Yuya Ishii (石井 裕也, Ishii Yūya, born July 7, 1981)[1] is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher who played in Nippon Professional Baseball pitcher for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, Yokohama BayStars and Chunichi Dragons.

Yuya Ishii
Ishii with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Pitcher
Born: (1981-07-04) July 4, 1981 (age 43)
Yokohama, Japan[1]
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
NPB debut
April 13, 2005, for the Chunichi Dragons
NPB statistics
Win–loss record19–19
Earned run average3.05
Strikeouts258
Teams
Ishii pitching for the Yokohama BayStars in 2009.

Career

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Before turning pro

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Although he had a congenital hearing loss, he joined his older brother's youth baseball team in the second grade and began playing baseball. When he began playing both outfielder and pitcher in the fifth grade, he had poor control of his pitches.[2] He was a fan of the Oyo Whales and their successor team, the Yokohama BayStars, since childhood and was a member of the Friendship Club.

He went on to Yokohama Shoko High School. In the summer of his junior year at Yokohama Shoko High School, he pitched five games in the Kanagawa Prefecture Tournament, striking out 37 batters and making it to the top eight. He was also a candidate for the 1999 professional baseball draft, but was not selected. Muneo Nakata, the scouting director of the Chunichi Dragons, later said, "I had my eye on him since high school, but because of his handicap, I waited to see how he would do until he came of age.

Notes and references

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  1. ^ a b Feature article Archived July 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine at the Chunichi Shimbun (in Japanese)
  2. ^ 「最後まであきらめない 石井裕也」 『週刊ベースボール』2009年4月13日号、ベースボール・マガジン社、2009年、雑誌20445-4/13、43-47頁。
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