Hisao Niura

Hisao Niura, also known as Kim Il-young (; born May 11, 1951), is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher who played Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan and KBO League baseball in South Korea. Over a 22-season career, he was a five-time champion, four times with the Yomiuri Giants and once with the Samsung Lions. He was a two-time ERA champion of Japan's Central League. A workhorse during much of his career, he had success as both a starter and a reliever.

Although born in Japan, Niura is of Korean descent, part of the Zainichi community.

Career NPB Niura was born in Japan and attended Shizuoka Shogyo High School, but technically held Korean citizenship. As a 17-year-old in the summer of 1968, Niura announced his intention to drop out of high school and turn pro, but as a "foreign player" was ruled ineligible even though he had attended a Japanese high school. Niura then became the subject of intense bidding in excess of the draft-restricted contract bonus of ¥1,000,000, with six NPB teams and even some Major League Baseball teams involved. As a result, Niura joined the Yomiuri Giants outside of the draft. Kim won ten games in his first 12 starts that year, a KBO record for the fastest time to ten wins. Kim's 25 wins that year are still good for third-place in KBO single-season victories; he was beaten out for the 1985 KBO League Golden Glove Award by his teammate Kim Si-jin, who also won 25 games. He continued his KBO success in 1986, going 13–4 with a 2.53 ERA.

Niura was diagnosed with diabetes in 1986; that combined with the language barrier (Niura did not speak Korean), led to him returning to Japan.

Niura's three years in the KBO resulted in a 54–20 record (a .730 winning percentage), a 2.53 ERA, 32 complete games, and 8 shutouts.

NPB (second stint) Niura returned to NPB in 1987, having added a screwball and changeup to his pitching repertoire, which previously had been limited to a fastball and a curveball. Now playing for the Yokohama Taiyō Whales, Niura ended up winning 11 games in 1987, along with 7 complete games and 4 shutouts, and won the Comeback Player of the Year Award (an honor he shared with Tōru Sugiura of the Yakult Swallows). He made his fourth All-Star team in 1987 and his fifth (and final) one in 1988.

On August 4, 1989, he shut out his old team Yomiuri on 13 hits, the most hits ever allowed by an NPB pitcher in a shutout.

Niura's 22-season career ended in 1992, playing with the Yakult Swallows.