Takuro Ishii

Though late in his career his stats declined due to age, he still contributed with his precise fielding and solid batting abilities, as well as his veteran leadership.

Ishii entered the professional leagues with the Yokohama Taiyo Whales, and played with the franchise for most of his career.

Ishii led the league in steals and hits, and received his fourth Golden Glove award at shortstop.

Ishii went into a huge slump in 2003, getting fewer than 100 hits in a season for the first time since 1992.

Ishii got his 2,000th career hit on May 11, 2006, in his first at-bat against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

As a result, he automatically became a member of Meikyukai, one of the two Japanese baseball halls of fame.

After spending 19 seasons with the Whales/BayStars, Ishii moved to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in 2009.

[citation needed] One famous example occurred in 2000 when well-known NHK announcer Yumiko Udo was photographed coming out of Takuro's apartment in the early hours of the morning disguised wearing a wig.

[citation needed] His daughter is professional tennis player Sayaka Ishii.