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The story
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks pitcher Taito Murakami, the team’s first-round pick from last fall’s draft, is suspected of using a spare key to let himself into his ex-girlfriend’s home without permission and assaulting a male friend of hers who was there, according to a weekly magazine report. The woman reportedly filed a criminal complaint with the Fukuoka Prefectural Police’s Chuo Station after the two broke up in July of this year. On 5ch, the thread revived talk of the team’s history of losing multiple first-round picks to scandals over the years, with users questioning the club’s player-management practices and drawing comparisons to the assault case involving Hanshin Tigers pitcher Ibara, which broke around the same time.
What people said
That's the shocking account from Ms. A, Murakami's ex-girlfriend — a woman in her twenties working in Fukuoka Prefecture. Murakami and Ms. A started dating last June, and things were going well; she even visited his parents' home at the end of the year. But arguments gradually became constant, and the two split up on July 3 of this year.
"We fought all the time, but when it really ended I felt this deep sense of loss. I wanted someone to talk to, so I reached out to a few friends," Ms. A says.
Flying into a rage, he screamed abuse at the friend — "Who the hell are you?!" and "I'll make sure you can't walk the streets again!" — and when the friend tried to calm him down with "Let's just talk this through," the rampage didn't stop and turned violent.
Ms. A subsequently filed a criminal complaint with the Fukuoka Prefectural Police's Chuo Station.
Where's that video from?
At first I thought someone was being watched, but no — it's him watching the woman, isn't it.
The real stars get developed through the ikusei farm system anyway. (ikusei = NPB's separate development-player track)
Did something happen with the Tigers? ("chin-san" is a jokey nickname for the Hanshin Tigers)
Probably the Ibara thing — though it hasn't turned into a huge story.
Hanshin's own first-round pick Ibara assaulted someone while blackout drunk too — he's admitted to it himself.
People say a lot about Kazama, but he didn't really do anything that bad, did he?
They actually did give it up this year lmaooo
2009 Kenta Imamiya
2010 Ayatsugu Yamashita
2011 Shota Takeda
2012 Ko Higashihama
2013 Ren Kajiya
2014 Yuki Matsumoto
2015 Jumpei Takahashi
2016 Seigi Tanaka
2017 Haruto Yoshizumi
2018 Hisashi Kaino
2019 Naoki Sato
2020 Tomoya Inoue
2021 Kyuda Kazama
2022 Itsua Ihine
2023 Yugo Maeda
2024 Taito Murakami
2025 Rintaro Sasaki
Funny how all the 'hits' ended up playing for other teams.
Ueda: "That's actually something to give them credit for."
Ina, Murakami → Hyogo; Dogami → Kanagawa; Furuya, Yamashita → Hokkaido; Kokubo → Wakayama…
None of that has anything to do with Kyushu.
If anything they're pretty strict about it — it was such a waste with Furuya.
Conduct and on-field performance are two completely separate issues though.
These guys have only ever done baseball, and since they're good at it, everyone around them fawns all over them. Even without results, they genuinely think they'll never get cut.
Young people these days already have plenty of idiots among them — guys who've done nothing but baseball their whole lives are even worse.
Background and Key Points of This Story
Reports like this usually start as first accounts from weekly magazines, and at the time of writing, neither the team nor the police have handed down any official discipline or filed formal charges. “Filing a criminal complaint” is only the starting point of an investigation, not a finding of guilt — a distinction worth keeping in mind while reading. A recurring theme in the thread was commenters’ shared recollection that the team has produced multiple scandal-hit players among its past first-round picks, with the draft-pick list in post #66 used to back up that impression. At the same time, users compared the case to the assault involving Hanshin Tigers pitcher Ibara, reported around the same period (a case of a somewhat different nature, since Ibara has admitted wrongdoing), with opinions split over whether this reflects a team-specific problem or a matter of individual character. Note that the thread also included some unverified claims about real coaches and other players; since these are unconfirmed and not directly related to this case, they have been left out of this article.
*This article was compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Breaking] SoftBank’s Last Fall First-Round Pick Murakami Accused of Trespassing and Assault.”
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