Japanese baseball Hall of Famer Ryohei Hasegawa, ace pitcher of the Hiroshima Carp in the 1950s, died of pneumonia at a Hiroshima hospital on Saturday, his family said.
He was 76. Hasegawa joined Hiroshima in 1950 in its inaugural season and posted double-digit wins for eight consecutive seasons from his rookie year for the team, which languished in the bottom half of the Central League throughout that period.
The native of Aichi Prefecture served as a pitching coach and manager of Hiroshima after ending his playing career in 1963 with a career record of 197-208 in 621 games.
He later became a pitching coach for the Chunichi Dragons and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.