Masafumi Hirai

Masafumi Hirai is the kind of pitcher who makes you rethink what a career even means. The guy from Uwajima, Ehime — not exactly a hotbed of baseball glamour — debuts with Orix Blue Wave in 1994 and by his second season he's already collecting a Rookie of the Year and a Best Relief Pitcher award in the same breath. Then comes the elbow trouble, the years of grinding back, and rather than fading out quietly he lands at Chunichi and earns a Comeback Award in 2003, which is almost poetic. Twenty-one seasons total, a Japan Series ring in 2007, and 569 career appearances — that's not a highlight reel, that's a life's work. I genuinely respect any athlete who refuses to let one injury write their ending, and Hirai did it so thoroughly he became a pitching coach afterward. Ehime raised him tough.

Masafumi Hirai is a Japanese professional baseball player born on April 21, 1975, in Uwajima City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. He stands 183 cm tall. Further details of his career, agency affiliation, and personal life are not publicly disclosed.

Name (English)

Masafumi Hirai

Name (Japanese)

平井正史

Reading

ひらい まさふみ

Born

April 21, 1975 (age 51)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Rabbit

Origin

Uwajima City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Height

183 cm

Occupation

Professional Baseball Player

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E4%BA%95%E6%AD%A3%E5%8F%B2
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6782305

Tags

• From Ehime Prefecture
• Professional Baseball Player

Last updated

2026-06-02

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.