Alfredo Despaigne surpassed 400 home runs and ties personal record for a month in Japan

May 27, 2019

The Cuban baseball player Alfredo Despaigne Rodríguez, who plays in the Japanese League with the SoftBank Hawks, surpassed 400 home runs in his sports career last Friday and tied his personal record for a month in the Japanese Professional League (LPJ) by hitting two home runs against the Chiba Lotte Marines.

Converted for some years into the greatest active home run hitter residing in Cuba, the "Horse of Horses," as he is called by many followers, reached a total of 131 in the LPJ, which add to the 257 in National Baseball Series in the Greater Antilles and 13 in the Mexican League, in which he played with the Campeche Pirates.

Despaigne has participated in 13 National Series, two seasons in Mexican territory and six in Japan, of which the first three were with the Marines, to whom he contributed 54 "home runs."

Champion of the LPJ in the two most recent campaigns, the powerful batter has already accumulated 77 "round-trippers" with the Hawks, with whom he was leader of that category in the Pacific Circuit in 2016-2017.

At 32 years of age, Despaigne, who plays wearing number 54 on his uniform, continues to make a formidable sports career, in which he already possesses the leadership in home runs in World Baseball Classics (7), the record for a World Cup (11), achieved in 2009, and the highest mark for a SNB (36), achieved in 2012.

Last Friday, he drove in four runs and was decisive for his team's victory with a score of six runs to three. The first hit was enormous down the left field line and the second down center, two demonstrations of his unquestionable power.

Now he has a batting average of .278, thirty runs batted in and 25 runs scored, and is tied for third place among the greatest home run hitters of the Circuit.