My Take
Masato Akamatsu is the kind of player who never lit up the stat sheet in a flashy way, but if you actually watched him play outfield for Hiroshima, you understood immediately why he stuck around for 13 seasons. That 2010 Golden Glove wasn't a fluke — the man made catches that genuinely looked impossible, including one so absurd it spread online as the "Spider-Man catch." Born in Fushimi, Kyoto and educated at Ritsumeikan University, he came up through Hanshin before finding his real home with the Carp, and that back-to-back leadoff home run feat in 2008 — a first in NPB history — is the kind of footnote that deserves way more attention than it gets. What hits differently when you look back at his career is the stomach cancer diagnosis in 2016, the surgery, the chemo, and then just... coming back and playing. That's not a footnote, that's the whole story. Now coaching the outfield and baserunning for Hiroshima, he's passing on exactly the kind of quiet, disciplined excellence the Carp have always been built on.
Overview
Masato Akamatsu is a Japanese baseball player and coach born on September 6, 1982, in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto Prefecture. He attended Ritsumeikan University. Further details of his career and active period are not publicly available.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Masato Akamatsu
- Name (Japanese)
- 赤松真人
- Reading
- あかまつ まさと
- Born
- September 6, 1982 (age 43)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Dog (戌)
- Origin
- Fushimi Ward, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- 182cm
- Agency
- Private
- Active years
- Unknown
- Occupation
- Baseball Player / Baseball Coach
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Ritsumeikan University
- Debut
- Unknown
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B5%A4%E6%9D%BE%E7%9C%9F%E4%BA%BA
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.