Wladimir Balentien, Japan’s single-season home run record holder, has retired from Japanese baseball, according to a tweet from his Twitter account on Sunday.
“Today I wanna announce to all my fans in Japan that I’m retiring from (Japanese) baseball, wanna thank the swallows for the opportunity to play in Japan,” the tweet read.
He had previously said he wanted to continue his career with another Japanese team after his last season with the Hawks in 2021.
Balentien, 37, was one of the most explosive sluggers — foreign or Japanese — in NPB history.
The Willemstad, Curacao, native began his NPB career with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2011 and won the Central League home run title in each of his first three seasons.
That includes the 2013 campaign, during which Balentien rewrote the NPB record book with 60 home runs to surpass the previous single-season mark of 55, originally set by Yomiuri Giants legend Sadaharu Oh in 1964 and matched by Kintetsu Buffaloes slugger Tuffy Rhodes in 2001 and the Seibu Lions’ Alex Cabrera in 2002.
Balentien, who admitted to feeling mounting pressure toward the end of the chase, joined that trio with his 55th home run on Sept. 11, 2013. Four days later on Sept. 15, he took sole possession of the record with a first-inning homer off Hanshin Tigers pitcher Daiki Enokida at Jingu Stadium.
“It was a line drive, but I hit it so good, I hit it on the right spot, so I knew it was going out,” Balentien said during his hero interview that night. “It was a great feeling. I (don’t) think I can feel that ever again in my life.”
He set the record in front of his mother, who traveled to Japan for the occasion and later joined him during the hero interview and a postgame news conference. Balentien also received enthusiastic applause from both Swallows and Tigers fans in attendance and posed for photos with the Hanshin fan who caught the ball.
Balentien pushed the record to 57 in his very next at-bat before eventually arriving at 60.
Balentien played in 11 NPB seasons and has a .266 career average with 301 home runs, 794 RBIs and a .916 on-base plus slugging percentage for the Swallows and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks — where he spent his final two years. He is one of just 43 players with more than 300 NPB home runs.
He hit at least 31 homers in eight of his first nine seasons, the lone exception coming in 2015, when he was limited to just 15 games due to injury.
Balentien was the 2013 CL MVP, made two CL Best Nine teams and was a six-time All-Star.
He was also a key member of the Netherlands’ national baseball team, helping the Dutch reach the World Baseball Classic semifinals in 2013 and 2017. His play during the 2017 WBC, earned him a spot on the all-tournament team.
Balentien played for the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds in MLB before signing with the Swallows.
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Source : Baseball – The Japan Times