Mitsuchika Hirai

Mitsuchika Hirai (平井 光親)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 171 lb.
• High School Higashi Fukuoka High School
• Born November 8, 1966 in Kasuya-gun, Fukuoka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Mitsuchika Hirai played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 14 years.

Hirai was drafted by the Lotte Orions in the sixth round of 1988 NPB draft, and he wasd 3-for-17 in 1989. He went 12-for-83 in 1990, and he had his career year in 1991. In his third campaign, he slashed .314/.377/.394 with 4 home runs, 34 RBI and 38 runs scored in 110 games. He led the Pacific League in batting average and triples, and made the Best Nine. Hirai only got 111 hits to win the batting title, and it was the fewest hits for a PL batting title winner. He then had a .281/.345/.370 batting line in 1992, and he slumped to .225/.268/.300 in 51 games in 1993.

Hirai bounced back in 1994, and he collected a league-leading 6 triples with a .281/.321/.418 batting line. He then recorded a .260/.335/.349 batting line in 1994, and he hit .249/.319/.347 in 1996. Hirai played 93 games with a .245/.354/.376 batting line in 1997, and he improved to .320/.391/.437 in 1998. He was 2nd in batting, .038 behind Ichiro Suzuki. Hirai was also selected into the 1998 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 1-for-3 with a double against Masaki Saito in Game 2. He batted .253/.359/.360 in 1999, and he suffered from knee injury so he only played 55 games with a .305/.393/.457 batting line in 2000. He was 5-for-29 in 2001, and he announced his retirement in 2002. Hirai was the minor league batting coach for the Chiba Lotte Marines from 2006 to 2007, and he was named the new coach of the Aichi Institute of Technology in 2017.

Overall, Hirai batted .272/.343/.376 with 39 home runs, 294 RBI and 343 runs scored in 1,067 games over 14 seasons.

Sources

• Wiki Japan