Photo: Cake6 (talk) / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Closing is the most thankless job in baseball. Do it right and nobody notices; blow it once and the whole day is erased. Hitoki Iwase did that job for the Chunichi Dragons from 1999 to 2018, one team, no escape hatch, and finished holding the Nippon Professional Baseball records for both career saves and career appearances. Plenty of pitchers get one untouchable season. He had one too, 46 saves with a 1.88 earned run average in 2005, breaking Kazuhiro Sasaki's single season save record. What gets me is the other nineteen years around it. Walking out for the ninth that many times costs you something mentally long before your arm quits. He came out of Aichi University and stayed with his home region's club, the least glamorous route available, and the numbers argue for him anyway.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Hitoki Iwase
- Name (Japanese)
- 岩瀬仁紀
- Born
- November 10, 1974 (age 51)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Scorpio / Tiger
- Origin
- Nishio, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
- Height
- 181 cm
- Occupation
- baseball player
2. Background
- University
- Aichi University
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B2%A9%E7%80%AC%E4%BB%81%E7%B4%80
Frequently asked questions
When was Hitoki Iwase born?
Born November 10, 1974 (age 51).
Where is Hitoki Iwase from?
Hitoki Iwase is from Nishio, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
What does Hitoki Iwase do?
Hitoki Iwase works as baseball player.
How tall is Hitoki Iwase?
Hitoki Iwase is 181 cm.
Baseball player — see all → · More people from Japan →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-07-27
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.