second base. Seibu fell to the Hanshin Tigers. Hirohashi went 4 for 20 with 5 runs in 22 games in 1986, then was 1 for 3 as a pinch-hitter in the 1986 Japan Series, in which the Lions beat the Hiroshima Carp.

Hirohashi remained a productive bench player at .323/.356/.417 in 1987 but sat out the 1987 Japan Series. He hit .243/.273/.365 in 80 plate appearances over 50 games in 1988. He singled and scored in his only at-bat in the 1988 Japan Series, backing up Kazuhiro Kiyohara at first base. He was 0 for 10 with two walks in 1989 then wound down his career with the 1990 Chunichi Dragons (5 for 24, HR) after the Lions traded him with Munenao Ogawa for Tatsuo Omiya and Masami Miyashita. The Dragons then traded him to the Daiei Hawks for Koji Kobayakawa, but he was 2-for-11 in 1991 and he announced his retirement. He later coached for Seibu from 1995 to 2003 and for the Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2005 to 2012.

Overall, Hirohashi hit .271/.331/.382 with 258 hits and 14 homers in 11 seasons in NPB.

Source

• Wiki Japan
• Japanbaseballdaily by Gary Garland