Japanese Outfielder Breaks Ripken Mark

38-year-old Hanshin outfielder Kanemoto Tomoaki, a third generation Korean-Japanese, has passed a baseball legend.

The Hanshin versus Yokohama game held on April 9 at the Osaka Dome was the nine hundred and fourth game Kanemoto has played in a row without missing an inning in Japanese pro baseball.

Since his Hiroshima days in July of 1999, Kanemoto has played for six straight years without ever having been replaced. His record surpassed that of Cal Ripken Jr., who holds the record of playing in 903 games consecutively without missing an inning in Major League Baseball.

To play every inning that many games takes willpower and determination.

Kanemoto has shown both in his baseball career.

In a game against Junichi game on July 29, 2004 he broke his left hand after getting hit by a pitch from Iwase Hiroki. But Kanemoto kept on playing.

His sociable attitude has earned him the nickname “Aniki,” which means big brother or boss in Japanese.

Kanemoto is the first Hanshin player to hit 40 homeruns since Randy Bass in 1986.

Young-A Soh uni@donga.com sya@donga.com