As I jumped into my time travel device yesterday (or was it tomorrow, this time travel thing really muddles with your brain), I remember going through my list of potential jumps thinking that too many of them were in the past. All of them, actually. Battle of Sekigahara? Too many arrows. The arrival of Perry and his black ships? Check. Done. Badaboom. The Mongols being wiped out by the Kamikaze? A breeze. Stephen’s party? I had to pass on that one, too many things to do, and had nothing to do with Japan or the Japanese language.

I figured it was time to jump in my time machine and travel to the future instead. Sure, there are still opportunities to change said future and alter what it was I saw, but in general I don’t see a lot changing due to my actions. No, I wanted to continue the theme of Japanese baseball posts just for one more week. That’s why I decided to travel to the future to learn what happened to this great American Japanese pastime. I’d like to present to you the future of Japanese baseball, as it stands today, so long as none of you muck it up and cause our line to jump to another reality. Butterflies will just need to stop flapping their wings, please.

A Major Move To The MLB (2013-)

It’s 2013 (this year!). The big story is Yu Darvish, the Japanese pitcher from Japan who made his MLB debut in 2012. After a strong first season, it’s his second season that really wows the MLB. After going 21-4 for the Texas Rangers with 6 complete games, 204 strikeouts, and and one no-hitter, he wins the first of two career Cy Young Award just beating out Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez, who come in second and third respectively.

Our illustrator loves Yu

But this is just the start of things. I won’t tell you who wins the World Series (boy is it a good one!), though there is one Japanese player who does particularly well. It will help to open the MLB’s mind (if it wasn’t already open) to pulling more Japanese players over stateside at a much higher rate. In order to stay competitive, MLB teams would draft Japanese players out of high school and college, getting them before they have a chance to sign with a team in Japan, thus circumventing the posting system and getting young Japanese talent in the majors early on. The Oakland Athletics do particularly well at this, and by 2017 six of twenty-five members of the roster are from Japan, an MLB record at the time (it is broken three years later by the Baltimore Orioles, who have 8 Japanese players on their roster).

Superstars will begin to make their way to America as well. Shouhei Otani, illustrated above (by our illustrator Aya in present time, which I think is 2013), comes to America in 2015. Originally he planned to come to America straight out of highschool, but intense pressures on him by Japanese teams, coaches, and his parents cause him to being the first few years of baseball in Japan. He grows to regret this decision and comes stateside, debuting with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the beginning of the 2015 season. The fireballer throws 100 mph and has a wicked splitter, going on to win the Rookie of the Year award as well as joining the limelight along with Darvish as well as Tomoyuki Sugano, who makes the jump to the majors a year later.

But this barely scratches the surface. More and more Japanese players move to America, and it happens earlier and earlier. As more Japanese baseball players get experience abroad they transmit the positive experiences to younger baseball stars in Japan. They become less reluctant to come to America, and soon a trickle turns into a landslide.

Sadaharu Oh No Someone Broke The Homerun Record (2019)

You may remember the past articles we wrote about Sadaharu Oh, and things haven’t changed much since then… well, except for how his home run record has been broken, with asterisks, however. In 1964 he banged out 55 home runs for the record. In 2017 a relatively unknown non-Japanese player would break the record with 59 home runs. In 2018 he would do it again, though an “accident” where he would fall down the stairs ended his promising (Japanese) career early. In 2019, a Japanese player would break the record much to the relief of many nationalist baseball fans.

Controversy would stir when the non-Japanese player that beat Sadaharu Oh’s record got an asterisk next to his name saying “non-Japanese player.” It angered both sides of the table. One side claimed it made Japanese baseball look weak. The other side just said it was racist and unnecessary. Either way, the Japanese seemed to work harder than ever before due to this which led to a Japanese player breaking the record with 60 home runs, hitting the last one on the last day of the season. To be fair, it was also in 2019 that they added five games to the season raising it from 144 games to 149 games.

The fact that a Japanese player could hit 60 home runs was no accident, though. Advances in training technology, diet, and baseball skill as a whole had increased rapidly during the last decade. Japanese baseball players were just becoming really good, on par with the rest of the baseball world (South America, Central America, and America-America).

Still, the MLB was the place to play baseball. All of this talent continued to move to Japan. Even the Japanese home run record holder came to the NY Yankees a year after knocking those 60 home runs. While he didn’t hit 60 home runs ever again in his career, he batted a career .279, averaged 30+ home runs a year, and made three All Star teams. He wouldn’t be the only one, either. The Japanese baseball league began to get worried about losing all their players, and rightly so.

A Closed Nippon Professional League (2020)

In 2020, the Nippon Professional League decides to close the doors to MLB teams trying to snipe their top talent. By this time, the NPL feels almost like another AAA league for the MLB. Japanese players train for a couple of years as “pro” players in the NPL or non-Japanese players come over to get some extra practice in before heading to the Bigs. The NPL is tired of this, and they implement the Foreign Transfer Act of 2020.

The Foreign Transfer Act states that “no player of Japanese descent will sign with a non-Japanese team for the first 10 years of his career.” While by law they could not technically keep any Japanese player from moving to the US to join an MLB team, there were steep penalties for those who did. Anyone who broke this rule would be banned, for life, from the NPL, and while this may not seem like a big deal if your goal is the Majors, it did put a lot of pressure on younger players. If they failed in the MLB, they had nowhere to go. Some players thought it better to join a Japanese team and have a safe job for those first ten years.

Japanese newspapers, who owned many of the Japanese teams at this time, highlighted the failed attempts at skipping the NPL to join the majors in their newspapers. Others would publish articles going over the negatives of baseball life in America. While the propaganda was strong, the Foreign Transfer Act of 2020 was abolished a year later in 2021 due to negative publicity as a whole.

It was clear that Japanese people wanted to see their Japanese players play in the MLB. TV ratings for the MLB in Japan continued to climb while the NPL games on TV declined.

Is That A Cyborg On First? (2036)

Fast forward 16 years later. The NPL is on a sharp decline with hardly the popularity it used to have. Many Japanese players go straight to the Majors (especially the good ones), and the NPL is diluted with mediocrity and MLB has-beens. As a baseball fan, this saddened me to see happen, but it’s all part of evolution. If you’re backed into a corner you have to make changes. Although it happened nearly by accident, the NPL discovered something that would change baseball around the world.

Keisuke Andoh, a first baseman for the Honda Hawks (Honda now owns the Hawks, thanks to the huge piles of money they got via forays in robot and cyborg technology), is the first baseball player to receive a cyborg implant. Partly because of the ownership, but mostly due to a career-ending crash at home plate in the previous season, Andoh and the team management bet on a new Honda technology to replace both of his knees with robotic implants. At the time, no rules were in place regarding machinery that would increase your speed or skill in baseball. By the time the NPL could come up with something Andoh was batting .455, got 193 stolen bases, and was an overnight Japanese star. Oh, and did I mention he was under contract with the Hawks for the next 10 years? Honda would milk this one out for as long as they could. Their new speedster wasn’t going anywhere.

Many other players were getting upset. Fans were getting upset too. But, as more people followed in Andoh’s footsteps, mostly with small improvements at first, popularity in Japanese baseball increased as well. Not only did it increase in Japan, but the rest of Asia and America as well. The NPL was on the up and up, and money came before purity, so the NPL let cyborgization continue.

The Cyborg Era (2037-2050)

There were some rules that had to come with cyborg enhancements, however. Otherwise things would be unfair.

• Arm-swing enhancements must remain under 100cc
• Running speeds must stay under 20mph (32kph)
• Jumping enhancements must not allow the player to jump more than 1 meter into the air.
• Throwing enhancements must remain under 200cc
• No more than one enhancement per player

Once the rules were in place, teams got to work. Being the leader in robotic technology, Honda had the distinct advantage, though the cyborg-augmentation draft, which allowed additional enhancements to the worst teams, helped even the playing field in 2042.

Popularity in Japanese baseball grew 10x in the same amount of years. America, which still believed in the purity of the sport, banned cyborgization altogether, no exceptions. This only fueled MLB players to come to Japan in greater numbers. Great players with season-ending injuries came to Japan. Young players came to Japan. Everyone wanted to play baseball in Japan. Things had evolved and gotten a lot more exciting. Some changes included:

• Much larger fields and ballparks (good for strength augmentations as well as fitting all the fans who wanted to watch the games now).
• 120 mph pitches.
• Players regularly hitting 40+ home runs (until pitching augmentations caught up to hitting ones).
• Increased season length, going from 149 to 225 games played in Japan per year. The MLB was still 162 games per year.

Some would call this cheating, others would call this advancement. Whatever it was, it was popular, and it spread all throughout Asia and beyond.

Asia League Baseball (2050)

During the age of cyborgization in baseball (as well as with regular, rich, people), Asia as a whole gets better at baseball (as long as your definition of “better” means “more cyborgs”). Due to this advancement, as well as the general level of baseball in Asia increasing, we start to see that not just Japan is good at baseball, but Korea (all one country at this point), China, India, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Russia all are quite good as well.

In 2050, Japan, Korea, and China come together to form the Asia League Baseball, a direct competitor to the now waning MLB, consisting of three leagues, nine divisions, and forty-two teams all across Asia. In 2052, India would add four teams. 2053 saw the Middle East join in, bringing the team total to forty-eight. Russia and Hawaii would only join five years after that, but they would bring ten teams to the table, making it by far the largest and best baseball section of the world.

For the first ten years, it is Japan and Korea that dominate, with Japan winning 6 of 10, Korea winning 3, and China winning the last. Baseball comes down to the level of technology that you can produce for your players to use. Japan and Korea tend to be at the forefront in this regard. China also does well, but still has the problem where they need to play catch-up in quality (putting a lot of strong players on the disabled list for repairs). After the first ten years, however, Asia League Championships seem to be all over the board. By this time the draft has helped the weaker teams, and technology has evened out as well.

Now it would be the MLB that had to try to keep their players from defecting to the other league. Asian baseball was hitting on all cylinders here.

The Jackie Robinson Of Robot Baseball (2064)

Not “Taro” pictured above. Due to time travel restrictions any photo from the future may not be shown in the past

While cyborged up people were commonplace now in the ALB, robots were not. Although some robots had turned sentient years previous due to some amazing(ly dangerous) robot brain technology created by Dr. Nakamats Junior (a clone version of the great Dr. Nakamats), it wasn’t until 2064 that we see one of them attempt to play baseball. Just as there was “technically” no rule against African Americans playing baseball when Jackie Robinson joined the MLB, there was “technically” no rule against full on robots either.

And boy was the first one hated. Joining the Nippon-ham Fighters, ASI-43099b aka “Taro,” he was booed by the fans right from the start, even before taking an at bat. It was clear that Taro would have a hard time in the Asia League due to the venomous feelings towards sentient robots that Asia as a whole had. Despite doing well his first and only year for the Nippon-ham Fighters, he was a robot with feelings, so he packed up his bags and moved to the MLB, which was surprisingly more receptive to the idea of robots playing baseball.

By now even the MLB was allowing some forms of cyborgization, but they knew they needed to do something to keep baseball alive in America. 2065 saw not only Taro, but six other robots make their career debut as well to varying success. The ALB eventually warmed up to “The Sentients” coming back to the Asia League, but by then it was too late. The MLB had regained much of its popularity in the same way that cyborgization popularized the Asian leagues. The MLB and the ALB were on fairly even footing, which could only mean good things for baseball as a whole.

World League Baseball (2099)

It’s nearly a new century and advances in travel technology have made it possible to travel across the world in mere hours (hint: we travel in tubes now). It’s fairly unclear which league is greater: The MLB or the ALB? Also, by now the All Europe League, The African League, and the Australian / Southeast Asia Leagues were getting stronger too. South America would join the MLB, doubling the number of teams, but as you can see baseball has reached a “professional” level by the year 2099.

It is appropriate then that in this year, the MLB and the ALB agree to inter-league play. Each team would play thirty games a season against the other league. In the following decade the other leagues would join in (except for the All Europe League and Southeast Asia League, which were still at too low of a level to join), forming the first truly worldwide League.

At the end of it all? Well, of course there was a World Series. A real one this time, not one that’s only in North America. Finally, there is no need to fight outside the baseball diamond. The world is united in terms of baseball, and a lot of it is thanks to Japan. While some still hate Japan’s contribution to the world baseball stage, others would never have known baseball in the first place if it wasn’t for the robots and cyborgs that people take for granted today.

While I don’t want to comment on this for fear of changing the future, I will say that it is entertaining to watch. I don’t know if it’s good or bad (or rather, I won’t say if it is or not), but it is different, and it is where baseball will head… that is, unless one of you mucks up the future somehow, at which point this article will have been rendered useless and you only have yourself to blame.

One more thing: GO KENYAN PANDAS! (don’t ask about the name… the team moved from China to Kenya and never changed the name…) I love their chances at winning it all this year.

If you have any questions about the future of (Japanese) baseball, feel free to ask. While I don’t know everything, I did spend a lot of time watching games all over the world, reading up on the stats, and just enjoying a lot of future baseball culture. I’ll answer whatever I can so long as I don’t think it will alter events and create a future where we are ruled by Neo Nazis (aka the Nazi baseball team is not something you are allowed to ask about).

P.S. Have yourself a full sized header illustration to support your favorite future team, the Honda Hawks!

Occupation Baseball (1945-)

For some reason, it was right after the war when Japanese baseball really blossomed, I would say. It took only nine months into the occupation for the Japanese pro leagues to make their way back, thanks to the support of the Allied troops (they rightly thought it would be good for morale) and large corporations (who financed the baseball teams’ returns). Things started up again with eight teams playing 105 games. Not bad considering they only played an average of 77 games per year from 1941-1944.

Obviously, baseball needed quite a bit of help to bounce back from the war. If you think about it, most of the players were probably drafted. On top of that, a lot of the talent also probably met injury or death. Still, the teams were back and people were playing baseball… but who could be the icing on the cake? Who could bring the fire back into Japanese baseball? How about the man who was known as the “Father of Japanese Baseball”? That’s right, good ol’ Lefty O’Doul is back for round… er… inning two.

Return Of The Lefty (1949)

Lefty O’Doul was pretty upset by the militarism shown by Japan leading up to the war. He was also, understandably, not too happy about Pearl Harbor. But, this was a new era now, so Lefty let bygones be bygones and came back to Japan in 1949 to rekindle that Japanese-American baseball bond that had gone missing.

In October of 1949, he took the San Francisco Seals to Japan so everyone could become friends again. Even though he was getting old (already 52 at this point) he pitched in some games. Turns out, people hadn’t forgotten ol’ Lefty O’Doul. Emperor Hirohito and Prince Akihito greeted him. 500,000 people came to watch 10 games. It was, just like every Lefty O’Doul baseball event in Japan, a grand slam.

In Lefty O’Doul style, he kept coming back. In 1950 he and Joe DiMaggio. In 1951, he went big again and led Joe DiMaggio, Dom DiMaggio, Eddie Lopat, Billy Martin, Mel Parnel, Bobby Shantz, Ferris Fain, and Yogi Berra on an All-Star tour of Japan. This was a big deal, to be sure, but the even bigger deal was when the Japanese Pacific League All-Star squad beat O’Doul’s All Stars 3-1. This marks the first time an American professional team lost to a Japanese professional team. Japanese baseball was like that kid whose dad always would beat him in basketball to show him that life wasn’t fair, then one day the kid beats the dad, and so the dad buys his kid a beer. One of those days. To say the least, it was historical for Japanese baseball.

In 1952, O’Doul went to Japan again to help train Japanese baseball teams. Then, in 1953, he joined the New York Giants on a trip to Japan. This would be the first time an entire single team would go to Japan. Even Marilyn Monroe was there (she was married to Joe DiMaggio, so that helped, I suppose). In 1954, O’Doul flipped things around and took a Japanese team on a baseball tour of Australia.

O’Doul would continue to support Japan and their baseball endeavors for years to come, though this is where we have to loop back around to take a look at one particularly revolutionary Japanese baseball player that came about in the years of O’Doul’s return.

Wally Yonamine, The Jackie Robinson Of Japan (1951)

You may have noticed that the name “Wally” isn’t a Japanese one. That’s right, Wally was American, though still fairly Japanese. He was a nisei (second generation) Japanese American from Hawaii (also super Japanese, though technically a part of America). Although he is most known for his baseball time, he was also the first Asian to play professional American football. Before being injured playing baseball in the off season, he spent a year with the San Francisco 49ers as a running back. He has 19 carries for 74 yards and caught 3 passes for 40 yards.

After injuring himself, he switched to baseball, joining a minor league team. He was lucky enough to have met good ol’ Lefty O’Doul, though, who encouraged him to try out baseball in Japan. Luckily for Japan, he went for it and became the first American to play on a professional Japanese team. In 1951, Wally Yonamine became a Tokyo Giant.

Now you have to understand. It’s not like everyone loved the whole American occupation thing. There were many nationalists (and non-nationalists) who wanted the Americans out, so letting an American play Japanese baseball even though he was a nisei??? That’s just crazy talk. In many ways, he was the Jackie Robinson of Japan, though the divide was more about nationality rather than skin color.

He was still American, though, and the most interesting thing he brought to Japan was that American baseball style. People didn’t know what to do with him. He would run out bunts (unheard of in Japan at the time, apparently). He would do football style rolling blocks to position players blocking the base paths. He would dive in the outfield. He wore those iconic glasses. Basically, he had that American baseball hustle, where an individual could be a star if they stood out in the right ways, and boy did he stand out.

Now, it would be one thing if he turned out really bad, but he dominated the Japanese leagues. He had a .354 rookie season, which won over the fans and his teammates… though one particular player, Tetsuhara Kawakami (the 1951 MVP), particularly didn’t like him. He is disrespectful of Japanese baseball! His parents turned their back on Japan by moving to America! He doesn’t play the “proper” way! This, mixed with the fuel of ultra-nationalism fueled Kawakami’s dislike towards Wally, and the two formed a rivalry which only made them better players. During his career, Wally would win four Japan Series Championships, be the Central League MVP (1957), win seven “Best Nine Awards” in a row, play in eleven All-Star Games, have three batting championships, and then eventually become the manager of the Chuunichi Dragons.

All of these achievements and more got him into the Japanese baseball hall of fame in 1994, though I think it was his style of play that really made an impact on Japanese baseball. Before Wally, there really weren’t any “stars” in Japanese baseball. No nails that stuck up, because that just wasn’t the “Japanese Way.” I think Wally was the spark that set off a new style of play for Japanese baseball. It took a while, but if you compare present day Japanese baseball with Wally’s days, it’s night and day. There still is that very deep rooted team mentality, but there are stars now too. People who stand out. Also, there’s more hustle, people show less “respect” (like walking after bunting or not running into you if you’re in the way) in Japanese baseball as well. It’s a totally different game, and I think we have Wally Yonamine to thank for that.

Sadaharu Oh (1959)

Perhaps the greatest Japanese baseball player of all time (at least when it comes to hitting things hard) was Sadaharu Oh. Despite holding the Japanese home runs record (868) he was originally signed with the Yomiuri Giants as a pitcher. He soon got converted to being a first baseman and developed his unique “flamingo” batting style with Hiroshi Arakawa, his hitting instructor. This involved a one-footed stance and swing which supposedly helped him with his balance and ability to hit quite a bit.

It showed, as he went to go to eleven Japan Series Championships as well as win the Central League MVP nine times. If you ask me, that’s too many, and someone else deserves a consolation MVP from time to time. He retired with a .301 batting average, 868 home runs, 2786 hits, and 2170 RBIs. By almost any standards, even in a “lower level” Japanese league, this was pretty good. I have no doubt he would have done quite well in the MLB if he had gone over.

He went on to become a manager (where his home run record had some controversy). Still, he made a huge mark on Japanese baseball. He was one of the first really great Japanese baseball players, showing the world that yes, even Japanese players can hit for power, even if it was in the Japanese League (which had shorter seasons, too). You have to remember, Barry Bonds (the current MLB career home runs leader) has 762 total home runs. Sadaharu Oh hit 868. Even if you consider the differences of the leagues, Sadaharu Oh is still going to hit a lot of home runs no matter where he plays. Even though many people don’t consider this to be “the” home run record, when asked who would break it, Oh seemed to think it would be Alex Rodriguez. “I think the 868 record will be broken. There’s nobody near that mark in Japan, but I think Alex Rodriguez can do it. He has the ability to hit 1,000.”

We’ll see. Once he gets anywhere too close to the record he’ll probably just choke.

Masanori Murakami Debuts (1964)

While Wally Yonamine was the first American to play baseball in Japan, it wasn’t until 1964 that we see the first Japanese player to play for an American professional team. Most people think that Hideo Nomo of Nomo-Mania fame was the first Japanese player to come over, but Murakami beats him by 31 years.

In high school, he was signed by the Nankai Hawks. His team had won the prestigious Koshien Taikai (a ridiculously popular high school baseball tournament), which probably is what sped up his progress. Turns out, they moved him along a little too quickly, and after pitching just two innings for the Hawks in 1963, they sent him to the San Francisco Giants in the US to train in the minor leagues. It was expected that he’d then come back to Japan after a couple years of this, but he did so well for the Giants that they ended up promoting him to the Majors in 1964.

What made things worse, surprisingly, is that he did quite well. He posted a 1.80 ERA in nine games and fifteen innings pitched, starting things off with eleven scoreless innings. After finishing the 1964 season, the Hawks were “ready” for him to come back. That being said, so were the San Francisco Giants. According to a clause in the contract that sent him to America, the Giants could buy him from the Hawks for $10,000, so that’s what they did. But, Murakami also didn’t want to break his promise to the Hawks, so he signed a contract with the Hawks. Now both teams owned him, and that was obviously a problem.

The two teams came up with an agreement, though. He would pitch the 1965 season with the Giants, then after that he’d go back to the Hawks. He did exactly this, and pitched for seventeen more years in Japan. Poor guy should have just stayed in America. He had this to say about his decision:

If I had returned to the Major Leagues, I would have realized my dream, but I would have betrayed Mr. Tsuruoka. Yet, because I kept my promise to Mr. Tsuruoka, I forever carry this sense of regret.

Possibly because of this situation, it wasn’t for another 31 years that a Japanese player would make the trip to America. Masanori Murakami would be forgotten in the history books, and Japanese baseball wouldn’t make an impact on America again until 1995.

Hideo Nomo (1995)

Hideo Nomo is one of the most well known Japanese baseball players to make the trip to America. For one thing, he really stood out with that unique (by American standards) windup. Secondly, he pitched really well, winning the Rookie Of The Year Award in his 1995 debut season. His situation was a bit interesting, though. Normally Japanese teams don’t want their players to move to the MLB. They lose ratings because they lose their best players. Hideo Nomo figured out a loophole in his contract, “retiring” from baseball so that he could sign with the LA Dodgers. If the Buffaloes wouldn’t give him what he wanted (a multi-year contract and an agent).

He made his US debut with the Bakersfield Blaze, a Class A team for the LA Dodgers at the time. He threw 90 pitches and 5 1/3 innings in a 2-1 loss. After spending a month in the minors he was called up to the Major Leagues, partly thanks to a player’s strike, making him the second Japanese League player to come to the majors. The Japanese media went crazy, showing up in huge numbers for his games and making him a star. The games in which he started were even broadcast live in Japan, despite the time difference. His “Tornado Delivery” also became something of a spectacle. If you’re going to stand out, do it in America where they appreciate it more, I suppose.

He had a great career in the MLB, and here are some of the highlights:

• 1995 – Rookie Of the Year Award, just beating out Chipper Jones, leading the league in strikeouts, throwing 11.101 stikeouts per 9 inning (beating the previous franchise record of 10.546), and starting that year’s All-Star Game.
• 1996 – Threw a no-hitter on September 17 in Coor’s Field, a stadium notorious for being a hitter’s park. Also had his own Nike sneaker, the Air Max Nomo.

• 1997 – Greatest honor of them all, appeared in a Segata Sanshiro commercial.

• 1997 – Joined Dwight Gooden as the only other pitcher to strike out at least 200 batters in each of his first three seasons.
• 2001 – Playing for the Boston Red Sox, he throws his second no-hitter, making him one of the few pitchers to have thrown a no-no in both leagues. He also leads the league in strikeouts again.
• 2002 – Returns to the Dodgers where he pitches well again.
• 2003 – Begins showing signs of his age :(
• 2008 – Nomo retires from Major League Baseball.

Nomo and his Nomo-mania were a big deal in both Japan and America. After the Japan Baseball League lost Nomo to the MLB, the two leagues came up with a “posting” solution, where MLB teams could make bids to talk to Japanese players, so that way if they lost the player they’d get compensated. This posting system would get used a lot in the coming years. Nomo really opened the doors for Japanese players to come to the MLB, and a good number of players have followed since.

Ichiro (2001)

Being the biggest Mariner’s Fan in the world, it pains me to write about Ichiro, just a little bit. I could go into the goods and bads of him being a Yankee right now, but let’s not focus on that. Let’s focus on his contribution to position players coming to America, because before Ichiro, only pitchers would make the jump from Japan to the MLB.

Before becoming the MLB’s most well-known Japanese player, Ichiro was a mere child with a father that was really into training him. After joining a baseball team at the age of seven, he asked his father to help him to get better. They began a regiment that included throwing 50 pitches, fielding 50 infield balls, fielding 50 outfield balls, and hitting 500 pitches (250 from his father, 250 from the machine). By age 12, he dedicated himself to pursue a career in baseball. In high school, his father told the coach to never praise Ichiro because he needed to be spiritually strong. Joining Nagoya’s Aikodai Meden High School, he was used as a pitcher due to his strong arm (which we’ve all seen in the majors). He batted .505 in high school with 19 home runs. Other strange training regimens that Ichiro did included hurling car tires, hitting wiffle balls with a heavy shovel, and practicing in the batting cages by getting closer and closer to where the ball shoots out the hole. To say the least, he worked really, really hard, much of it due to the training (which bordered on hazing, according to Ichiro) of his father. Anyways, it worked out.

Probably on their way to the batting cages

In 1992 at the age of 18, he made his Pacific League debut, though had to spend much of his first two seasons in the Japanese minors. The manager at the time didn’t like his unorthodox swing. Obviously, the “nail that sticks up” mentality was still prevalent in Japanese baseball, even in the 90s. Two years later a new manager was hired, and Ichiro then got playing time every day. His “pendulum” swing proved effective, and he broke the then Japanese single-season record with 210 hits in a season. He hit .385, had 13 home runs, and stole 29 bases. This would be the first of three straight MVP awards.

As if the nail that was Ichiro didn’t stick up enough, in 1994 they changed his jersey to read “Ichiro” instead of “Suzuki,” which is the most common last name in Japan. It was the management’s idea, not Ichiro’s (he was embarrassed by it, apparently), though it ended up catching on and helped him to achieve a greater fame.

It wouldn’t be until 1998, though, that he would see some major league action. In a seven-game exhibition between Japanese and American All-Stars, Ichiro batted .380 and collected seven stolen bases. He was now officially on people’s radars.

“Wanna hit for power? I got this guy, I can hook you up…”

Of course, in 2001 he joined the Seattle Mariners after they paid a $13 million posting fee, and then signed him to a three year $14 million contract. Apparently at first he didn’t feel too good about wearing ex-Mariner Randy Johnson’s number (51), so he sent a message to Johnson promising to not bring shame on the uniform. He turned out to do pretty well, batting .350 with 56 stoeln bases, making it to the first of ten All-Star games, winning Rookie Of The Year, and the AL MVP award. Pretty big stuff for a short guy from Japan who’s never played a “grueling” American 162 game season.

Ichiro went on to many other successes as well (and still plays for the Yankees to this day). Some highlights include:

• Ten All-Star Games (2001-2009)
• Rookie Of the Year Award (2001)
• 10-time Gold Glove winner.
• 200 hits in 10 consecutive seasons.
• 256 hits in one season, a Major League record.
• “The Throw”

People stopped running on Ichiro after this fateful day. Actually, people didn’t stop, but they were punished for their mistakes. With Ichiro becoming such a huge star in Seattle as well as the world, other Japanese players would make the leap across the pond. Some have done well, some have not. Let’s take a look at what we’ve got.

The Japanese Player Flood

All in all, 52 Japanese League players have come to the MLB, most of them arriving after Ichiro. While there are this many players, only some of them had seasons of great success. They include:

• Ichiro (10 All Star Games)
• Kazuhiro Sasaki (2 All Star Games)
• Hideki Matsui (2 All Star Games)
• Hideo Nomo (1 All Star Game)
• Shigetoshi Hasegawa (1 All Star Game)
• Hideki Okajima (1 All Star Game)
• Takashi Saito (1 All Star Game)
• Kosuke Fukudome (1 All Star Game)
• Yu Darvish (1 All Star Game)

Of course, more will come, and with the higher level that is the Major Leagues, better and better Japanese baseball players will come out of Japan too. If all the good players don’t just come over to the MLB, Japan’s teams may become comparable too, though we’ll have to wait and see on that one.

Awards And Notables

According to Wikipedia, here are the awards that have been given to Japanese League players in the MLB.

• Most Valuable Player Award: Ichiro Suzuki, 2001 AL
• Rookie of the Year: Hideo Nomo, 1995 NL; Kazuhiro Sasaki, 2000 AL; Ichiro Suzuki, 2001 AL
• Gold Glove Award: Ichiro Suzuki, 10 times, 2001–2010 AL OF
• Silver Slugger Award: Ichiro Suzuki, 3 times, 2001, 2007, 2009
• All-Star Game MVP: Ichiro Suzuki, 2007
• World Series MVP: Hideki Matsui, 2009
• Player of the Month: Ichiro Suzuki, August 2004 AL; Hideki Matsui, July 2007 AL
• Pitcher of the Month: Hideo Nomo, twice, June 1995 & September 1996 NL; Hideki Irabu, twice, May 1998 & July 1999 AL
• Rookie of the Month: Ichiro Suzuki, 5 times, April, May, June, August, September 2001 AL; Kazuhisa Ishii, April 2002 NL; Hideki Matsui, June 2003 AL; Hideki Okajima, April 2007 AL; Yu Darvish, April 2012 AL
• Player of the Week: Hideki Matsui, 4 times, June 23–29, 2003, May 24–30, 2004, June 14–20, 2005, July 18–24, 2011 AL; Ichiro Suzuki, 4 times, August 2–8, 2004, May 29-June 4, 2006, September 20–26, 2010, September 17-23, 2012 AL
• MLB Players Association Outstanding Player of the Year Award: Ichiro Suzuki, 2004 AL
• MLB Players Association Outstanding Rookie of the Year Award: Ichiro Suzuki, 2001 AL
• Sporting News Rookie Player of the Year Award: Ichiro Suzuki, 2001 AL
• Sporting News Rookie Pitcher of the Year Award: Hideo Nomo, 1995 NL, Kazuhiro Sasaki, 2000 AL
• MLB.com Defensive Player of the Year Award: Ichiro Suzuki, 2005
• MLB.com Setup Man of the Year Award: Hideki Okajima, 2007

There are a lot of names that get repeated (*cough* Ichiro *cough*), though this should give you an idea of some of the talent that’s coming out of Japan.

So, that’s the history of Japanese baseball, from the early days to present day. I wonder what the future holds for Japan. I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see. When it comes to Japanese baseball, it’s like they’re on first base, getting ready to steal second. There’s a lot more life yet, and I’m looking forward to seeing it spring forth from Ichiro’s loins.

Who’s your favorite modern-day Japanese baseball player? If you say Munenori Kawasaki maybe I’ll do the Mune dance for you.

—

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo_Nomo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanori_Murakamihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichiro_Suzuki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_from_Japan
http://www.psacard.com/Articles/ArticleView/2836/a-short-history-of-japanese-baseball-part-1
http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/b820a06c
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefty_O’Doul
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_in_Japan
http://www.baywell.ne.jp/users/drlatham/baseball/yakyu/history/history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadaharu_Oh

There is a short list of players that have become household names in American baseball and deservingly so, such as Ichiro and Matsui. However, there is one more name that many MLB fans should at least become familiar with: Sadaharu Oh.

What makes Mr. Oh special? He may not have played in the MLB, but his long list of achievements during his professional career playing in the Nippon Professional League can’t be ignored. His 868 career home-runs is the most achieved by any professional baseball player. Yes, even compared to the MLB all-time home run leader, Barry Bonds’ 762 home runs. If Bonds’ steroid driven record doesn’t impress you, then let’s compare it to Hank Aaron’s 755 home runs or Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs.

Although Oh’s staggering 868 career homers is something to gawk at, there is a lot of debate on the quality of the Japanese baseball league and if Oh would have been able to achieve such numbers if he played in the Big Leagues. I will not be debating the if and if nots of Mr. Oh’s ability to play in the MLB, but I’ll let these quotes from very respectable players speak for him.

I’m sure he would have hit in the 30s (of homers per year) and probably in the low 40s … Thirty home runs a year add up to over 600 home runs, and he’d do that if he played the same number of years here that he played there. — Frank Robinson

There’s no question in my mind he wouldn’t have hit 800 home runs if he’d played here, but if he played in a park tailored to his swing, he’d have hit his 35 [homers] a year … He’d hit .300, I’ll tell you that. — Pete Rose

Oh had tremendous patience as a hitter… He had good power. I don’t know how many he would have hit here … start with 20 (a year) … at least.  He was a great all-star. He’d have been a Hall of Famer. — Hal McRae

There is one record held by Oh that has brought controversy to the game of baseball, not once, not twice, but three times. His 1964 season Japanese home run record of 55 homers has been challenged thrice by foreign players. Before we delve into the controversy, perhaps you would like to know a little about Mr. Oh?

Legacy of Sadaharu Oh

Born in the year 1940 to Japanese and Taiwanese parents, Oh began his professional career with the Yomiuri Giants as a pitcher in 1959. During his high school baseball career, he had caught the eye of the Japanese nation by pitching through a disabling-injury and helping his team win the 1957 春の甲子園 (Spring Kōshien).

Although Oh displayed perseverance and pitching skill, the Giant’s management made the assessment that his pitching was not up snuff. In response, Oh was transitioned to first base, which meant he needed to work on his hitting to be a valued asset to the team. To improve his swing and power, he spent his days training in martial arts and kendo. Eventually it paid off. It took Oh and his famous flamingo stance three years to break out into the (Japanese) Hall of Famer many know him as today.

Due to his Taiwanese heritage, his acceptance by fans and nationals alike at the beginning of his career was not so welcoming. Oh’s mix heritage is constantly called into attention and still continues to this day, albeit at a much less degree. I guess it helps when you break world records AND have a little Japanese blood in you will the pure Japanese stop the discrimination and accept you as one of their own.

Oh retired in 1980, after playing for 22 seasons, with a lifetime .301 batting average, 2,786 hits, and 2,170 RBIs. If these numbers don’t mean anything to you, then all you need to know is, along with his career home runs, he had a rockstar career. Some other notable achievements:

• Held the all-time world record for walks, 2,504. Recently broken by Barry Bonds’ 2,553.
• In 1964, set the Japanese record of four home runs in a single 9-inning game. The record title is shared among twelve MLB players.
• In 1972, set the Japanese record of seven home runs in seven consecutive games.
• Nine-time MVP, Nine-time Gold Glove, Two-time Triple Crown, 18-time Best First Baseman, and 20-time All Star.
• In 1994, inducted to the Japanese Hall of Fame (Sorry, but no Cooperstown induction for him)
• In 1978, hit his 800th home run, which landed in a fan’s shoe.

Immediately following his retirement, Oh took up an assistant manager position with the Giants for the next three seasons. He was then promoted to the manager position and continued to manage the team for four seasons. During his time managing the Giants, he led the team to the Central League pennant in 1987. After the 1988 season, Oh took a leave of absence from baseball.

In 1995, Oh returned to baseball, managing the Fukuoka Hawks. He led the team to three Pacific League Pennants and two Japan Series titles. Oh managed the Japanese national team to a tournament win in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. He formally retired from managing in 2008.

Home Run Controversy

As mentioned earlier in the article, Oh’s Japanese single season home run record was challenged three times. What makes it interesting is each challenge was made by a foreigner; two Americans and one Venezuelan, all three were mediocre former MLB players. The controversy stems from how Sadaharu Oh’s managed teams handled each batter during the potential record breaking seasons.

Strike 1 — 1985 Hanshin Tigers’ Randy Bass

Randy Bass is probably one of the most accomplished American players to play in the NPL. Many people credit him for turning the Hanshin Tigers around and winning the 1985 Japan Series. Bass holds the highest Japanese batting average of .389, winner of four consecutive batting titles, and consecutive Triple Crowns.

His accomplishments to the Hanshin Tigers and Japanese baseball is so great that many speak of him in the same breath as God and Buddha.

There is another thing he is famous for: the Colonel Sanders Curse. Koichi has written up a good overview of the curse, so check it out. Basically, after the 1985 series win, fans gathered around the gross Dotonbori canal to celebrate.

Some of the fans celebrated by naming off the team roster and anyone that remotely looked like the named player had to jump into the dirty canal. Unfortunately, when Bass’ name came up, there was no one present that looked like him. Darn the homogeneity population!

So what a better compromise than to toss the statue of Colonel Sanders from the nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Both Bass and Sanders are white and got the beard thing going, so I suppose it made sense. This action obviously bit the Hanshin fans in the arse. What resulted was being the worst team in the league for the next 18 years. Karma can do weird things. Kids, remember to leave the Colonel alone!

Got a bit side tracked there. Sorry! Back to the controversy.

On the last game of the season (Note in 1985, only 130 games were played. Oh’s record was achieved in a 140 game season), Bass only needed one home run to tie Oh’s record, two to break it. Guess which team the Hanshin Tiger’s were up against that day? Yep, it was the Yomiuri Giants, which were managed by Oh.

At each at bat, for a total of four, Bass was intentionally walked with four consecutive pitches. It was no secret what the Giant’s agenda was when walking Bass at each plate appearance. Walking a batter isn’t usually done until much later into a close-scoring game. Baseball prides itself with its supremacy of fair play, and this was anything but. This was poor sportsmanship no matter how you look at it.

During one of the at-bats, Bass famously flipped his bat around. The bat-flipping was later adapted in a scene of the Japanese baseball film Mr. Baseball, starring Cleveland Indian’s in-house voodoo specialist/slugger Pedro Cerrano a.k.a. former and deceased U.S. President David Palmer a.k.a. Allstate auto insurance spokesman a.k.a. Dennis Haysbert. Oh, it also starred some dude with a moustache. I think his name is Tom Selleck?

After the game, Oh denied ordering any of his pitchers to walk Bass. However, one of the Giant’s pitchers, American Keith Comstock, revealed that the pitching staff was threatened with $1,000 fines for every strike thrown to Bass by an unnamed Giant’s coach. This prompted an investigation by a magazine, which confirmed that upper management had a hand in ordering the preservation of Oh’s record. Aside from the magazine’s investigation, the Japanese media and the baseball commissioner kept mum about the incident. I suppose this is one way to save face.

As for Bass, he is now serving as the elected Democratic U.S. Senator for Oklahoma State.

Strike 2 — 2001 Kintetsu Buffaloes’ Tuffy Rhodes

Tuffy Rhodes began his NPL career in 1995 with the Kintetsu Buffaloes. After retiring in 2009, he ended his career as 10th overall home run leader in the NPL, the highest ranking for any foreign player.

Similar to Bass’ situation, Rhodes and the Buffaloes faced an Oh managed team, the Fukuoka Hawks, near the end of the season. The dissimilarity was Rhodes entered the series with a tying record of 55 homers and had many opportune times before and after the Fukuoka-Kintetsu series to break Oh’s record.

Nevertheless, just like Bass, Rhodes faced intentional walks throughout the series. This time, however, they made it blatantly obvious of their intentions.

Kenji Johjima, the Hawks’ catcher, can be seen smiling, laughing, and taunting Rhodes as he instructed his pitcher to toss balls. Oh once again denied any involvement in the situation and the Hawks’ batting coach Yoshiharu Wakana took responsibility of ordering their pitchers to walk Rhodes.

Very few believe this story, and rightfully so. As the manager, Oh is responsible for any decisions made in the game. Any decisions made by the bottom staff are cleared by him before executing it. Also, when did a batting coach have any command over a pitching staff?

Wakana said this little gem right after the game,

I just didn’t want a foreign player to break Oh’s record.

The NPL isn’t filled with managers and players that go against the spirit of baseball, though. Out of all the teams Rhodes’ faced near the end of the season, only the Oh’s Hawks made blatant effort in denying his chance of breaking the record. Hawk’s pitcher Keizaburo Tanoue went on record saying he wanted to throw strikes to Rhodes and felt extremely bad about the situation.

Japanese baseball commissioner Hiromori Kawashima said the following in response of the incident,

… completely divorced from the essence of baseball, which values the supremacy of fair play.

This time around, many players and a few big wigs are speaking out in displeasure of the incident. I don’t know where the change of heart came from, but I would guess it had to do with the generational gap between the time of Bass’ incident and Rhode’s.

Strike 3 — 2002 Seibu Lion’s Alex Cabrera

It wasn’t long after until another contender came along to challenge Oh’s seasonal home run record. Venezuelan Alex Cabrera started his NPL career with the Seibu Lions in 2001. Just like his predecessors, Cabrera has a stellar career in the NPL. His eight years with the Lions netted him a .308 batting average with 246 home runs and 605 RBIs. Very impressive. Cabrera also earned the Pacific League MVP Award in 2002.

It was deja vu all over again. Eleven games until the end of the season, Cabrera knocked out his 54th homer of the season. With the final five games approaching, Cabrera tied Oh and Tuffy with his 55th home run. What stood in his way of breaking the record was a final series against the Oh managed Daiei Hawks.

Oh made it clear to his players to throw strikes to Cabrera. They didn’t get the memo. After the first game of the series, only six strikes were thrown. Cabrera was walked twice and was hit by an inside pitch.

The media and fans didn’t keep silent about the situation, as the majority sided with Cabrera.

Yomiuri Daily News columnist Jim Allen said the following,

(They) should put an asterisk and a note next to Oh’s name in the record book.

On ESPN‘s Top 10 segments, Oh’s seasonal home run record was listed as #2 on the list of “The Phoniest Records in Sports.”

Oh made the following comment after the game,

If you’re going to break the record, you should do it by more than one. Do it by a lot.

A broken record is still a broken record. Maybe Oh should have broken the record by a larger margin back in the day when compressed bats were legal and the ball parks were a lot smaller?

Strike 4?

It’s only a matter of time before a new challenger to Oh’s seasonal home run record appears, and I’m willing to bet it’ll happen sooner, than later. And more likely than not, another foreigner will be the one to challenge it. With Oh retired from managing, a newer generation of foreign-friendly fans providing pressure, and a more involved media, the barrier to break the record has been lowered.

Is Oh a bad person? No, he is a very exceptional baseball player and deserves all the accolades showered on him. But are Oh and many in the NPL poster children of baseball and everything it represents? Not a chance.

For a league that emphasizes their way of baseball of being pure above all else, it sure has a lot of people that are the antithesis of the baseball way of fairness and integrity. If you are going to make such an excuse to employ limits on foreign players per an organization (currently at four, with only three on the active list), at least ensure your national players themselves follow what you are trying to stand for.

Oh, by the way, Dennis Haysbert is one awesome dude.

Header Photo Source: Mears Online Auctions