Wladimir Balentien will no longer play in Japanese ball

the legendary slugger Wladimir Balentien retires from Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, announced the outfielder via Twitter. The 37-year-old is best known for setting the NPB single-season home run record in 2013 when he hit 60 home runs for the Yakult Swallows de Tokio.

Balentien played for 11 seasons in the NPB, dressing for the Swallows for nine seasons between 2011 and 2019 and for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks for the last two seasons:

With no real shot at the major league level, “Coco” (as he is affectionately known) took his talents overseas in 2011, signing with the Yakult Swallows, where he would become a mainstay for the next nine seasons.

In his first season with the Yakult Swallows, Balentien led the Central League with 31 home runs. The Swallows would make it to the Finals, but would fall to the Chunichi Dragons in six games.

Two seasons later (2013), Balentien broke another living legend: Sadaharu Oh’s record of 55 home runs in a single season, setting a new record with 60, passing him by five HRs.

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Although a later reveal showed that a livelier baseball had been used for the 2013 season, Balentien’s record stands today. He finished his career in Japan with a triple slash line of .266/.370/.546 with 1,001 hits and 301 home runs.

Raphael Martinez

I am a fan of the King of Sports, especially the Boston Red Sox in MLB and all Mexican baseball in general. This profession has given me the opportunity to cover major events such as the Caribbean Series, LMB All Star, LMP (uninterruptedly since 2009), signatures of important players. I had the chance to attend the 2013 World Classic in Arizona, USA, although as a fan. Apart from this beautiful sport, I love basketball, where I have also narrated games and even an NBA friendly 10 years ago, but I have baseball in my veins. Degree in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) , from which I graduated in 2011. I was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa and started in the world of sports journalism in 2004 in the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán, where I was a baseball columnist and a reporter at the same time. In January 2009 I arrived at El Debate as a journalist reporter and it was almost six years (in the first stage), until in November 2014 I emigrated to the radio providing my services at Línea Directa-Grupo RSN. My cycle there ended in July 2019 and a few days later, El Debate gave me another opportunity to work and opened the doors for me again. This is how I came to Al Bat, where I have been since 2019 as a web journalist.

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