Hiroki Kuroda

Hiroki Kuroda (黒田 博樹) is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher.

The last Japanese starter to end the season with an ERA below 2.00 was Masaki Saito in 1989.

He joined the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in 1996 as a second-round draft pick.

During his early career, he was overshadowed by the 1996 first-round draft pick, Toshikazu Sawazaki, who was the same age as Kuroda and won the Japanese Rookie of the Year award in 1997.

However, Kuroda gradually built up his status to become a consistent part of the starting rotation while Sawazaki began to fade away.

He pitched in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for Hiroshima Toyo Carp from 1997 to 2007 before playing in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2008 to 2011 and New York Yankees from 2012 to 2014.

Despite the team's anti-free agent policy, the Carp was facing serious problems with its weak pitching staff, which had kept them in the bottom half of the standings since 1997.

In 1999 he pitched in the International Cup held in Sydney, and marked a win against Korea and a complete-game shutout against Taiwan.

He also made his first save that year on October 16 against the Chunichi Dragons, and led the league in complete games over a six-year period from 1999 to 2005.

Kuroda won over 10 games for three consecutive years from 2001.

In 2003, he became the opening-day starter, taking over for former ace Shinji Sasaoka.

He pitched poorly at the beginning of the season, but improved after the all-star break to end the season with 13 wins.

He also won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics with the Japanese national baseball team.

He marked two wins as a reliever in the 2004 Summer Olympics, contributing to the Japanese team's bronze medal.

In NPB, Kuroda won the Best Nine Award in 2005 and was NPB ERA Champion in 2006.

In 2005, he led the Central League with 15 wins, and won the Best Nine Award and the Golden Glove.

In 2005, he was the starter for a 12 inning pitching relay in a game that ended in a scoreless tie (April 15 against the Yokohama BayStars; the opposing starter was Daisuke Miura).

He continued his success in 2006, ending the season with a league-leading 1.85 ERA to solidify his reputation as one of the best pitchers in Japan.

In 2006, he was one of two players from the Hiroshima Toyo Carp selected to play in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, along with Takahiro Arai.

He was touted as one of the obscure but key players on the Japanese team along with, then current, MLB players Akinori Iwamura and Kosuke Fukudome, but was injured getting hit by a baseball off the bat to the right hand during a practice game on February 24, forcing him to withdraw from the competition.

He became a free agent as early as May 2006, but announced that he would remain with the Carp for the 2007 season.

During the off-season, he traveled to the United States to receive cleaning surgery in his right elbow at the suggestion of manager Marty Brown.

In 2006 against the Hanshin Tigers, he left the game with a 2–1 lead after pitching 8 innings, but failed to get the win when closer Katsuhiro Nagakawa let up a tying home run with two outs in the 9th inning.

He was also recognized as a "Giants Killer", as he seemed to pitch exceptionally well against the Yomiuri Giants.

Kuroda obtained free agency on May 31, 2006, and announced that he was willing to hear offers from other teams.

The Hiroshima Toyo Carp had a staunch policy against free agency because it would lead to higher salaries which the team would not be able to provide due to lack of financial structure.

The team's management traditionally never attempted to re-negotiate with players of their own team who declared free agency (for example, the team ignored outfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto's offers to reconsider staying on the team because he had already declared free agency).

Numerous teams showed interest in Kuroda, including the Seibu Lions and Hanshin Tigers, who had lost their key starters Daisuke Matsuzaka and Kei Igawa to the posting system.

The well-financed Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks aggressively pursued Kuroda, while the Chunichi Dragons and Yomiuri Giants, who had been in pursuit of free agent Michihiro Ogasawara, were also thought to have interest.

Kuroda pitched as the team's opening-day starter for the 5th consecutive year in 2007.

He marked his 100th career win on July 14, 2007, against the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome (his first professional win was also at the Tokyo Dome).

Though Kuroda had been most effective during the summer in past years, he struggled to make quality starts during the later half of the season, perhaps due to the surgery he had received during the off-season.

He ended the season with a 12–8 record, with a 3.56 ERA.

Along with Shinobu Fukuhara, Daisuke Miura, and Shingo Ono, Kuroda was known for receiving very poor run support in Japan.

After the 2014 season, he chose to return to the Carp to finish out his career.

Kuroda was appointed UNITAR Goodwill Ambassador on 14 September 2015.

Kuroda was born and lived in Osaka (Suminoe-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka-fu).

His father, Kazuhiro Kuroda, was also a professional baseball player who played for the Nankai Hawks.

He attended Uenomiya High School in Osaka, where he would attend classes and practices from 5 am until 10 pm.

He then attended Senshu University in Tokyo.