NPB Central League: Giants 3 vs 0 BayStars
The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants announced on June 12th that they have signed outfielder Marek Chlup, who was previously on a developmental contract, to a full professional (the first team) contract. He is the first player from the Czech Republic to be registered as a full professional player in NPB.
His home country was quick to celebrate the news.
This season, Chlup had played in 66 games in the Eastern League (the farm league’s eastern division), posting a .265 batting average with 4 home runs and 29 RBIs. His jersey number for the top team has been changed to “39”.
He was immediately promoted to the top team for that day’s game against the Yokohama DeNA BayStars at Yokohama Stadium. Although he went hitless in 4 at-bats, it marked a historic day for Czech baseball.
For this particular game, despite being the opposing team, the BayStars organization quickly arranged a seat for Chlup’s mother, who was visiting Japan, allowing her to watch as Chlup stepped to the plate four times.
Additionally, Chlup’s mother mentioned in an SNS post that she missed seeing her son’s flyout to left field during the game.
Yokosuka " Rainy " Johnny 