Professional Japanese Baseball Player, Choji Murata, dies at 72

Choji Murata was a pitcher for Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. From 1968 through 1990, he was a member of the Tokyo/Lotte Orions.

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Choji Murata, a Japanese pitcher in the Hall of Fame, dies in a home fire.

After being taken to the hospital after a fire at his residence in Tokyo early on Friday, Japanese pitcher Choji Murata passed away, according to the police. He was 72.

 Police are looking into the cause of the fire after Murata was discovered on the burned-out second story of the property, which is about a kilometer from a railway station.

Early Life

Choji Murata was born on November 27, 1949, in Hiroshima’s Toyota District. He holds a Japanese nationality and His zodiac sign is Sagittarius. He belongs to the white race.

In 1975 and 1976, Choji Murata had the highest earned run average in the Pacific League. He only had one season with 20 or more victories, 1976, when he won 21 games. Extreme discomfort and damage from overusing Murata’s throwing arm compelled him to have Tommy John elbow surgery, which was carried out by Dr. Frank Jobe in California in 1982.

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 (The first Japanese pitcher to go through the operation was Murata.) As a consequence, Murata missed most of the 1982, 1983, and 1984 seasons while he was recovering. Murata received the Nippon Professional Baseball Comeback Player of the Year Award in 1985 after making a comeback with a 17-5 record. He again had the lowest ERA in the Pacific League in 1989.

After retiring in 1990 with more than 200 victories in his career, Murata joined Meikyukai. In 2005, he was admitted to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. Murata participated in the 2008 Eiji Sawamura Award selection process.

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