Former Orix Cannon Arrested for Fraud! — Featuring His Past Interview and Photo in this Magazine

On June 20, a former professional baseball player who hit 59 home runs in high school was arrested.

The Saitama Prefectural Police Urawa Police Station arrested Satoshi Sonobe, 27, a former Orix infielder and company employee, on suspicion of fraud. He and another suspect, Yuya Kaga, 27, a company officer also arrested, allegedly swindled a woman in her 20s, Ms. A, out of 550,000 yen in cash. The police have not revealed whether the two suspects are guilty or not.

Sonobe and Kaga are classmates at Seiko Gakuin, a strong high school baseball team in Fukushima Prefecture. In March of last year, they approached Ms. A, who was attending an event where entrepreneurs gathered. Under the guise of helping her start her own company, Sonobe allegedly told her that she needed to liquidate her funds due to the end of her fiscal year and asked her to transfer money to his bank account. Kaga has already been arrested eight times for investment fraud. This was his ninth arrest.

Sonobe, who sat in the No. 4 position at Seikogakuin from his freshman year and was called the “cannon of Michinoku,” participated in four consecutive seasons at Koshien from the spring of his sophomore year through the summer of his junior year, and hit a home run in each of those seasons. Sonobe was drafted by the Orix in the fourth round in 2014. However, he was plagued by an injury to his right elbow and played only 16 games for the first team, and in the off-season of 2018 he was informed that he was no longer a starter.

I wanted to play baseball.

After retiring from baseball, he played for a baseball team and coached youth baseball. He had a reputation for his careful teaching and coaching methods, but he also had a somewhat irreverent air about him, putting on airs about being a former professional baseball player. He may have been involved in Kaga’s investment scam because he naively thought, ‘I can do well.’

The August 30, 2013 issue of “FRIDAY” closely followed Sonobe during his high school years. Photos and statements from that time reveal Sonobe’s confidence and swagger. He said of his homerun hit in the spring of the same year (the third round against Naruto High School): “The other team was a good pitcher.”

Our opponent is a good pitcher, and even if you get a single hit, there is little chance of a runner getting on base. That’s why I was aiming for a homerun.

When asked if it would be easy for him to hit homers in the future, he replied, “No, it won’t be easy.”

(smiles) In Koshien, you can see the ball very well.

Sonobe is said to have recently been a member of the Seiko Gakuin baseball team, and his friendships with the team have become narrower. Perhaps his achievements at Koshien and his strong pride in his experience in the professional world made it difficult for him to look at himself dispassionately.