Hiroki Kuroda
| Hiroki Kuroda 黒田 博樹 |
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Kuroda with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp
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| Pitcher | |||
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Born: February 10, 1975 Osaka, Japan |
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| Professional debut | |||
| NPB: April 25, 1992, for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp | |||
| MLB: April 4, 2008, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |||
| Last appearance | |||
| MLB: September 25, 2014, for the New York Yankees | |||
| NPB: 2016, for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp | |||
| NPB statistics | |||
| Win–loss record | 124–105 | ||
| Earned run average | 3.55 | ||
| Strikeouts | 1,461 | ||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Win–loss record | 79–79 | ||
| Earned run average | 3.45 | ||
| Strikeouts | 986 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
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| Medal record | ||
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| Men's baseball | ||
Representing  Japan
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| Olympic Games | ||
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2004 Athens | Team |
Hiroki Kuroda (黒田 博樹 Kuroda Hiroki?, born February 10, 1975) is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He pitched in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for Hiroshima Toyo Carp from 1997 to 2007 before playing in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2008 to 2011 and New York Yankees from 2012 to 2014. After the 2014 season, he chose to return to the Carp to finish out his career.
In NPB, Kuroda won the Best Nine Award in 2005 and was NPB ERA Champion in 2006. He also won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics with the Japanese national baseball team.
Kuroda was appointed UNITAR Goodwill Ambassador on 14 September 2015.
Kuroda was born and lived in Osaka (Suminoe-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka-fu). His father, Kazuhiro Kuroda, was also a professional baseball player who played for the Nankai Hawks. He attended Uenomiya High School in Osaka, where he would attend classes and practices from 5 am until 10 pm. He then attended Senshu University in Tokyo.
He joined the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in 1996 as a second-round draft pick. During his early career, he was overshadowed by the 1996 first-round draft pick, Toshikazu Sawazaki, who was the same age as Kuroda and won the Japanese Rookie of the Year award in 1997. However, Kuroda gradually built up his status to become a consistent part of the starting rotation while Sawazaki began to fade away. In 1999 he pitched in the International Cup held in Sydney, and marked a win against Korea and a complete-game shutout against Taiwan.
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