Archive for the ‘Japanese Baseball History’ Category

 

Hideo Iijima

born January 1, 1944 in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan, 5′9″, 165#

Predating sprinter Herb Washington of the Oakland A’s by five years, Hideo Iijima appeared in 117 games for the Lotte Orions from 1969-71 without registering an at bat.  The pinch runner scored 46 runs with 23 steals but was caught 17 times. 

He was a member of Japan’s track and field team in the 1968 and 1968 Olympics, competing in the Mens 100 meters and the Mens 4 x 100 meter relay.  Iijima had previously set the national mark of 10.1 seconds in the 100 meter dash.

Iijima was drafted in 1868 by Lotte.

SOURCE LIST

McKenna, Brian. Early Exits: The Premature Endings of Baseball Careers. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2006. 

Baseballguru.com 

Sports-reference.com

           

In 2001 outfielder Ichiro Suzuki joined the Seattle Mariners, becoming the first regular position player from Japan to don a major league uniform.  Seattle paid $13.13 million just for the right to negotiate with the 7-time Nippon Professional Baseball batting champion and 7-time Gold Glove winner. 

The Mariners then signed him to a $21 million, 3-year contract.  Suzuki was the third such player listed on the Posting System which offered his services to the highest bidder.  He goes by his first name, Ichiro, and his uniform back reflects it, making him perhaps the first player to do so.

At the time Bobby Valentine, the first man to manage in America and Japan, hailed Ichiro as one of the top five players in the world.  The athlete won every Pacific League batting title from 1994-2000, including a league record .385 in 1994 and then bested it in 2000 to .387. 

Over nine seasons in Japan, Ichiro’s batting average stood at .353.  He also led the league five times in on-base percentage and once he stole 49 bases.

The lefthanded batter set a record in 1997 by not striking out in 216 consecutive at bats.  For the season, Ichiro fanned only 36 times in 536 at bats.

Ichiro was named Pacific League MVP from 1994-96 for the Orix Blue Waves, leading them to the pennant in 1995 and to a Japan Series victory in ‘96.  He was joined in the U.S. in 2001 by Tsuyoshi Shinjo who debuted in the outfield for Valentine’s Mets.

Ichiro stunned and delighted his American audience, wrapping up both the Rookie of the Year and MVP honors with league-leading batting and stolen base figures in the team’s drive to a record 116 victories.  In 2004 the Mariner eclipsed George Sisler’s 84-year-old hit record, finishing with 262.

Japanese owners fear that the United States will lure many of their star players in the 21st century.  They may be forced to combine into one league or take other measures to enhance their profitability and maintain their fan base.

 

The first professional ballplayer in the United States from Japan was Goru Mikami, a college student who barnstormed with black clubs during the 1910s. Many might suspect that Mashi Murakami was the first Japanese professional in Organized Baseball. He wasn’t.

Kenzo Nushidad, Japanese pitcher, played briefly with Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League in 1932. 

Eiji Sawamura was slyly handed a contract by a Pirates scout who presented it as an autograph request in 1935.  The pitcher refused to sign. 

Bill Veeck offered Atsushi Aramaki a tryout in 1953. 

At spring training in Vero Beach in 1961, Shigeo Nagashima was offered a contract by the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Korean pitcher Won Kuk Lee was in the Giants organization in 1964.

 

Sadaharu Oh

Five-year-old Sadaharu Oh survived the atomic bombing of Tokyo in August 1945.  Fourteen years later, he came to the Yomiuri (Tokyo) Giants as a pitcher after receiving a $60,000 signing bonus. 

The son of a Chinese father and Japanese mother, Oh initially had a hard time finding acceptance from Japanese fans.  That would change after he was converted to a first baseman and began punching out home runs.

Oh, bigger than most Japanese at 5’11” and 175 pounds, found it difficult to hit the curveball at first.  Part of the problem stemmed friom his high school days when the natural lefthander was forced to bat righthanded.  The Giants re-converted him. 

It wasn’t until 1962 that he began to dominate Japanese pitching after adopting a “flamingo” batting stance based on his studies of samurai swordsmanship. Oh would stand with his right foot suspended in the air awaiting the pitch. 

Batting instructor Hiroshi Arakawa, a renowned swordsman, told him to do so in an attempt to eliminate the hitch in his swing.  Here, Oh would stand for countless hours in front of a mirror until he mastered the technique.  He also began his penchant for taking 30-40 minute batting practices.

Oh proceeded to tear the cover off the ball.  In 22 Central League seasons, 1959-80, he collected:

868 home runs, all-time best, 211 better than second place

2,170 runs batted in, all-time best

2,786 career hits, third best

A .301 batting average

19 straight seasons with 30+ home runs

Averaging 45 home runs a year between 1962-74

4 homers in a game, 1963

Five batting championships: 1968-70, 1973-74

 13 RBI crowns: 1962, 1964-67, 1971-78

 15 home run titles: 1962-74, 1976-77

 2 Triple Crowns: 1973-74

 Season home run record, 55 in 1964

 9 MVP awards: 1964-65, 1967, 1969-70, 1973-74, 1976-77.

In evaluating these numbers, one must also consider that only 130 games made up an entire season in Japan.

All the while, the Giants were the perennial pennant winners, copping the crown in 1959, ‘61, 1963, 1965-73 and ‘76-77.  Hitting behind Oh in the clean-up slot was the revered third baseman Shigeo Nagashima, a combo that rivals Ruth and Gehrig for dominance.

Oh’s 868 home runs came in only 9,250 at bats.  He left the yard one in every 10.7 at bats.  Henry Aaron on the other hand smacked one every 16.4 at bats.  The Sultan of Swat hit a dinger every 11.8 at bats.

Oh retired after the 1980 season and later took over the team’s managerial reigns for five seasons beginning in ‘84.  They won one pennant.  Oh was asked to retire at the end of 1988.

 

Prewar Foreign Ballplayers in Nippon Professional Baseball

• Jimmy Bonna,  American,  1936
• Masao Furukawa,  Nisei,   1937-39
• Shosei Go,  Taiwanese , 1937-57
• Shigekazu Hasegawa, Nisei,   1940-41
• Kiyomi Hirakawa,  Nisei,   1936-37
• Chikayoshi Honda, Nisei,   1940-42
• Jimmy Horio,  Nisei,   1936-41
• Tadashi Kameda,  Nisei,   1938-41
• Toshio Kameda,  Nisei,   1939-40
• Kazuyoshi Matsuura, Nisei,   1936
• Harrison McGaillard, American,  1936-38
• Jiro Moriguchi,   Nisei,   1937-38
• Kiyomitsu Nogami, Nisei,   1937-38
• Herbert North,  American,  1936
• Kano Omoda,  Nisei,   1937-39
• Kenmei Park,  Korean,   1939
• Adelano Rivera,  Philippine,  1939
• Victor Starfin,  Russian,   1936-55
• Mamoru Sugitaya,  Nisei,   1937-41
• Yoshio Takahashi, Nisei,   1936-43
• Yoshio Tanaka,  Nisei,   1937-44
• Fujio Ueda,  Nisei,   1937-48
• Yoshio Ueda,  Nisei,   1938-40
• Tadashi Wakabayashi, Nisei,   1936-53
• Den Yamada,  Nisei,   1937-48

A Nisei is a Japanese-American.  Most were born in Hawaii.

Jimmy Bonna, from Sacramento, California, came over at the end of the year and returned home in November.

Taiwan was a Japanese colony at the time of Shosei Go’s birth.  He became a naturalized Japanese citizen and was eventually elected to the Hall of Fame.

Tadashi Kameda and Jimmy Horio left Japan in 1941 due to worsening tensions with the United States.

Harrison McGalliard, Kazuyoshi Matsuura, Herbert North, and Yoshio Takahashi came to Japan from Los Angeles of the Pacific League in 1936.  They were invited by Atsushi Kono, manager of the Waseda University club that was touring the States at the time.

Bucky Harris, a.k.a. Harrison McGalliard, played three seasons of professional baseball in Japan from 1936, the league’s inaugural season, to 1938 with Nagoya and the Eagles.  He was the 1938 spring season home run leader.  Earlier, he copped the MVP award in the fall of 1937.  The American catcher was expelled from Japan in 1939 because of his nationality.  Harris finished with a career-.309 average in 711 at bats.

Kano Omoda, a Nisei from Hawaii, played center field for the Tokyo Senators from 1937-39.  In 1940 he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army.

Kenmei Park played in the industrial leagues until signing in 1938.  He was scantly used other than as a batting practice pitcher; thus, he left Japan and returned home.

The Tokyo Giants came across Adelano Rivera during their tour of the Philippines in January 1939.  He played the year out and returned home.

Victor Starfin was a white, Russian refugee whose parents settled in Japan during the Bolshevik Revolution in the early 20th century.  The 6’, 4”, 230 lb. righthander became Japan’s first 300-game winner during his 19-year career spanning 1936-55.  The fireballer still holds records with 42 victories in 1939 and 83 career shutouts.  At the end of World War II, 1944, Starfin was designated a foreign enemy and forced to take the name Horoshi Sudo.  He would also be temporarily confined to house arrest in Karuizawa, a town in Nagano.  The pitcher would later be used as a translator during the war crimes trials.  Shortly after retiring, Starfin was killed when he hit a train while driving under the influence.  He was eventually elected to the Hall of Fame.

Hawaiian-born Tadashi Wakabayashi first came to Japan as a high school student in 1928.  He stayed to attend college and then joined the pro leagues.  He was eventually elected to the Hall of Fame.

Even though he grew up in Elk Grove, California, Den Yamada took Japanese citizenship during WWII.  He played Japanese pro ball from 1937-48.