Julio Ernesto Zuleta Tapia (born March 28, 1975) is a former professional baseball player. He played parts of two seasons in , from 2000–01, for the Chicago Cubs, and six seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball from 2003–08, primarily as a first baseman. Zuleta began playing professional baseball in Japan in 2003 with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. Zuleta had a breakout year with the Hawks came in 2005, when he hit 43 home runs with a .319 batting average. He holds the Hawks club record for most home runs by a foreigner. From 2004–2006, he hit the most home runs in the league (109) over the three-year span.
The Japanese fans gave Zuleta the name "Samurai" because of his perseverance. He was a three-time All Star. He is one of only three players in Japanese baseball to hit three home runs in one game. He achieved this feat twice: once against the Orix BlueWave (2003) and another time against the Seibu Lions (2006). Zuleta also homered against 13 different Japanese teams; the only other player to have done so was Fernando Seguignol.
