Masao Fujii (藤井 将雄, Fujii Masao, October 16, 1968 – October 13, 2000) was a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
He then developed his talent as a relief pitcher with his all-out fastball and a variety of breaking pitches, and in 1999 season, he was part of the winning formula, a powerful setup man who, along with closer Rod Pedraza and left-handed pitchers Shuji Yoshida and Takayuki Shinohara.
[3] The presence of these four "winning formula" players led to a 27-14 record in close games played by a single goal margin.
[4] Fujii was called the Flame Relief Pitcher (炎の中継ぎ投手) and in 59 games pitched in the 1999 season, he posted a 3-1 Win-loss record, 2.89 ERA, 3 Saves, and a then new record of 26 Holds, helping the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks to their first league championship.
[4] In the 2000 season, he had pitched in six games in the Western League since May and was determined to make a comeback, but was hospitalized again in June and died on October 13, six days after watching his team win its second consecutive Pacific League title on October 7.
[1] Hawks teammate Kenichi Wakatabe was a close friend of Fujii's, and on October 7, 2000, the game that decided the league championship against the Orix Blue Wave, Wakatabe joined the team in celebrating the victory, holding up a stuffed Homer Hawk, the team mascot, wearing Fujii's uniform number 15, for Fujii, who was fighting an illness.
When Kudo became manager of the Hawks and they became Japan Series champions in the 2015, he reported to Fujii's grave.