A Noboru Aota Fan's Notes

1950 Kokutetsu Swallows

2012-01-26T02:11:00.000-08:00

According to Japan Baseball Daily, today marks the 62nd anniversary of the birth of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, then known as the Kokutetsu Swallows. They were originally established by what is today the Japan Railways, and, under manager Norio Nishigaki, they shared space with the Giants in Korakuen stadium before moving to their current home in Meiji Jingu Stadium in 1964. During that time they were one of the losing-est teams in NPB history, posting only one winning record in 25 years.

A game and a half from the absolute cellar, the 1950 expansion Kokutetsu Swallows were the worst hitting (they left the fewest men on base in the league, only because their OBP was also the lowest in the league), and almost (next only to the Carp) the worst pitching team in the Central League. They led the league in walks, balks and wild pitches, and had the fewest hit batsmen- in other words, a pitching staff that was wild yet un-intimidating. They weren't the worst fielding team in the league, but their defense (who committed the second most errors in the Central League) didn't help their otherwise lackluster performance.

The only bright spot was a young rookie named Masaichi Kaneda (right). There was no All Star game in 1950, but the following year only one member of the team would make it, and that was Kaneda. The free-wheeling Kaneda (see photo at top of page) would go on to set all-time Japan records for wins, losses, and strikeouts, become one of the first major stars to jump teams and embrace 'free agency', and found the Meikyukai, or Golden Players Club, a sort-of alternate to the Hall of Fame, that honors players not on votes, but automatic enshrinement upon the achievement of 2000 hits, 200 wins, or 250 saves. The 17 year old Kaneda out-pitched the rest of his staff during the '50 season, winning only 8 and losing 12 but posting the lowest ERA and striking out the second most batters.

Despite the fact that their best player was also their youngest, there were a few standout performances of that lackluster season:

First baseman Ryohei Moriya (below) led the team with a .288 batting average and 21 home runs.

While not the best fielding first baseman in the league (that honor would have to go to Kiyoshi Ozawa), his 910 putouts against 11 errors demonstrate his competence at the position, and, combined with his prowess at the plate, establish him as the Swallows most valuable player in 1950, and he was fittingly their captain. Moriya would go on to play a few more seasons with the Swallows, retiring at the end of the '53 season with a .266 average in exactly 1500 plate attempts.

While Kaneda was second on the team with 143 K's, Akira Takahashi (left) edged him out with 147. And, while he wasn't the teams ace, he won their first game ever, on March 11 of that year. He would pitch 6 more years with the Swallows, never posting a winning record and walking more batters than he struck out.

Outfielder Shigeru Enomoto (below) was more representative of the team, appearing mostly in a pinch-hitter role while playing only 5 games in the outfield and committing one error. The two hits he collected during that season would turn out to be the only two hits of his career- after 1950 he vanished, most likely into the industrial leagues or maybe as a coach for some local clubs.
Enomoto found himself lumped in with a class of athlete to whom success was a double edged sword, a gift and a curse; a group with many members on both sides of the Pacific Ocean and beyond: As with new teams and most expansion seasons, the Swallows were packed with those players, like Enomoto, who would never have had a chance to play at the top level, but now find themselves with a few scattered innings of memory, a footnote or two in the statistical record that can prove to be a personal achievement or a bitter taste of what could have been.

In 1964 the Swallows moved to the storied Meiji Jingu Stadium, home to the college baseball and once the host of U.S. superstars. They would go through many owners and even a name change (they were the Atoms for a short period in the late sixties), and continue their losing ways until finally winning a championship in 1978.

Japan Baseball Daily

2012-01-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

Japan Baseball Daily, an invaluable source of Japanese baseball data, will be closing in the next year or two. Please visit the site and check out all of the amazing statistics, biographical data, videos, opinions, etc.

Also, check out the stats from the 2011 season at the NPB English site.

And stay tuned for more posts soon on the Cardinals tour of 1958 and the birth of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows...

Darvish, Kitabeppu and the Babe...

2012-01-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

Banzai Babe Ruth is now available on ebay- check it out and pick up a copy today!

And congratulations to the new members of the Hall of Fame: Manubu Kitabeppu, Tsunemi Tsuda, Kiro Osafune, and Osamu Ohmoto!

Also, as news of the Yu Darvish signing makes the rounds, the buzz over new card sets from BBM does as well- take a look at Japanese Baseball Cards for more info.

Hall of Fame, Banzai Babe Ruth, and Mayday Malone

2011-12-20T06:43:00.000-08:00

In January, the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will be announcing the class of 2012. Once again on the list for the expert group (those players retired for 21 years or more as well as managers, coaches and umpires) is Masayaki Dobashi (right), who we profiled a few years back. Also on the ballot is Isao Shibata, Koji Akiyama, and Shinjo- you can find the announcement and the complete ballot in Japanese here.

Also, Banzai Babe Ruth, the new book by Rob Fitts, author of the wonderful Wally Yonemine biography as well as several other books on the history of Japanese baseball, will be out early next year. You can pre-order the book here- go get one right now!

And finally, our friends at the Infinite Baseball Card Set, who have designed a number of beautiful baseball cards featuring Japanese and Gaijin players, released in October a great card that, though somewhat out of the scope of this blog, is too brilliant not to share. Sam 'Mayday' Malone, pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and later owner of famous bar in Boston, never had his own card. The Infinite Baseball Card provides one, as well as an extensive biography- check it out!

Wally Yonamine 1925-2011

2011-03-03T06:08:00.000-08:00

Wally Yonamine's 1958 season was not as productive as the seven previous years with the Giants, but for Wally that still meant a spot on the Best 9 and a trip to the Japan Series where he would hit a home run in game 5 off of Kazuhizu Inao. And he was still a main feature of the Japanese All-Star squad that faced the St. Louis Cardinals. Though he only ended up having 13 at bats during the series, he was featured in the Mainichi paper's official promotion of the tour: "A veteran from Hawaii, his experience in minor league baseball in the U.S. has stood him in good stead. Today he is regarded as the representative outfielder of his league, a sure batter and heady player. Average: .295, lower than usual since he almost always hits over .300"

He died this past Monday at the age of 85.

His first game in a Yomiuri uniform was almost sixty years ago, on June 19, 1951. Noboru Aota hit a home run in that game, and Wally's brief appearance signaled a change in the order. Soon Aota would be off to the Whales and Wally would share the spotlight with Tetsuharu Kawakami and, by 1958, rookie superstar Shigeo Nagashima as the top draw for the Giants. Though he did not have enough at bats during that 1951 season, he hit a home run in the deciding game of the Series that year, helping his team win, and he would repeat the feat the following year, being honored as Leading Hitter at the end of a second victorious effort against the Nankai Hawks. He would return again to the Series in 1953 and earn the Home Run King title after helping his team beat the Hawks for the third straight season.

Wally ended his career with 5 Japan Series home runs, and added to that accomplishment one more title as manager of the Chunichi Dragons. For more on his life and amazing career, check out Rob Fitts' amazing book. He was a Japan Series hero to multiple generations of fans and an athlete of true class who will be missed.

Ochiai and Minagawa in the HOF

2011-01-15T14:03:00.001-08:00

Election to the Hall of Fame for both Hiromitsu Ochiai and Mutsuo Minagawa is long overdue. The reasons behind Ochiai's slow journey to the Hall are more obvious- he was a rebel and free thinker in a game that did not respect either trait. For Minagawa, the reasons are less clear- possibly because he never won a Sawamura award. Either way, they both more than deserve the honor.

Hiromitsu Ochiai (left) is the only player to win the triple crown three times (yes, three times), and his 510 career dingers rates among the top 6 all time. Add to that a .311 average and 1564 RBI, and you have one of the best of all time. His resistance to tradition, including a view of training that differed greatly from that of most in Japanese baseball at the time, did not make him many friends. But his stubbornness, and his success despite it, helped to usher in a new age in Pro Yakyu that saw many changes to the game. Won two MVP's, but never hit a Japan Series HR in a handful at bats, though he did hit over .300 and scored a handful of runs.

Mutsuo Minagawa (below, with Futoshi Nakanishi, who, according to Japan Baseball Daily, Minagawa 'owned') was the last man to win 30 games, going 31-10 in 1968, helping his Hawks get within one game of the pennant winning Braves. That season he pitched 27 complete games and still finished out the season with a 1.61 ERA! His 221 wins puts him at #15 on the all time list, and his 2.42 lifetime ERA puts him at #12. However, despite making it into a half dozen Japan Series games, he pitched poorly and never picked up a win. Nonetheless, though he doesn't have the awards to show for it, he was a dominant pitcher for a long period of time, and definitely deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame.
Just as the election of these two greats to the Hall is overdue, so is the concluding part on the 1958 tour of Japan by the St. Louis Cardinals. Fear not, it is on the way, so stay tuned...

Congratulations Ochiai & Minagawa

2011-01-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Hiromitsu Ochiai and Mutsuo Minagawa on their election to the Hall of Fame!

Hiatus

2010-10-13T09:13:00.000-07:00

A Noboru Aota Fan's Notes has taken a brief hiatus but will be back soon with all new material and the conclusion to the 1958 St. Louis Cardinals Tour coverage. In the meantime, check out the new card created at The Infinite Baseball Card Set by Gary Cieradkowski and read all about the 1935 tour.

Cappy Harada dies at 88

2010-06-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

Cappy Harada, the man who was instrumental in bringing Wally Yonamine and other Americans to Japanese Professional Baseball in the 50's, died on June 5 of a heart attack at the age of 88. He was also a key figure in the re-establishment of professional baseball in Japan after the war, and he orchestrated the famous San Francisco Seals tour of 1949, as well as subsequent tours of US all star teams.

Wally Yonamine, Andy Miyamoto and Jun Hirota with Sumo Wrestler

The next installment of our coverage of the 1958 Cardinals tour of Japan, a tour that would never have happened it had not been for the efforts of Harada in the early part of the decade, will arrive soon. Stay tuned...

Intermission

2010-05-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

Friendship and Loss
Yasushi Kodama and Toshitake Nakayama (above) were both good pitchers for the always-a-bridesmaid Dragons teams of the late 50's, and, apparently, not enemies. The greatest of winners are not always the greatest of friends, and vice versa- but, for a short time, they had both it seems. Both Kodama and Nakayama had at least one twenty win season, but in 1959, the luck tipped in one direction.

According to Japan Baseball Daily, after Yasushi Kodama (or Soratani, as it has been spelled/translated as well [above, right]) won it all in the Koshien tournament, a bidding war broke out amongst the pro teams. He went to Dragons, which is not the usual outcome (most of these things end up with the Yomiuri Giants coming out on top), and pitched without pizazz in 28 games for Chunichi in 1954. He did, though, help them in some way make it to the Japan Series that year, and wound up getting on the mound for 1 inning (he struck out 2 of the 3 batters he faced).

The following year he was joined by Nakayama (also a Koshien winner [above, left]), who would find success much sooner than Kodama- after a rocky rookie season, he had two consecutive 20 win seasons. In those years ('56 and '57) he struck out 496 batters (combined) and had WHIP's of 1.05 and 0.99, respectively. However, the 570 or so innings he pitched wore down his arm (a bi-product of the overall pitching philosophy of that time), and by the next season he was losing more than he was winning, with an inflated ERA and WHIP.

By the time Kodama found his groove in 1959, the two time All-Star Nakayama was completely burned out. The friends that year shared the number 20- Kodama would win that many for the only time in his career, and Nakayama would lose the same, with a sad record of 9-20.

Despite his friends success that season, Nakayama joined an elite club of 20 game losers in the history of Japanese professional baseball (sixty-two overall) that, while not matching or mirroring the losers of the American Major Leagues, illustrates the common bond between winners and losers in baseball.

There have been 482 MLB twenty-loss seasons but only one since 1980 (Mike Maroth lost 21 in 2003 for the Tigers), as well as fifty 30 or more loss seasons, none of which was in the 20th cent. The record for the 20th cent. belongs to Vic Willis with 29, though the more modern records belong to Paul Derringer (with 27 in 1933) & Roger Craig (with 24 for the '62 Mets).

No NPB players have 30 losses in a season, but 62 have put together 92 twenty-loss seasons. All of those seasons with 26 or more losses occurred between 1940 and 1957- a trend that shows how much later teams in Japan continued to "get the most out of" their pitchers (though this also most likely a bi-product of the late founding of professional baseball in Japan- a full 60 years after MLB).

The first to lose 20 games was Toshihide Hatafuku in 1938, and the last was Osamu Higashio in 1977 (he is also the most recent pitcher to be inducted to the Hall). In fact, the most consistent 20-game losers are some of the greatest in the history of the game. Only four pitchers have lost 20 or more in at least four seasons (and one, Masaichi Kaneda, did it six times- though he is the all time leader in both wins and losses), and all but one are Hall of Famers (Yasuo Yonekawa being the lone exception).

Yasuo Yonekawa (left) can boast of three 20 win seasons to counter his losses, and his 132-142 lifetime record overshadows his excellence as a pitcher. His 2.81 ERA was the 9th best of all time at the time of his retirement, and he was a 4 time all-star with 1346 K's (enough to put him in the top 10 at the time of retirement as well). He is a step or two away from being on the doorstep of the Hall of Fame, but his career success is much more impressive than his .481 winning percentage.

These figures says a lot about the history of the game- for decades pitchers were used and abused, arms were destroyed and innings racked up. Top that off with few relievers and not a lot of run support. Speaking of the '58 All-Japan team (see the April 25 post on this blog), it was Inao who won the (first) of two games, after a season during which he pitched 373 innings, notched the second of three straight 30-win seasons, and single-handedly corralled the Japan series by winning the last four games while working 47 series innings. They did call him the Iron Man, but that mentality was not outside the norm.

Loss is something we all fear at some point, and it occasionally provides the imputus for seeking out friendships. But loss is just a part of winning, as we see here, and friendship, and everything else.

Otomo Update

A Noboru Aota Fan's Notes recently featured a short piece on Takumi Otomo in a larger article on . He was the key man in the rotation for Shigeru Mizuhara's Yomiuri juggernaut of the mid-50's. While perusing Jim Albright's excellent analysis of baseball in Japan, we came across more support for the Otomo-for-the-Hall argument.

Otomo is listed as the number six best player in the Central League during the 50's, but more impressive is Albright's application of Fibonacci win points to Otomo's career. He comes out as the number 22 pitcher of all time, surrounded by Yutaka Enatsu, Choji Murata and Juzo Sanada.

Though Albright does not provide and outright endorsement for his Hall candidacy (one argument- his career is too short), but, at least, it shows that Otomo needs to be in the conversation more than he has.

Kim Young Joong

Coming soon is part II of our coverage of the 1958 tour of Japan by the St. Louis Cardinals. Part II will feature not only the stars of the Central League who made the cut for the All-Japan team that took on the Cards, but also a series of articles written by Jim Brosnan for the St. Louis Post Dispatch about the tour. Though the majority of that tour took place in Japan, it began in Hawaii and quickly moved through South-Eastern Asia before landing in the Land of the Rising Sun.

One such stop was in Seoul, South Korea (after making a brief appearance in Japan)- Brosnan comments on the poverty that greeted them and guilt felt by some of the players for passing through in their grandeur (modest, of course, by today's ballplayers means). He also points out a story of heroics equal to that of Eiji Sawamura in the story of Kim Young Joong. Described only as a "Korean major", Joong struck out the great Stan Musial to the roar of the crowd. According to Brosnan, "he caused Synghman Rhee, the Korean president, to leave the park. That little pitcher could have run for mayor."

Does anyone know any more on Joong, or if he ever went on to pitch professionally? If there is any info on Joong out there please contact and enlighten us!

Coming soon, more on the tour and the articles in the Post Dispatch (see below- a welcome to the Cards from a Japanese paper, clipped and sent by a young guide to the team [Kazuyooi Aoki] and published in the Post Dispatch).
Special Thanks to the St. Louis Public Library Special Collections for their excellent help in finding this material and making it available.!

Ken Burns and Ichiro

2010-05-13T05:16:00.000-07:00

Inning 10 of Ken Burns' Baseball will debut on PBS at the end of the 2010 mlb season. It will include a sit-down interview with Ichiro- read more on Kieth Olbermann's blog here.

Coming soon- more coverage of the 1958 Cardinals tour of Japan...

Specializing in Terrific Shoots

2010-04-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

Cardinals in Japan, pt. 1

In the next year or so, Rob Fitts will be releasing a book chronicling the American baseball tours of Japan in 1931 and 1934. These influential tours not only inspired the formation of the Japanese pro league, but also set the standard for further tours of Japan by American ballplayers. By the 50's, the touring teams were made up of a single team as opposed to barnstorming all-stars- below is a list of the teams to tour Japan in the 50's, beginning with the famous Seals tour of 1949.

San Francisco Seals 1949
Major League All Stars 1951
Eddie Lopat All Stars 1953
New York Giants 1953
New York Yankees 1955
Brooklyn Dodgers 1956
St. Louis Cardinals 1958

After ten years of New York all-stars, the Cardinals tour of '58 stands out. They played 16 games all throughout Japan, all against a Japanese all-star team (as opposed to just playing the Yomiuri Giants, who had been the usual competition). Sure, St. Louis had Stan Musial and gang, but they were really a team of more ordinary players up against the best Japan had to offer.

Invited by Ysetsuo Higa, the Cards brought with them approximately 50 people, led by Bing Devine (GM), Art Routzong (business manager) and newly appointed manager Solly Hemus. On October 10 the left for the Pacific and headed straight to Hawaii (where they faced an all-star team that included Eddie Matthews, Lew Burdette and Bob Turley) before moving around the Pacific Rim into Japan. Below is the itinerary:

Oct. 11 Kahului, T.H.
Oct. 12 Honolulu, T.H.
Oct. 13 Honolulu T.H.
Oct. 18 Manila P.I.
Oct. 19 Kadena AFB Ok.
Oct. 21 Seoul Korea
Oct. 24 Tokyo
Oct. 26 Tokyo
Oct. 27 Sendai
Oct. 28 Sapporo
Oct. 30 Nagoya
Nov. 2 Nishinomiya
Nov. 3 Osaka
Nov. 4 Osaka
Nov. 6 Hiroshima
Nov. 8 Fukuoka
Nov. 9 Shimonoseki
Nov. 12 Shizuoku
Nov. 13Mito
Nov. 15 Tokyo
Nov. 16 Tokyo (a.m. and p.m. games)

Musial did not joint the team until arriving in Japan, and he felt he disappointed the Japanese fans with his performance- though he hit over .300 he knocked only two out of the park. What really impressed the Hall of Famer was the fact that the Central and Pacific leagues had decided to put together an all-star team with the hopes of, as Musial said, 'winning 5 of the 16' games against them. (He was also impressed with the control of the NPB pitchers, but not so much with their hustle, or lack-there-of.)

The resulting Japanese all-star team was saturated with the star-power of two golden ages of baseball in Japan, the post-war and V-9 eras. The team was centered around the Golden Boy, the rookie Nagashima, who was coming off a Rookie of the Year performance. However, they were stocked full of future Hall of Famers and superstars.

Led by the ever-competing managers, Osamu Mihara and Nobuyasu Mizuhara (whose mythically contentious relationship leads one to believe that there was little consensus on any decisions made during the series, even though they were managing on alternating days), the stars of 1958, all assembled, were a team to rival the 1934 all-star team for skill and legend. The Mainichi Shimbun, who had sponsored the tour, presented an overview in October of the players plucked from both the Central and Pacific Leagues- not too long after the Lions edged out the Giants in that famous Japan Series contest. The teams are listed as follows (players with an [H] are in the Hall of Fame):

Managers:
Osamu Mihara 60 Lions [H]
Nobuasu Mizuhara 30 Giants [H]

Pacific League:

Pitchers:
Kazuhisa Inao Lions [H]
Tadashi Sugiura Hawks [H]
Matsuo Minagawa Hawks
Takao Kajimoto Braves [H]
Tetsuya Yoneda Braves [H]
Atsushi Aramaki Orions [H]
Masayuki Dobashi Flyers
Bill Nishida Flyers
Mamoru Otsu Pearls

Catchers:
Hiromi Wada Lions
Katsuya Nomura Hawks [H]
Takeshi Yamashita Braves

Infielders:
Futoshi Nakanishi Lions [H]
Yasumitsu Toyoda Lions [H]
Kingo Motoyashiki Braves
Roberto Barbon Braves
Takao Katsuragi Orions
Kihachi Enomoto Orions

Outfielders:
Kiyoshi Sekiguchi Lions
Shigeo Hasegawa Hawks
Kohei Sugiyama Hawks
Kazuhiro Yamauchi Orions
Takao Yoto Orions
Shoichi Busujima Flyers
Jack Ladra Flyers

Central League:

Pitchers:
Motoji Fujita Giants [H]
Sho Horiuchi Giants
Masaaki Koyama Tigers [H]
Hiroomi Oyane Dragons
Toshio Nakayama Dragons
Shoichi Kaneda Swallows [H]
Motoichi Murata Swallows
Noboru Akiyama Whales [H]
Takashi Suzuki Whales

Catchers:
Shigeru Fujio Giants
Atsushi Doi Whales

Infielders:
Tesuji Kawakami Giants [H]
Tatsuro Hirooka Giants [H]
Shigeo Nagashima Giants [H]
Yoshio Yoshida Tigers [H]
Hideshi Miyake Tigers
Noboru Inoue Dragons
Atsushi Hakoda Swallows

Outfielders:
Wally Yonamine Giants [H]
Andy Miyamoto Giants
Kenjiro Tamiya Tigers [H]
Atsushi Otsu Tigers
Toru Mori Dragons
Katsuji Morinaga Carp

There are 20 Hall of Famers on that list, but what stands out is all of the talent that has yet to be recognized by the Hall- some of the best players of the 50's. The Mainichi Shimbun preview featured short bios of each of the players to earn a spot on the team. Below is a look at those Pacific League Stars, with help from the Mainichi bios.

The Pacific League- Pitchers

To begin with, most of the pitchers from the Pacific League ended up in the Hall- only Otsu, Nishida, Minagawa and Dobashi remain un-recognized.

Matsuo Minagawa (pictured above) is obviously the most deserving- his lifetime record of 221-139, combined with a 2.42 ERA and 1.06 WHIP are evidence enough. However, he only won 20 games once (albeit with a record of 31-10), and was never recognized with a Sawamura award. The Card's tour was on the heels of his first superstar-like season: the Mainichi reports, A lanky fellow, he joined the Hawks immediately after leaving high school. This season, he ended up with 17 wins, eight losses. The righthander showed his finest pitching against the top teams- a real money player. He is a sidehand pitcher, specializing in terrific shoots.

Those terrific shoots helped earn Minagawa a spot with the aces of the Pacific League squad, and Masayuki Dobashi (left) wasn't far behind. Dobashi, who is described in the paper as the ace of the Flyers pitching staff, was discussed in our Hall of Fame post from earlier this year. The addition of Dobashi makes 7 Hall of Fame or near-hall-of-fame pitchers on the staff of the Pacific League side of the team

St. Louis got off to a good start in the first two games, but it was the the two aces from the Pacific League, Inao and Sugiura, who were able to beat St. Louis, by scores of 6-3 (Inao) and 9-2 (Sugiura) in the third and eighth games, respectively. However, the other fourteen belonged to the Cards (attendance in parentheses, Japan team wins in bold):

Oct. 24 Tokyo 5-2 (25,000)
Oct. 26 Tokyo 8-2 (20,000)
Oct. 27 Sendai 3-6 (25,000)
Oct. 28 Sapporo 9-1 (30,000)
Oct. 30 Nagoya 7-2 (20,000)
Nov. 2 Nishinomiya 6-1 (33,000)
Nov. 3 Osaka 6-3 (50,000)
Nov. 4 Osaka 2-9 (25,000)
Nov. 6 Hiroshima 6-3 (20,000)
Nov. 8 Fukuoka 5-1 (30,000)
Nov. 9 Shimonoseki 7-1 (20,000)
Nov. 12 Shizuoku 8-0 (20,000)
Nov. 13Mito 5-1 (20,000)
Nov. 15 Tokyo 9-2 (20,000)
Nov. 16 Tokyo (a.m.) 8-2 (40,000)
Nov. 16 Tokyo (p.m.) 4-2 (40,000)

The Players

The obvious star (from the Japanese perspective) of the entire 16 game tour came from the Central League- Rookie of the Year and future Mr. Baseball Shigeo Nagashima. However, the year before, though he had been the star of the Big-6 University league, his team captain at Rikkyo had been Kingo Motoyashiki (above, with Minoru Murayama, who would not make his debut until the following season), now the starting shortstop for the Pacific League Braves with a spot on the All-Japan team.

Kingo Motoyashiki was, according to the Mainichi, sold short by most experts before the [1958] season opened. It was a poor prediction. He played in every game of the season for the Braves (the only one in the Pacific League to do so), and tied teammate Chico Barbon for the lead in triples with 10. His .260 average was respectable (helping him to score 49 runs), but it was his glove that really made him valuable. Always regarded as a brilliant fielder, he showed that he can hit in the pinches, too.

Motoyashiki (left) led all shortstops in the Pacific League in every category, and led all infielders in assists with 418. Only Barbon edged him out in putouts for middle infielders- with those two up the middle, the Braves generally were at the top of the league in terms of runs given up. However, they were also usually at the bottom in runs created, and during Motoyoshiki's tenure the team never won a pennant. He would continue to shine for Hankyu, earning two trips to the All-Star game, until 1964, when he moved to the Hanshin Tigers and helped them to the Japan Series. He joined Hall of Famer Yohio Yoshida to form a powerful plug up the middle, as well as add some stability to Hall of Fame Manager Sadayoshi Fujimoto's constant platooning- two changes that brought the Tigers to game seven of the Series, though they lost to MVP Joe Stanka in the end. Motoyoshiki got only three hits, and for the next five seasons saw less and less action. He eventually became a coach and broadcaster.

The other shortstop from the Pacific League was Takao Katsuragi. Nineteen-Fifty-Eight was his breakout season- to quote the Mainichi, One of the biggest news of Japan pro baseball this season has been the amazing performance of this rough and ready performer. At press time he was batting .306 and had slammed out 20 home runs beside showing remarkable improvement in fielding, a weak spot in other years. This year he was the Runs Batted In champion of the league.

Katsuragi (right) had been stellar at 3rd base for the Orions in 1957, leading all third sackers in assists and double plays as well as hitting for the cycle in August, but he was moved to short for the '58 season. Though he held his own in the field, his offense picked up, leading the league in hits and rbi (as he would do again in '59), and he was voted to the Best 9 for the first of two consecutive years. He was a 5 time All-Star, and his 174 lifetime home runs are high on the list for those that spent their careers in the middle infield.

The games were well attended in Japan (a total of 438,000 fans turned out in all) as well as nationally televised. Some of the games were even carried, in a delayed broadcast, on KMOX in St. Louis. Joe Garagiola, former Cards catcher and future Today Show stud, even traveled with the team through Japan taping the games to be broadcast later. However, the good international good feelings were not felt by everyone.

Rob Fitts points out that it was during the tour that Yomiuri Giants president Kazue Shinagawa made an important announcement. "Japanese baseball should be played by Japanese players and we have no intention of signing up new foreign players in the future." The Giants had been the first team to really embrace Gaijin and Nisei players in the post-war era, first with Wally Yonamine, then with Andy Miyamoto and Dick Kashiwaeda. Yonamine and Miyamoto made it on to the '58 team, but they were nearing the end of their careers and soon would be replaced by Shinagawa's idea of 'pure' players.

The rest of the league did not follow suit, and more and more foreign players would find success in Japan, with Joe Stanka becoming the second Gaijin MVP for the Hawks in 1964. One of the early Nisai to go across the sea (the 42nd) was Jack Ladra, who landed in the outfield of the all-star team against the Cardinals.

Ladra (left) was born in Hawaii and went to Fresno State before joining the Flyers in 1958. Like many of his fellow Americans, the Japanese fans were impressed with his aggressiveness and speed, and he finished the season in the top 10 in stolen bases, triples and doubles. His steady play in both the infield and outfield helped the Flyers steadily climb through the Pacific League until, in 1962, they edged out the Hawks for the pennant. Though he did not help out too much at the plate, his presence in the outfield no doubt helped the Flyers to their only Japan Series title. He had set a Pacific League record that year for most defensive chances in a game, his glove having proven to be his weapon of choice for the entire season. He led all Pacific League outfielders in putouts and assists. He was tied for the league lead in triples in '64 and ended his career with 32 in only 2307 at bats, the same rate as all time leader Yutaka Fukumoto.

In the outfield only one of the Pacific League stars, Kazuhiro Yamauchi, made it into the Hall of Fame- all the others wallow in in NPB obscurity. Besides Ladra, who had a decent career in Japan, there were Kiyoshi Sekiguchi (One of the most dependable veterans on the powerful Lions team, he batted .276 and hit 16 home runs this season. Slightly weak against curves, he never lets a good one go by. A 10-year veteran of veterans), Shigeo Hasegawa (...today he is one of the heaviest hitters on a heavy hitting nine), and Takao Yato (A former infielder, he was transferred to the outer garden this season with outstanding success, batting .286. Always considered as having infinite promise, he is rapidly rounding into form). But the shining star of that forgotten lot is Shoichi Busujima, the one star from the all-star team that deserves a plaque more than anyone else.

The 1962 Series, that featured both Ladra and Dobashi (who was also MVP of the series), also saw a Game 3 home run by Busujima, who was in the middle of his stellar, almost 20 year career with the Flyers. When he retired in 1971, his 1977 hits (only 23 shy of the magic number of 2000 that would give him entry to the Meikyukai, or Golden Players Club) placed him 6th on the all-time list, only one behind Hall of Famer Tokuji Iida. More importantly, he was the all-time leader in triples- two years earlier he had tied the original Mr. Tiger Masaichi Kaneda for tops on the list, and had passed him by three in 1970.

Though Busujima (above) was eventually passed by stolen base champ Yutaka Fukumoto, he remains second on the triples list with 106. As an outfielder, he was always in the top 5 in putouts and assists, and in '58, though trailing Ladra in most categories, he led all Pacific League outfielders in double plays with 4. To quote the Mainichi in 1958, coming from a famous high school team, he is the outstanding batter of his team, hitting .306 this season. Although not the aggressive type, he is a smart batter able to hit to all fields. An All Star player. Eight times an all-star, that is, with a .381 average in 18 games according to Japan Baseball Daily. Voted to the Best 9 three times, Busujima's career deserves more attention as well as votes towards the Hall.

Of the top five batters in the PL in '58, Busujima was second, Katsuragi third and Kohei Sugiyama fifth. Sugiyama began his career with the Kinnetetsu Pearls, but made his mark with the Hawks. He was a three time all-star in Hankyu, and led the - The traditional Japanese Baseball calendar consists of 130 games, but the Pacific League experimented with a longer schedule during the mid '50s, culminating with a 154 game set in 1956. Sugiyama, one of the few stars to play in every game that season, still owns the record (tied with two others) for games played in a season. He had performed admirably for the Hawks for the first six seasons, hitting .303 with 93 rbi in '56, but in '58 he was the "big hitting star of the Hawks" according to the Mianichi, a medium range batter, noted for his cunning at the plate.

Sugiyama's best seasons were still to come- the greatest of which was 1961, when he finished with a .321 average, a .496 slugging percentage with an OPS of .884. He slugged 15 home runs and led the Hawks to the Japan Series, where he hit one more homer and scattered 5 hits with 3 rbi. Sugiyama was the Mr. October of the Hawks franchise, playing in six different series, with 78 at bats and 20 hits. In fact, after the '61 postseason, he spent two seasons with the Braves (with whom he is pictured at right). During those two Sugiyama-less seasons, the Hawks would finish second in the PL. Upon returning in 1964, he would provide, or provide again, the spark that would lead them to the Series for the next three seasons ('64-'66). Though not the greatest outfielder in the world, Sugiyama held his own each season, occasionally leading the league in double plays and, in 1958, coming in second with a .986 fielding percentage.

During the trip, several of the American pitchers were offered large contracts to stay and pitch in the Japanese league. Phil Paine had pitched a previous stint for the Nishitetsu Lions in '53, where he was one of the first former MLB players to suit up in Japan (his BR page states incorrectly that he was the first, but in a previous post on this blog Leo Kiely was stated as being the first- Kiely's debut for the Orions was on August 8, 1953, according to Japan Baseball Daily, and Paine's was on August 23rd, according to the BR page, making him the second), and had come back to put together a short major and minor league career in the US. 1958 would prove to be Paine's last stint in the show, but he would stick around a few more years in the PCL. He, along with Bill Wight, at the end of a long career himself, declined to stay.

The third Cardinal offered cash to stay was Jim Brosnan, at the beginning of his career as a mildly effective journeyman pitcher. He turned down the offer as well, thinking of his family- it was a good move. His 1959 season would prove excellent fodder for the first real baseball memoir, The Long Season, which laid the groundwork for future controversial 'tell-all's' like Jim Bouton's Ball Four. Brosnan's writing talents were know by the time of his tour of Japan, and he was approached by Bob Creamer of Sports Illustrated to write a series of articles about the goodwill tour. When Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post Dispatch learned of the agreement, he offered Jim 100 dollars each for a series of articles on the same topic.

He wrote, they published, and the teams continued to play. Coming soon in Part II of "Specializing in Terrific Shoots", more on the Brosnan articles and the stars from the Central League.

For the Giants/Against the Giants

2010-03-16T18:29:00.001-07:00

Between 1950 and 1979, everyone in the Central League who won the MVP ended up in the Hall of Fame. Everyone, that is, except for Takumi Otomo (left). Otomo pitched brilliantly for the Giants from 1951 to 1956, teaming with Tekehiko Bessho, Hideo Fujimoto, Hiroshi Nakao and so many other greats that only the Yomiuri Giants could attract.

In those years, when the Giants won the pennant every season except for in '54, Otomo and Bessho were the aces of the staff, each having 30 win seasons, dominating the competition and winning a gaggle of MVP's- Otomo's came in '53, while Bessho earned two, in '52 and '56.

And while Bessho had his no-hitter before the war, it was in 1952 that Takumi Otomo pitched his, contributing to what may have been the best team in the history of baseball in Japan. Kawakami, Aota, Chiba, Yonamine, Hirai, Minamimura, Fujimoto, Nakao, Bessho and Otomo. The Giants led the league in almost every hitting and pitching category, finished three and a half games ahaed of the Tigers in the Central League, and breezed by the Hawks to win the Japan Series. And on July 26 of that year, Otomo no-hit the Robins in the most lopsided no-hitter in the history of Japanese Baseball- a 17 to 0 romp that no doubt showcased the immense hitting talent of the '52 Giants.

From '53-'56, his numbers were astounding:

27-6 1.85

21-15 1.68

30-6 1.75

12-7 1.63

1953 proved to be Otomo's most glorious season. He was the finest pitcher on the Giants staff, leading them in every pitching category and to the Japan Series, where he won the seventh game and was named 'Outstanding Pitcher'. At season's end he was named to the Best 9 and voted MVP. However, his most outstanding performance came against the NY Giants in a post season exhibition series where he pitched a complete game victory and compiled 15 strike outs in 25 innings. He was so impressive that, according to Rob Fitts, New York tried to acquire him (an attempt that, had it succeeded, would have made Otomo the first Japanese to play in the MLB, ten years before Masonori Murakami). However, Yomiuri demanded too much in return, and the Giant-to-Giant trade never materialized.

He had similar success against the Dodgers in '56, as well as against teams in Mexico, Panama and Colombia during the Giants tour through Latin America (see Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball for more on that tour).

It was in 1956 that, according to Japan Baseball Daily, he was hit on the thumb by a pitch from Mitsuo Osaki that effectively ended his dominance. From then on, he could not get the right grip on the ball and faded quickly. His last great appearance came in relief at the end of the first game of the 1958 Japan Series, where he picked up the win- however, the scattered innings that followed only cemented his position as being a pitcher past his prime.

He lost a year, and returned in 1960, where he pitched 20 innings with Kinetetsu (managed by [and named after] his former Yomiuri teammate Shigeru "Formidable Buffalo" Chiba) in what appears to be a comeback attempt. But he was unable to muster much in the fifteen games he pitched for the last place Buffalos. He finished his career 130-57, with a 2.11 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP- numbers that make at least some case for a HOF bid that will place him along with his fellow Central League MVP's.

The 1958 Japan Series was a disapointment, for the Giants as well as Otomo, but it signaled the changing of the guard. The star, despite being on the losing team, was the rookie, Shigeo Nagashima- his brilliant play would usher in a new era of greatness in Japanese baseball. But following that series, the greats of the 50's played one last exhibition series against MLB stars. They didn't have the master- Otomo- yet the team fared well. Stay tuned for an analysis of the 1958 St. Louis Cardinals visit to Japan, and some of the forgotten All Stars who played against them...

Hachiro Maekawa 1912-2009

2010-03-16T06:07:00.000-07:00

Hachiro Maekawa, last surviving member of the original 1936 Yomiuri Giants (when he played with Seiichi Hayashi) as well as a teammate of Noboru Aota's on the 1946 Hankyu Braves, died today. He was 97. Please see a short bio and link to his first pitch ceremony here.

1946 or 1947 Hankyu Team

"Baseball has some kind of magic"

2010-03-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

(Noboru Aota Strikes A Pose)

In Japan as well as in the US, the Hall of Fame is where baseball's magic and myth is most celebrated and propagated. We are now in full swing of Awards Season: the Hall of Famers have been announced, and now up are the Oscars, about which Federico Fellini said:

"...a vaguely funeral fashion parade, a ceremony in many ways like a carnival, but at the same time a moving and pathetic spectacle, organized with the fullest awareness of what it was and is. Notwithstanding the clamor it excites, it is a private ceremony; it's cinema encountering itself in an attempt to resuscitate the dead, to exorcise wrinkles, old age, illness and death. It has the same fascination as caricature; it is a caricature of the Day of Judgement, the Resurrection of the Flesh. Those like me who accept the mythology of the cinema cannot refuse a prize like the Oscar. To dispute the award seems to me ridiculous and childish. The cinema is also circus, carnival, funfair, a game for acrobats."

Did any player accept the mythology of sport, or embrace it, like Fellini? Or is it only us, the fan, the writer, the historian of the sport (any sport), that clings to it?

If there is any place that compares with the Oscars in sports, it is the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The mythology of the sport thrives in the the halls at Cooperstown, and the history of voting there represents the strange and self-aggrandizing nature of that mythology. As hard as it may be to visualize now, those that we think of now as fully part of the myth required the time to build their story (or have their story constructed), and, in turn, their safe place in the circus.

Sometime in early 1949, 153 members of the Baseball Writers Association looked over the ballot for the Hall of Fame, flooded with legends: the top vote getter's that year were Charlie Gehringer, Mel Ott, Al Simmons, Dizzy Dean, Jimmy Foxx, Bill Terry, Paul Waner and Hank Greenberg. Not one of them was chosen. The argument is that, with so much talent, none of the writers could focus their votes enough to give any one player more than 75%- and than makes sense.

Now, sometime in 1953, many of those same writers (264 in all) sat down with another ballot, stocked with a similar overflow of talent- this time, however, they were able to agree (or, at least 75% could) on Dizzy Dean and Al Simmons as worthy of immortality. Near the top of the list are many who ended up in the Hall, one of whom is Ted Lyons, a 260-230 pitcher with 1073 strike outs in his career- an understandable player to be passed over several times before induction.

What is very interesting, though, about that 1953 ballot, is that Lyons' 139 votes (52%) were 22 more than were bestowed upon Joe DiMaggio. Joltin' Joe would be passed over one more year before finally earning enough votes (233, or 88%) to be enshrined. Yes, the rules were somewhat different then, and yes, DiMaggio was not the sportswriters' best friend, and yes, many great players were passed over in those early days (and even Cy Young was not voted in the first class). But what is most interesting is that, more so than any of the other players listed above (including Young), DiMaggio has a legendary aura about his name, and is revered today in a light closer to Deity than human. He seems above even the steady path to the Hall of Fame that is so accepted for the other heroes of the game- was he then just as 'average' as those other heroes? Has time created a DiMaggio in our imagination that did not exist then, given how much of a star he was (think of his trip to Japan with Marilyn)? And how much did Joe contribute to the building of his own myth- how much did he care about his place in the Hall?

This is where the mythology has grown and still grows: His seems to follow the same path as the beautification of a martyr, on the way to sainthood. Is he only the legend we revere because of Paul Simon, or because we need to constantly create Gods and Heroes to worship? Is the Hall of Fame, as Fellini said of the Oscars, an attempt to resuscitate the dead? Is it baseball encountering itself?

The Hall of Fame in Japan is cut from the same mold, though the cultural differences only enhance the "caricature". So, why did it take Noboru Aota so long to get in to the Hall- how was his myth built, or how was it broken down? His playing career was Hall of Fame worthy- he was at the top of the heap for almost two decades, and the all-time home run leader at the time of his retirement. We know from his wife that he wanted to be there- it doesn't seem abnormal that he or anyone else would want to be enshrined, deified, in any Hall. It was the time after his retirement, and the myth that built around him in spite of himself, that kept him out of the Hall. There are no sure fire Hall of Famers in Japan- just look at three time triple crown winner Hiromitsu Ochiai, whose 'bad' behavior seems to still resonate with the voters.

Even Hiroshi Oshita (left) was not a shoo-in: arguably the best player of the late 40's and early 50's who nonetheless did not get the 'Call from the Hall' until after his death many years into retirement. But it was Oshita, Takehiko Bessho, and Aota that were the terror of the Ginza, a couple of 'bad boy's' and drinkers when they were together in the 40's: that perception persisted for all three, and though they all retired before 1960, neither Oshita or Bessho would be Hall of Famer's until 1980. For Noboru Aota, an incident that occurred at that same time prolonged his wait even further.

It was in 1959 that Aota played his last game with the Hankyu Braves, the team that had taken him in after WWII. But it was the Whales who had given him a home, and it was the Whales to whom he would eventually return and manage. But first, Aota worked for Hochi Sports as columnist and commentator in 1960 after retiring from the game. It was the beginning of a broadcasting career that would eventually bring him more lasting fame to many Japanese than his playing career.

However, he could not stay away from the field, and soon made his way back into the dugout with the Tigers in 1962. That year Hanshin made it to the Japan Series for the first time, winning their first pennant since the late 40's. In his capacity as hitting coach, Aota did not improve much- the Tigers offense remained consistently poor, ranking at the bottom of the league in runs produced and home runs, similar to the previous year. It was their fantastic pitching, with the lowest ERA and WHIP in the league, that brought them the pennant. Though they lost in the series, HOF'er Yoshio Yoshida was awarded 'best hitter', a feat for a light hitting SS that must be, in part, attributed to Aota's teaching. However, something in his performance persuaded him to move back to broadcasting, and for the next two seasons he was calling games on Nihon TV before getting back into uniform for his post-war bosses Hankyu. Within 3 years he was able to aid Braves hitters enough to put them in the league lead for home runs- feat that would bring them the pennant that year, 1967, the first in a string of winning seasons.

He continued on as a broadcaster on-and-off through the end of the 60's and early 70's until his old team came calling and he joined the Whales as a coach in 1972. It wasn't long until Karao Betto, who had been manager of the Whales since he had replaced Osamu Mihara four years before, was replaced himself with Aota. From late August until the end of the season, Noboru Aota earned his chops in his first managerial gig, though he lost 14 of 17 before seasons end.

1973 was his only full season managing at the pro level, and though he did not finish last (and brought the Whales close to .500, an improvement from the previous year), his year was marred with enough problems to earn him a pink-slip once it was over. His inability to relate to players led to an 'anti-Aota' sentiment on the club, and the animosity may have contributed to the poor record: the Whales were one of the top hitting teams in the league, but their poor pitching cost enough games to place them 5th out of six teams. It's possible that his inability to relate to many of his players led to a breakdown in trust between his pitchers and him- always a symptom of a losing team.

Regardless of the reason, by 1974 Aota was back on the broadcasting circuit, working for TV Asahi for close to the rest of the decade. It wasn't until 1979 that he finally made it back into uniform as head coach with the Giants under Nagashima. After 27 years he was finally back with the team of teams, and seemed determined to make it right. His tenure as head coach coincided with the infamous 'Ido' camp, the tough Fall camp that some say brought the Giants' strength back to championship form.

However, his long awaited return to the Giants would end in scandal only a short time later. Halfway through the 1980 season, Aota gave an interview with the Sunday Mainichi Shinbun in which he mentioned prior associations with nefarious individuals (who are referred to, in some sources, as gangsters). Aota had always been a hard living, hard drinking man, and his association with the underworld is not by any means a stretch of the imagination. However, whether or not he was ever associated with those individuals was beside the point- the fact that he had said anything the found it's way to print as a member of the Giants was sin enough. The affair became known as the 舌禍 incident, or "slip of the tongue" incident: a title that infers the real trouble, which was that he said anything at all. The result was simple- Aota resigned his head coach position mid season, and never put on a uniform again.

Years later, and after his death, various individuals vouched for Aota as having never associated with gamblers or gangsters or underworld tricksters- that, if he was guilty of anything, it was his boasting and getting carried away on the record. Regardless- he was resigned to a place behind the mic from that moment on. Some could claim this as a heart-breaking end to a great career, a hero's tale with a sad ending. Yet, it was as the "pro-Giants" broadcaster that Aota found his way into the hearts and minds of many young Japanese, and possibly cemented a place for himself in the social consciousness.

He enjoyed a satisfying end to a long, 50 year career in baseball, and when he died (a converted Roman Catholic) in 1997, he most likely had at least some delusions about his plaque hanging in the Hall in Tokyo one day. It seems that he had a taste for the carnival aspect of the game, and knew that his contribution to the game only added to the myth and magic of it all. His success as on TV and the radio demonstrates the showman Aota really was, and confirms the fact that his place in the Hall of Fame, though deferred because of perceptions of character, was always reserved for him. Was he trying to resuscitate his own myth, and rebuild his image? Remember, this was the man who was known for tossing grenades farther than anyone else, who took pride in his power.

(Aota pictured in Robert Whiting's "The Chrysanthemum and the Bat")

The Japanese Hall of Fame, just like it's counterpart in Cooperstown, just like the Oscars, celebrates itself, to "exorcise wrinkles, old age, illness and death". Aota's myth needed time to mature, just like DiMaggio's, to the point where we all understand, to refuse a prize like the Hall to either man "seems to me ridiculous and childish". The illusion is as important as the man, and maybe more so, in the Hall of Fame.

PS- the title is taken from Kokoyakyu, a film worth seeing about the power of baseball in Japan.

Barbon Update

2010-03-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

In a recent post we discussed the many gaijin players who made their way to Japan in the 50's, including Roberto "Chico" Barbon.

There is a new article in the New York Times about Barbon and his career in Japan. Check it out!

More Film

2010-02-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

Aota is up second in this clip of what looks to be a hitting exhibition during an All-Star game-- also, check out this great clip of Fujio Fujimura slamming one out of the park.

A jaja-uma homu-ran

2010-02-06T19:05:00.001-08:00

Found- some footage of a Noboru Aota homu-ran

More great stuff on Aota:

Calling a game with Kazuhisa Inao in 1969

As manager of the Whales in '73

Coming soon- more on the Hall of Fame, heroes, and Noboru Aota after his playing days...

Hiroyuki Oze

2010-02-05T18:40:00.000-08:00

Our condolences to all who knew Hiroyuki Oze.

Larry Raines and the Americans Arrive!

2010-01-29T23:00:00.000-08:00

On January 28, 1978, a few months before I was born, Larry Raines died in Lansing, Mich. at the age of 48. Some sources refer to an addiction to alcohol later in life, an addiction that could possibly have been the cause of such an early death. One thing is for certain- Larry could play baseball. He played it in several countries in a host of different leagues over a 20 year period. And during that time he was one of the few ball players, and possibly the only, to spend time in five big leagues- the Negro American League, the Majors, the Minors (International, American Association and PCL, Cuba, Japan, and even the Puerto Rican Winter League). It was during his second tour of Japan, in 1962, that he was joined by two of the greatest stars of MLB in the 50's: Don Newcombe and Larry Doby (who is one of the only two, along with Goose Gossage, HOFers to have played across the sea). However, Newcombe, Doby and Raines were at the tail end of a frenzy of players to make the trip to Japan in the post-war period.

The numbers, still, are relatively small, especially before 1950 and the development of the two league system. Since it's inception, the professional league in Japan was less-than-open to foreign players, in part due to the political nature of the time (in 1936, the leagues first year, Japan was in the middle of preparations to invade China and signing pacts with Nazi Germany). Most foreign players in the game were Nisei (second generation Japanese) from Hawaii, or, like Bozo Wakabayashi (the Hall of Fame pitcher, pictured right) and Herb North, world travelers from birth. However there were a few players from the mainland US, most notably Bucky Harris (not the same Mr. Harris who took Washington to it's lone World Series victory in '24- his real name was Harris McGaillard and he was the first foreign professional player in Japan).

After the war and the move to a more complete system consisting of a Central and Pacific League, the amount of foreign players began to increase, beginning with Wally Yonamine, the only American to be honored for his playing with a spot in the Hall of Fame (Bozo, born in Hawaii, had revoked the Japanese part of his dual citizenship in 1928, but then switched during the War and was, from then on, only a citizen of Japan), in 1951. From that point, a steady stream of players began to arrive from Hawaii and the continental US, though they were still mostly Nisei. Below is the list of the first ten, including the first three non-Nisei players from the US:

Wally Yonamine 1951
John Brittian 1952
Jun Hirota 1952
Tomoharu Kai 1952
Dick Kitamura 1952
Katsumi Kojima 1952
Masoto Morita 1952
Jimmy Newberry 1952
Bill Nishita 1952
Marion O'Neil 1952

For more information about Yonamine (whose superstardom paved the way for the rest), Hirota and the other early Nisei, check out the books of Rob Fitts. The second foreign player after the war, Brittian, was also the first star from the Negro Leagues to make his way over to Japan, accompanied by his former Birmingham Black Barons teammate Jimmy Newberry. The fact that former Negro League players, as opposed to former minor or major league talent, were the first to play makes sense: though harboring some 'anti-foreigner' sentiments for decades, the pro leagues in Japan had been open to a variety of nationalities and country-less wanderers since their inception in 1936 (during the height of the Nationalism that would catapult the country into a two-front war). Hall of Famers Wakabayashi and Victor Starffin, as well as Harris and Nisei like Kaizer Tanaka and Den Yamada, had always been a part of the system. With the collapse of the Negro Leagues imminent, and the other pro leagues (slowly) opening their doors to diversity, the 1950's were a golden era for the wayward ballplayer. And, with segregation still strong (especially in spring training facilities well into the sixties), many of these players probably felt more at home in a foreign country.

Britton, or Brittian (as it is sometimes spelled in Japan), was born in April of 1919, and made his way in 1940 to the Negro American League, filling the 3rd base slot for the New Orleans/St. Louis Stars. By 1944 he was sharing the left side of the Birmingham infield with Artie Wilson, leading the Black Barons to a championship that year. Perennially at the top of the standings for the next seven seasons, the Barons fielded such stars such as Ed Steele, Lester Lockett, Lymon Bostock, Sr., Willie Mays, Jimmy Newberry and Piper Davis (who, as manager, made sure to keep the hard drinking Newberry away from the wunderkind Mays). Newberry was the star pitcher of the Birmingham team in their greatest years, and as such garnered the admiration and attention of Black Barons business manager Abe Saperstein. Saperstein is best known as the owner of the Harlem Globetrotters, but he also served as president of the West Coast Negro Baseball Association, and managed the affairs of the Black Barons- he also had connections in Japan.

Thanks to Saperstein, Newberry and Britton came together and joined forces once again on the Hankyu Braves for the 1952 season, after a stopover together with the Winnipeg Buffaloes in the Mandak league of Western Canadian Baseball (Japanese Baseball and Canada had been linked for decades already, going back to college tours and of course the first pro tour's arrival in Saskatoon). One rumor persists that the pair were on loan from the St. Louis Brown, with whom Saperstein had a relationship as well. For the Braves Britton hit .316 (fifth in the league) with 5 triples, and Newberry went 11-10 with 100 strikeouts (second in the league), helping the Braves to a fifth place finish, just a few steps out of the gutter. Look here (scroll about three quarters of the way down) to see a great photo of the two with their Hankyu manager Shinji Hamazaki.

The following season Newberry went back to Canada, but Britton stuck around for another year of Braves baseball. He wasn't left alone, however- he was joined by a few more Americans- once again former Negro League players Rufus Gaines (though there is little evidence he did actually play with the Elite Giants) and Larry Raines, another product of Abe Saperstien's extended reach.

Born in 1930, by the time he was twenty Raines was playing for the Chicago American Giants in the Negro American League, manning the shortstop position and helping out Satchel Paige during his stay between Major League tours. It was the twilight of the Negro Leagues, and the CAG were not the same as the team Rube Foster put together a quarter century before- they finished last in the league, but Raines stayed for one more season before making the trip to Japan, most likely riding on the success of Newberry and Britton.

It was in Nishinomiya with the Braves that Larry became a star. In his first season in the Pacific league, he hit .286 while leading the league in at bats, runs scored and stolen bases (he had 61). What was most impressive, though, was his ability to combine power with that speed- his 16 triples not only led the league, but beat out his nearest competitor by nearly twice the amount. He came close to breaking Masayasu Kaneda's two year old NPB record of 18, and still holds the record in the Pacific League.

His fielding, however, was not his strong point- for instance, in '54 he was next to last in fielding percentage and one of the leaders in errors. These contributions helped the Braves move out of the cellar and into second place, closer to the top than they had been since 1949. However, his accomplishments at the plate the next season made 1953 look tame.

In '54, Larry won the batting crown with a .337 clip, beating out MVP Hiroshi Oshita by .016 points. Add to that the league lead in doubles, hits and at bats, and one could make the case that HE should have been the MVP. Yet, he also scored 96 runs (10 more than his nearest competitor), swiped 45 bases and drove in 96 runs, good enough for second overall. His .535 slugging percentage was behind only Futushi Nakanishi. This was enough to earn him his second trip to the All-Star game (it was in '52 that Britton had been the first foreign All-Star) and, more importantly, the shortstop spot on the Best 9 team- making him one of the first two non-Nisei to be so honored (Charlie Lewis earned the catching spot that same season).

The success he earned in Japan prompted Raines, once again with the assistance of Saperstein, make the journey back to the States, where he struggled for a bit before once again finding success at shortstop with Indionapolis of the American Association. He again led the league in triples (as well as stolen bases) and earned a tryout (along with a young Roger Maris) with the Indians in 1957- not before honing his skills with Almendares in the Cuban Winter league, where he hit 4 triples in only a hundred or so at-bats.

Though he impressed Cleveland enough to earn a spot at short and third (and even a garnering a Sporting News All-Rookie spot at third), but his lackluster glove work and less than stellar bat (though he did hit the ball well and scored 39 runs in only 266 PA's) caused him to lose his job to Minnie Minoso the following season.

He once again found fire in the minors, first in the Puerto Rican Winter league, then improving his glove work and hitting a respectable .303 with San Diego in the PCL, where he might have run into Larry Doby, who had played with the Padres the previous season. Doby would be traveling to Japan to play for the Dragons with Don Newcombe the next season. Whatever the circumstances, Raines found himself back in Japan to start the '62 season, back with the Braves, while Doby and Newcombe were with Chunichi in the Central League. It's possible that, revived by his stint in the PCL, (where, according to Larry Moffi and Jonathan Kronstadt, he learned to throw harder and shorten the time it took to get the ball to first), Raines thought he could capitalize on his previous Japanese success. He only played in 73 games but drove in 27 runs, splitting infield duties with Chico Barbon, also nearing the end of his long career.

Japan Baseball Daily mentions a possible problem with alcohol, a problem that can account for his diminishing skills as well as his early death. He finished his career with at least 265 stolen bases through the various leagues he appeared in, an impressive mark that may never had been appreciated once he was back in the states, without fame in Lansing. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing, and few other records indicate how he lived out those final years.

Before the end of the 50's, another 36 men from the continental US, Cuba and Hawaii would play in Japan and set a precedent for all Gaijin (Japanese term for foreigner) to come:

Billy Wyatt 1952 11
Tsutomu Yaji 1952 12
Rufus Gaines 1953 13
Charlie Hood 1953 14
Fumi Kashiwaeda 1953 15
Len Kasparovitch 1953 16
Leo Kiely 1953 17
Al Long 1953 18
Ben Mitsuyoshi 1953 19
Phil Paine 1953 20
Larry Raines 1953 21
Mitsuru Watanabe 1953 22
Larry Yogi 1953 23
Harvey Zenimura 1953 24
Howard Zenimura 1953 25
Jim Doole 1954 26
Charlie Lewis 1954 27
Mitsuo Matsuoka 1954 28
Jimmy McCabe 1954 29
Sal Recca 1954 30
Chico Barbon 1955 31
Don Bussan 1955 32
Fibber Hirayama 1955 33
Andy Miyamoto 1955 34
Bill Pinckard 1955 35
Alvin Spearman 1955 36
Noboru Fujishige 1956 37
Dick Pariene (or Parente) 1956 38
Stan Hashimoto 1957 39
Allen Yamamoto 1957 40
Carlton/Haruo Hanta/Handa 1958 41
Jack Ladra 1958 42
Bob Alexander 1959 43
Ron Bottler 1959 44
Glenn Mickens 1959 45
John Sardinha 1959 46

15 of the players are Nisei, and a few more were players looking for a home just like Raines, Newberry and Britton. Al Spearman was another former Negro American League player who also played in the Mandak league and was also, apparently, a gold glove boxer. Same as Rufus Gaines, who came over to the Braves with Raines- he pitched brilliantly for Hankyu, going 14-9 with 142 strikeouts. However, little else on his baseball career exists.

Some made the best of their time in Japan- Marion O'Neil (one of the first 10) and Billy Wyatt were stationed in Japan with the US military and ended up playing for the Lions, at the peak of their dominance. Many others, like Charlie Hood, were in Japan b/c of military reasons, and others, like Harvard educated Jim Doole, in Hawaii. And Leo Kiely became the first former Major Leaguer to play in Japan, pitching, and winning, six games in 1953 after pitching for Boston in '51 before being drafted and arriving in Asia courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Even Glenn Mickens, a former UCLA star and Brooklyn prospect, mastered the shuuto and was a two time All-Star.

The Giants had a monopoly on the first wave of Nisei to make their way to the NPB, but some made their mark elsewhere. Howard and Harvey Zenimura were the sons of Kinichi Zenimura, a giant in Japanese American baseball, who was instrumental in, among other things, the continuation of baseball in the internment camps into which most Japanese Americans were forced during WWII. Zenimura also helped to get Fibber Hirayama to Japan, where he became one of the greatest bespectacled players of the 50's, and one of the most celebrated Carp players of all time.

It was the 31st player, though, Chico Barbon, who was, along with Fibber, the biggest star. He could never really hit for average, but in every other category he was at the top of the list.

Barbon was born, according to Japan Baseball Daily, in Matanza, Cuba, and began his career in Western Canada with the Florida Cubans and Indian Head Rockets(though some sources put him in one of the Negro Leagues, and the Rockets had been the Jacksonville [FL] Eagles of the Negro American League before moving to Canada, well before Chico was in the picture; others also place him in the outfield of the Matanzas team, and then with the Havana Cubans in 1953 as Humberto Barbon). It was once again through the efforts of Abe Saperstien that Barbon was introduced to Hankyu management, and he made his way to Japan in 1955.

By that time, Raines had left the Braves, and the only remaining American was Al Spearman- though anyone in the crowd may have seen two Americans. However, that season Barbon became the first Cuban-born athlete to play professional baseball in Japan, and he immediately became a star. His 49 stolen bases led the team, and with 105 runs scored, he was the only one in both the Pacific and Central leagues to score over 100. In addition, he led the Pacific league in at bats, hits and triples. On top of all of that, he was, by far, the best second baseman around: his .975 fielding percentage in '55 was tops, and his totals in every other category were first or second in the league. His performance, though, was not enough to earn either an All-Star selection or a place on the Best9.

Barbon would not have to worry about unrecognized glory- he would go on to play 1228 games for the Braves over the next ten years, and another 125 for the Buffaloes in one final season. Though he was recognized only once (in 1958) for his play at second with a spot on the Best 9, his impact was felt all around the league. In his first four seasons, during which he played his best ball, the Braves never went below .500 and finished at the top of the heap every season. And he would finish with the top four base thieves in every year between 1955 and 1961, leading the league from '58-'60: his 308 lifetime thefts are still good for 24th on the all time list.

Yet he was only an All-Star once in 1959, and finished his career with only one Best 9- it must have been his consistently low average. He was a run scorer, a league leader, and a great fielding second baseman- for instance, in 1958 he had almost twice as many putouts, assists and double plays turned than any other second baseman. It was not a fluke- he did it every year. But his play was never enough to help the hapless Braves to a pennant, despite their two stellar pitchers: Testuya Yoneda and Takao Kajimoto. But his dedication and consistancy laid the foundation for the Braves Pacific League dynasty of the late 60's and 70's.

After sharing the infield with Raines in 1962, Chico spent only two more seasons with Hankyu. His final season was spent with last place Kinetetsu, scoring 50 runs and imparting some of his fielding and base stealing knowledge with all of the young players on the team. Then, unlike a lot of his contemporaries, he decided that his career was over, and that the place which had accepted him so openly as a fresh faced Cuban (a face that would have brought him adversity had he gone to find stardom in the States) was his real home. Of course, his birthplace was in the midst of a revolution, a fact that may have persuaded him that he had no choice. Whatever the reason, he continued the association with Hankyu fostered a decade before by Abe Saperstein, and worked (according to Japan Baseball Daily) as an interpreter for the Braves. He married, settled down and remains there to this day.

Eri Yoshida--Tonight!

2010-01-29T02:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight Eri Yoshida makes her debut on the mound for the Yuma Scorpions in the Arizona Winter League. She made headlines last year as the first woman to pitch in a professional league in Japan, and she is set to make history again tonight at 6pm Mountain Time. Yuma manager, former Dodger, Nippon Ham Fighter and Belinda Carlisle boy-toy, Mike Marshall, is the perfect person to ensure that she will continue to impress. Marshall, the 369th foreigner to play in the Japanese Big Leagues after the war, is part of a long line of former major leaguers to make their way to Japan- see where it all began in the next post, as the American's arrive in 1950's Japanese baseball!

Congratulations!

2010-01-12T03:04:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to the Hall of Fame Class of 2010: Shinichi Etoh, Osamu Higashio, and Masayuki Furuta!

Dobashi, Doigaki and Fujii for the Hall of Fame

2010-01-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

Next week the vote for the Hall of Fame class of 2010 will be announced, and the competition is fierce. A number of sure-bet first-rounders (see above, who, nevertheless, did not make it in during their first year) are back, along with some first time entries and players/coaches/managers in the experts group.

The 300 electors in the Players division, 50 electors in the Experts division, and 14 electors of the Special Selection Committee have their choice of a number of stellar players to choose from- too many, almost. From the player group, Ochiai, Akiyama, Hara, Boomer Wells, Kitabeppu, and Arai have our endorsement as players who, if not voted in this year, will eventually (or should eventually) make it into the Hall. Those on the fringes from that group all played in an era that falls outside of the scope of this blog.

In the expert group, only Minagawa and Dobashi began their careers in an era that falls in the outer limits of our scope- Minagawa joins Eto, Tabuchi and Shibata as four who (like the players above) should make it in with no argument. That leaves Masayuki Dobashi (1956-1967) as the player to argue for- the player who, along with Takeshi Doigaki (1940-1957) and Isamu Fujii (1936-1958) (two players who are unfortunately not on the ballot), will be officially endorsed by this blog.

To start with, the argument for Doigaki (right) was made in the previous post on catchers and miracles- his performance in the post war era brought him the first 6 best nine awards ever awarded, and his handling of multiple all-star pitching staff's is a testament to his defensive ability. He even made both the One-League Era All-Decade team as well as the 1950's All Decade team in Jim Albright's rating system. A more detailed analysis of his defensive prowess will be covered soon in an upcoming post.

Masayuki Dobashi is listed in the Experts division as the manager of the 1993 Nippon Ham Fighters- his final post as a manager that included a stint in 1973 with the same team, and three years in the mid-eighties as manager of the Swallows. Overall, it was an unproductive tenure. He finished with a winning percentage below .500 and never placed above 5th. The one bright spot was when he nurtured a young Satoshi Niimi ( in '73 when the Fighters were still the Flyers), who would come in third in the strikeout race that year and was voted Rookie of the Year. One reason for that rookie's success could have been the expertise Dobashi brought in terms of pitching- for seven years in the late 50's and early 60's, he was one of the best pitchers in baseball, and for that reason he should be in the Hall of Fame.

Because he played second fiddle to Kazuhisa Inao in the Pacific League for most of his career, his lack of awards overshadow numbers that justify his enshrinement in the Hall. His career WHIP of 1.06 comes close to Inao's (0.99), and compares to other HOF'ers of the era (Fujita- 1.13; Fujimoto-1.01; Sugishita-1.08). During those seven years mentioned above, he won 20 or more games 5 times, including a 30 win season in '61 (in which he also struck out 298- numbers, however, overshadowed by Inao's 42 wins and 353 K's).

With the addition of Shigeru Mizuhara (who replaced fellow HOFer Yoshiyuki Iwamoto as manager of the Flyers in 1961), Dobashi's stellar pitching finally began to contribute to winning teams, and Toei won the pennant in '62, despite his "off" record of 17-14. He made up for it in the Series against the Tigers, getting shut out in game 2, but winning his final two appearances. It was a wild Series, going the full 7 games, four of which went into extra innings, including games 5 and 7. Dobashi (left) won both, dueling 11 innings with Masaaki Koyama in game 5 before going 12 in the final and deciding contest against Minoru Murayama (who pitched in at least 4 of the contests, including games 6 and 7), winning the game 2-1, and the Series. Though HOF'er Isao Harimoto won Outstanding Technique, and HOF'er Yoshio Yoshida Fighting Spirit, it was Dobashi who (along with fellow Flyer Masayuki Tanemo) was named MVP of the Series.

He finished his career 162-135 with 1562 strike outs, and his 2.659 ERA put him in the top 13 all time at the time of his retirement. His 1961 season is one of the top 25 of all time in terms of wins and strike outs, and he is still tied with Takao Kajimoto as the only two pitchers to strike out 9 consecutive batters.

While Dobashi is on the ballot this year, not included is Isamu Fujii, one of the original Tigers who was on the roster for their first game in the Spring tournament of '36. In the April of 1950, 14 years after that first spring, Fujii suited up for the expansion Whales alongside Masato Monzen, who played at his side with the Tigers in '36. Soon, they would share a record, set by Monzen in 1937 and tied in '51 by Fujii, for the most doubles in a game with four. Isamu Fujii would finish his career with 254, among the career leaders at his retirement, even though he played half of his career during a shortened-season & war-torn era.

Most of his numbers are distorted by that fact- up until 1949, though missing 5 seasons (spread over two tours of duty) due to war, Fujii had still put together some decent numbers, including one very important number- 1. As in, the first home run in Japanese Professional Baseball History, which he slammed (according to Japan Baseball Daily, inside the park) on May 4, 1936. When he put on the Whales uniform in 1950, he put behind him some decent post-war seasons in which he would occasionally come in third in doubles, or in the top 10 in hits- one would expect that his age and trials would prevent him from taking advantage of the thinned pitching and the surge in hitting stats that season. However, with the Whales in '50 he put together a 34/122/.327 line, with a .597 slugging percentage aided by 36 doubles and 68 walks- his 122 rbi performance is still one of the top thirteen seasons ever. Having slammed the first homer in history, Fujii was still in the top 10 all-time of home run hitters at the end of that 1950 season, despite having missed the '39, '40, '41, '43 and '44 seasons. He ended his career with 146, which left him at #10 on the all time list, and, add to that more walks than strikeouts combined with a .423 lifetime slugging percentage, and you have a valuable run creator who played for 22 years.

As an outfielder, Fujii (right) was sound- take his 1950 season. While he had an average amount of assists for an outfielder that season, he committed the fewest errors of all the outfielders on the team, with a total that was down with the lowest in the league. However, first an foremost, Fujii scored runs- he was the leading run scorer in the first three short seasons of pro ball in Japan, and, one would guess, could have continued if he hadn't gone to Mongolia in 1939. It was, in that statistically-challenged era, the dominance needed by any HOF candidate. His career total of 689 is the result of a rate of a run scored every 2.1 games, similar to Kawakami's rate of 1 run every 1.9 games, and Oshita's 1 in 2.0- and Oshita finished with 763 runs, just behind Fujimura's (who also started his career in the spring of '36) 871 runs.

And though his productivity never again matched the levels he reached in 1950, he continued to contribute to the Whales, tieing for 8th in the league in runs scored in '52, and coming in the top ten in most offensive categories- his 15 home runs in '53 were tied for 5th in the league and led the Whales. That 1953 season he was joined on the Whales (or Robins, at that point) by Noboru Aota, and for the next two seasons they led their lackluster team in offense as Aota was by far the come back player of the year in '54.

At the end of the 1958 season, 22 years after his debut (as well as the debut of professional baseball in Japan) Fujio finished his career with a .275 batting average and 1482 hits- another decieving stat, in that of all the players to finish their career before 1960, only Tetsuharu Kawakami finished with over 2000.

These could be the longshots, but their credentials are strong, and one can only hope to see them up on the wall with Ochiai and the rest of them.

Hall of Fame 2010

2009-12-29T20:08:00.000-08:00

The Hall of Fame in Japan will be announcing some new members in a few weeks- see who has made the short list here, or in Japanese on the HOF site here. Stay tuned for some endorsements/recommendations/suggestions- kind of a wish list of who we would like to see elected. Look out in the next week for the post, and Happy New Year!

Yoshio Tenpo, Yoshio Tenpo

2009-12-26T23:28:00.000-08:00

May 2, 1943, right in the middle of the Second World War. That day, Roosevelt gave a speech on the coal crisis, the tide was slowly turning in North Africa, allied and Japanese bombers were fighting it out over the Pacific, and Yoshio Tenpo pitched the first of three no-hitters of that month. It was the only time the history of Japanese Baseball that three no-no's would be pitched in a single month, though there have been several months during which two were thrown. The other two pitchers to accomplish the feat in that May of '43 were eventually elected to the Hall of Fame: Hideo Fujimoto and Takehiko Bessho. Tenpo's name, though linked with the other two in that month, would eventually be dropped from mention with the Hall of Famers, despite his longevity and his ability to keep the opposition to low scores (his 2.78 ERA was 8th all-time when he retired).

He did not end up with a glamorous record, owning a loss total that puts him in the top 25 all time. Over 14 seasons Tenpo (which has also been translated as Tenbo and Tanpo) was 131-152, but his record is a bit deceiving- he played his entire career with the hapless Hankyu Braves, who would not finish in first place during his entire tenure (1942-1957), and would only finish higher than fourth four times. However, when he retired, he was 8th on the all-time list for ERA, and is still in the top 25, which means that his team lost despite his pitching, and won with the help of it. Part of the problem was that the Braves never had the significant run producers that benefitted other pitchers of his era- they collected only 14,195 hits during that time, for a team average of .242.

During his peak years (42-52), the Braves scored more runs than the league average only three times, and in those three seasons ('44, '48, '49) he was 5-4, 19-22, and 24-15, respectively. And in his last productive season, 1953, when the Braves once again scored more than the league average, he was 11-8. In those other seasons he was 71-99 and, due to his low walk and strikeout numbers, combined with his low ERA, it is obvious that his dependance on batters making contact and scoring infrequently, his team's lack of run production directly affected his W-L totals. If he had been with a team with higher run production, one can see his record turn around in those years- maybe something closer to 99-71. That would give him a 159-124 record lifetime, resembling much more the type of pitcher he was.

Tenpo is also in the top 30 all time for complete games, and finished his career with over 10,000 batters faced, putting him in the company of the top pitchers in his era. What is most impressive, though, is that he looked like a warrior, like a god- or at least that is how he was portrayed on his various cards. According to Japan Baseball Daily, Tenpo was a highschool dropout who played through the war (though it is very possible that he fought in that last year), but his portrayal was always that of the samurai, of the peerless and attractive nobleman on the field who fought for every pitch and every win, despite his teammates or whatever circumstances might work against him. Yet, aside from his appearance on a few statisitical lists and on checklists for Karuta and Menko sets, Yoshio Tenpo seems to have been left off of the 'all-time greats' compilations and conversations for the Hall of Fame. With as stellar record as his, and with such a noble representation, the idea of his presence in history growing is an attractive one, even if he may be only on the fringes of the Hall of Fame discussion.

In the next post, coming soon, will be the recommendations of A Noboro Aota Fan's Notes for the 2010 Japan Hall of Fame election, covering some players reviewed in the past year and some not yet covered.

Less out of scope...

2009-12-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

Though not affiliated with baseball in Japan, Lester Rodney was a force in advocating diversity in baseball, and should be recognized in any fan's notes. Mr. Rodney died this week- read more here. Also check out this book on other great writers from that era, including Joe Bostic.

Bromide Heaven

2009-12-16T05:41:00.000-08:00

Check out this amazing collection of Bromides (see above example of a gorgeous card of Kazuto Tsuruoka [Yamamoto] from the late 40's) from the John Gall collection on A Journey Round My Skull. Gall is the co-author of Sayonara Home Run, and the art director for Vintage and Anchor Books. The blog is great as well, with some amazing images and great collection of links.

Out of scope

2009-12-07T09:16:00.001-08:00

I know this is a bit out of scope for a blog about the History of Japanese Baseball, but I can't resist. The seven executives given the chance to vote in the "Executives and Pioneers" Hall of Fame election process today deemed former Tigers owner John Fetzer (?!) more worthy of enshrinement than Marvin Miller. Though greed and ignorance have always been the easy labels to pin on baseball's owners, these seven earned both, and added to them a pettiness I cannot understand- is it that Miller's actions were hurtful, or that they resulted in the players' earning more money? As I see it, the game makes more for everyone than it ever did before. What could possibly be the reason to exclude him? If the argument is that his contributions were/are ultimately negative (something that can reasonably said is still up for debate), then all executives should be excluded, as the ramifications of their decisions, too, are all still up for debate. To quote Mr. Seaver- "It's a no-brainer." Miller should be in the Hall.

Miracles! pt. 3

2009-12-02T17:13:00.000-08:00

Miracles Part Three- Catchers In The Central League:

After analyzing the catchers selected to the Best 9 teams in the post war era in to the formation of the two leagues in the previous Miracles post, it's time to look at the Central League. The first star catchers of the Central League were Akira Noguchi, Jyun Hirota, and Shoji Arakawa. Akira Noguchi, brother of several professional Japanese ballplayers including Hall of Famer Jiro, was almost as productive a hitter as Tadeshi Doigaki (see Miracles pt. 2), and began his career at the beginning of it all (in terms of professional baseball), catching in both the Spring and Fall series of the inaugural season of Japanese baseball for the Tokyo Senators.

That first season, when he wasn't catching or in the outfield, Noguchi won 7 games (fourth in the league behind leader Eiji Sawamura) as the Senators best pitcher. He then proceeded to go 19-7 in the Fall, and 15-15 in the Spring of the 1937 season- once again second only to Sawamura in terms of dominance. After a five year hiatus (possibly due to the war), he returned to the Senators in '42 as a catcher and first-baseman and led them in home runs and rbi, while also managing to fit in a few games on the mound (though, his 0-2 record did not quite compare to his brother's 40 wins). The next season, 1943, his last as a Senator, Akira was tied for the league lead in rbi with Aota while splitting his duties between first base and catcher, and was traded the next season to Hankyu, along with brother Jiro (though, due to the war, Jiro would not debut with the Braves until '46). Akira led the war-ravaged league in at-bats in '44 before the entire show was shut down.

Returning with his brother and Aota for the Braves when play resumed in 1946, Noguchi (right) performed utility man duties for a few seasons with mixed results- it wasn't until he was traded to the Dragons, for the 1949 season, that he got back behind the plate for good. Between '49 and '54, Noguchi was the starting catcher for Chunichi, handling a great young pitching staff that included Hall of Famer Shigeru Sugishita, who would go on to win the Sawamura Award in 1951, 1952 and 1954 as the best pitcher in the league.

He also, along with Michio Nishizawa and Satoshi Sugiyama, led the Dragons offensive charge, creating 60 to 70 runs per season while catching around 100 games per season. His offensive prowess led to his being named to the Best Nine as backstop for two years running- 1951 to 1952. Part of it was his ability to get to 2nd base- he led all catchers in doubles during his time with the Dragons, a skill which undoubtedly assisted his ability to create runs. However, he lost the contest for the first Best Nine award in the newly split Central League.

In 1950, the league split into two, and instead of one set of Best Nine's, there were two- one for the Pacific League and one for the Central League. As covered in the last post, the first Pacific League catcher to be honored on the Best Nine was Doigaki. The first in the Central League was Shoji Arakawa- Noguchi would win in '51. Below are the stats for the starting catchers for each of the eight teams in the CL in 1950:

Masato Monzen (Whales): .280 25HR 110RBI
Akira Noguchi (Dragons): .271 18HR 73RBI
Takeshi Hibino (Pirates): .287 10HR 47RBI
Hiroshi Tsujii (Carp): .294 5HR 67RBI
Shoji Arakawa (Robins): .268 3HR 51RBI
Kazuo Usami (Swallows): .284 5HR 33RBI
Shinichiro Inoue (Swallows): .233 2HR 16RBI
Shigeru Tokuami (Tigers): .251 2HR 69RBI
Tetsunosuke Fujiwara (Giants): .244 1HR 21RBI

The best offensive catcher, by far, was Monzen, breaking the 100RBI mark (the first catcher to do so) and finishing in the top ten in home runs in a season where only Hall of Famers made both of the lists. But Monzen did not win the Best Nine, Arakawa did, and the most likely reason can be represented in the number 12- as in 12 triples, the all time record for triples in a season by a catcher.

Shoji Arakawa (left) not only had 64 runs created, but also handled the best pitching staff in the league, with three 20 game winners (including one 39 game winner). He was part of a Robins team that beat out the rest of the league to win the first Central League pennant, and play in the first Japan Series. He led the Robins with 9 hits and during the series, stole two bases and was one of only three to hit a triple. Though he handled a losing pitching staff, his batting eye was second to none, walking four times to only one strikeout, a ratio that mirrored his short career totals of 366 walks to 209 K's.

Arakawa began with the Robins in 1947 as a utility man, displaying his speed and power immediately with 8 triples that season, only three behind the league leaders. After Masumi Isekawa left for the Stars in '48, Shoji began to fill in as catcher while also playing both infield and outfield, and once again put on a show with his speed. According to Japan Baseball Daily, he had a 10th inning, 'sayonara steal' of home in a game against the Dragons, and, while he slammed only one triple, displayed his great eye and control with a 44-11 walk-to-strikeout ration, the best rate in the league that season.

He played with the Robins until 1951, the year after making the first Central League Best 9, and moved to the Whales in 1952, where he was the starting catcher for one more season. During the years 1950-1952, he averaged 24 stolen bases while slamming 23 triples, all the time catching 100 games per season, hitting .391 in the Japan Series after making Best 9 in his best season. However, by '53, he had already slowed down, catching fewer games and spending more time in the field, though he did manage to steal 12 bases and drive in 20 runs. He was joined that year by Noboru Aota, fresh from his stay with the Giants, where he had played side by side with Tetsunosuki Fujiwara, who caught one of the premier pitching staffs of the post war era with Yomiuri between 1949 and 1951.

Fujiwara (right & at the top of this post) was the primary catcher for the Giants in '49 and '50. In 1949, the Giants were one of the best teams ever- outhit by the Tigers, but had such good pitching that the ran away with the league. They had the lowest ERA, and especially the lowest WHIP for any team, attributed to Fujiwara's handling of three HOF Pitchers- Bessho, Fujimoto and Nakao. In 1950, he was quick, second among catchers (behind Arakawa) with 17 stolen bases, but it was his finesse behind the plate that made him valuable.

Fujiwara began his career before the war with the Dragons. His best offensive season was in '46 after the war with the Dragons, catching a poor pitching staff with only one above-.500 pitcher. After a one year stint with the Flyers (where he caught Kuroo and Shiraki, two great pitchers who will be covered in an upcoming post), he moved to the Giants, where for three seasons he helped one of the best pitching staffs ever to two championships- though he did not make it to the Series, losing the job to Kusunoki by the start of game 1. With the Carp, beginning in 1952, he served in a backup capacity for several more years.

In discussing Giants catchers, it is important to include Fukuzu Tada, the Giants back-up catcher/pitcher/utility infielder for a decade surrounding the war. Tada (left) recorded over 1000 at bats as well as over 1000 innings on the mound, and in 1950, with Fujiwara behind the plate, he went 14-9 while also hitting 3 HR in 100 plate appearances, and also filled in at first base. There is no doubt that the Giants were stocked with talent, and Tada is a perfect example- he could still catch, and did so once he left Yomiuri for the Pearls, there being no room behind the plate with Fujiwara, Toshiyaki Takemiya, Yasuo Kusunoki, Tomatsu Uchibori, and, eventually, Jyun Hirota.

The starting catcher for the Giants in the 1951 Japan Series, Kusunoki, had been with the Giants before the war, mostly as a utility player, but came back in '51 to take over the starting catcher duties. Unfortunately for him, the success of Wally Yonemine would bring over several Nisai players to join him, including a catcher who had played with Wally in Hawaii- Jyun Hirota.

With Fujiwara gone to the Carp, Hirota quickly edged his way in to the starting catching position, and by the time Yomiuri was battling the Hawks in the '52 Japan Series, Jyun caught in all six games, driving in 3 runs while batting .353. Though an offensive threat during his time with the Giants, Hirota's real contribution to the game was his defensive innovation, at least in the context of baseball up to that point in Japan. Read Rob Fitts' books, including Wally Yonemine and Remembering Japanese Baseball- he covers much of Hirota's career with the Giants, and the perception of his contributions. According to many of his contemporaries, Jyun changed the way catchers approach each pitch, throwing from a crouch both on regular throws back to the pitcher as well as runners on base.

Hirota (above, with Yonamine and Andy Miyamoto) was also a four time all-star, whose solid offense was not only consistent, but aggressive in a way, similar to his Hawaiian teammates, that would influence all play in Japan and help the Giants to the pennant every year of his tenure except 1954. His strength and toughness were legendary, influencing a whole new generation of catchers, especially those who would go on to replace him on the Best 9 lists for decades to come.

Hirota's three straight Best 9 awards began a trend for Giant catchers- with the exception of 1960, a Yomiuri catcher would be on the Best 9 every season until 1968. His replacement behind the plate, Shigeo Fujio, carried on his streak beginning in 1956 and went on to win 4, leading to his selection by Jim Albright as the best catcher of the Central League in the 1950's. Fujio (right) helped the Giants to as many pennants as Hirota, but did not experience a Series win until 1961, by which time he had been replaced as starting catcher. He played from '53 to '64, just missing the V-9 run, but slugged .400 lifetime and lost his catching job to no one less than Hall of Fame catcher Masaaki Mori- the same Mori who would go on to make the Best 9 team from 1961 to 1968, giving the Giants a good run at the Best 9 for catchers.

Back to the beginning of the Central League and 1950, Masoto Monzen. He was one of the first catchers in the professional ranks, starting with the Fall season in 1936. According to Japan Baseball Daily, Monzen was the first player drafted by the Tigers, and that first season played backup behind former Keio star Toshiyasu Ogawa. Ogawa was unfortunately called up to military service and never made it back to the Tigers, losing his life in the war, supposedly in China. Had he been able to stay, or come back, Ogawa might have gone on to a HOF career- more on him in a later post. Monzen was with the Tigers, with the exception of the 40-41 seasons during which he was at war, until the league was finally halted in 1944. Offensively, he was consitent at driving the ball and getting bases- in 1937 he set the record (that has since been tied by several players) for double in one game with 4, and went on to lead the league with 15. During that time he caught almost all of the Tigers games, reaching his peak in '39 with team leading .401 slugging percentage and a league leading (for catchers) 53 rbi.

By 1948, Monzen was back in the league with the Stars (left) for a season, leaving in '49 for the Tigers for a short season (where Doigaki showed no signs of giving up the starting spot) before landing with the expansion Whales for the 1950 season. This would lead to his greatest season, leading all catchers in offensive production and becoming the first catcher to drive in 100 runs. But after a lackluster year in '51, he went to Hiroshima, where he was the regular catcher for the Carp for several more seasons before finally retiring (after 21 years in the league). Though he played in only 1200 games in those 21 years, it is important to remember that short seasons and war dominated the first decade of his career, and that between 1950 and his retirement, he caught on average 100 games a season, despite being in the latter part of his career and having served several years in WWII!

When Monzen had left Hanshin for the Whales in 1950, Takeshi Doigaki left as well, leaving an open spot behind the plate. Enter Shigeru Tokuami- 1950 was his rookie season, but ended up as the Tigers starting catcher, replacing Doigaki who had moved on to the Orions along with a gaggle of other Tiger's stars. Until the mid 50's, while occasionally sharing duties with Hiromi Tanida, he was the Tigers' starting catcher, though his offensive output never again matched that of his rookie season.

Tetsuya Yamamoto replaced Tokuami as the primary backstop for the Tigers, in time for the emergence of the Tigers all-star late 50's pitching staff. Beginning his career at the tail end of the post-war era, he was a two time all star who played in the Central League shadow of the Best 9 winning catching staff of Yomiuri. Yamamoto (right) was a Tiger lifer, playing 11 seasons for Hanshin and starting all 6 games of the '62 Japan Series and 1 for the '64 pennant winners. However, he was instrumental in the most famous game in Japanese Baseball history, the demarcation point between the 50's and the 60's, between the first golden era and the second: the Emperor's Game. According to Japan Baseball Daily, Yamamoto was behind the plate for the Tigers on that June evening in 1959, catching Minoru Murayama in his moment of failure. Rookie Sadaharu Oh's game tying home run, as well as Nagashima's famous Sayonara Home Run, marked the beginning of the new era of Japanese Baseball, of the O-N Cannon and V-9 and a time beyond the post-war period.

Part 2 of this post concluded with a list of the catchers who, in the post war era, played every game of their career as a catcher. Below is the completion of that list- every other player who played at least one game at catcher between 1946 and 1955 (in descending order of games played):

Nomura, Katsuo
Morishita, Nobushige
Wada, Hiromi
Hibino, Takeshi
Tsubouchi, Michinori
Sugiyama, Satoru
Hondo, Yasuya
Yoshizawa, Takeo
Noguchi, Akira
Isekawa, Masumi
Kimura, Tsotumo
Monzen, Masoto
Tanimoto, Minoru
Ando, Junzo
Kawai, Yasuniko
Satake, Kazuo
Watanabe, Hiroyuki
Kobayashi, Akiyoshi
Goto, Tsuguo
Tsujii, Hiroshi
Fujio, Shigero
Hattori, Tsuguhiro
Fujiwara, Tetsunosuke
Arakawa, Shoji
Tanida, Hiromi
Minohara, Hiroshi
Medoki, Haruo
Suzuki, Keiichiro
Harada, Kiyoshi
Nagatoshi, Yukichi
Kusunoki, Yasao
Kiyohara, Katsuo
Tada, Fukuzo
Kato, Matsutoshi
Ishigaki, Kazuo
Tanaka, Ichiro
Kato, Susumu
Suzuki, Hideo
Kihoshita, Masahiro
Kasaishi, Tokugoru
Hirota, Jyun
Numazawa, Koichiro
Tsukuda, Akitada
Takemiya, Toshiaki
Sakata, Kiyohara
Uchibori, Tomotsu
Kawamoto, Koji
Itakura, Masao
Murakami, Kazuharu
Kataoka, Hirokumi
Yamashita, Yazuru
Yoshikawa, Yoshitsugo
Yatsunami, Tomoyuki
Nagashima, Susumu
Ban, Yuji
Kumagami, Takehiko
Sakamoto, Masakozu
Nishikura, Minoru
Inokawa, Toshiharu
Kobayashi, Eiichi
Sakata, Masayoshi
Manda, Matsuo
Ohata, Shosaku
Ogawa, Toshio
Hajima, Hisami
Nogami, Hirosato
Fujino, Yoshito
Hataya, Kiyoshi
Hood, Charlie
Osaki, Kinichi
Nakazaki, Yoshio
Toda, Kichizo
Akashi, Koichi
Aoki, Jyun
Fukuzawa, Tadashi
Kanazaki, Yasutaka
Kanki, Toshiazu
Koboyama, Makoto
Koigaki, Takeshi
Kyuki, Isao
Luis, Charlie
Matsuoka, Ichiro
Owada, Akira
Seike, Chutaro
Tsuruoka, Keizo
Tsutsui, Sadao
Watanabe, Mitsuru
Yamagishi, Shizuma
Yamazaki, Akio
Yoshinari, Takeo

Among the players on this list were several 'Moonlight Grahams', catchers who played only one inning, or one game behind the plate:

Kawai, Shizuo- 1 game 1955 Chiunichi
Kitamura, Shuichi- 1 game 1950 Hawks
Taki, Hideo- 1 game 1955 Tigers
Takiguchi, Toyohiro- 1 game 1949 Stars
Yamamoto, Fumiya- 1 game 1955 Dragons

The story of Graham, and those with stories similar to his, are fascinating because of the work involved in getting to the professional level- that first game is the pinnacle of a decade or more work on various aspects of the game, of . Even those players who go on to Hall of Fame careers still remember their first game as moving to that top level. There is no higher league to advance to, and those that get the chance are heroes, legends to anyone in their lives, no matter how successful they are at that level, there is something special about them, something special that surrounds them. For those that could only make it for one game, there is a romantic aspect added to that special aura, a romantic aspect that equals that of the Hall of Famer. So what separates the two? What is it that makes Fred Exley jump up and down at the New Parrot Lounge while watching the game, or kids in a small town ask a one time major leaguer for their autograph? More about the Hall of Fame and what it takes make it there, as well as some recommendations for the next election, in the upcomming posts....

Bonzai Babe Ruth!

2009-11-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

Shinji Hamasaki was not only the smallest player to ever play the game (5'1", 110 pounds), but was also the oldest pitcher to ever win a game- in 1950, with the Braves. He was born in December of 1901, and when the Braves began the 1950 season, he was a 48 year old player-manager as well as pitcher who had compiled a 4-3 record over the previous two seasons. During that first season in the newly formed Pacific League, Hamasaki pitched in 28 innings over 9 games, enough to earn him one victory and two losses for a Braves team he would lead to an eventual 4th place finish. On top of that, the 48 year-old managed to accumulate 12 plate appearances, and even hit a triple!

He had come to Hankyu after World War II in 1947, and before the war had played in the Industrial Leagues with the South Manchurian Railroad team and, before that, Keio University. After a few stints as manager of some of the more terrible teams in Japanese baseball history (including the 1955 Tombo Unions, who finished with 98 losses in only 141 games, and whose best hitter, catcher Sal Recca, did not do too much better at the plate than Victor Starfin, in the final season of his HOF career), he retired and was voted to the Japan Baseball Hall of Fame in 1978. Now, the focus of A Noboru Aota Fan's Notes has always been on those who have gone outside the notice of the Hall, so there must be a special reason to be talking about Shinji:

One of the primary reasons for his inclusion in the HOF is his participation on the 1934 All Japan team that battled the American All-Star team that included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Moe Berg and a gaggle of stars- NPB & MLB HOFer's. Hamasaki, #22, joined a pitching staff that included Masao Date, Eiji Sawamura, and his future Unions player Starfin- a pitching staff that consisted of the best of all Japan, and that would go on to form the foundation of the professional leagues. Rob Fitts, the author of several great books on the history of Japanese Baseball, including his latest Wally Yonemine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball , is working on a new book about the 1934 tour:

Click on the above image to check out some of the content from the upcoming book, which looks to be a fascinating examination of not only the game from an American and Japanese perspective, but a detailed analysis of the politics and culture of Japan in the years before World War II. Check it out!

Stay tuned for the third installment of the Miricles post, for more on catchers in the post war era as well as discussion on the meaning of enshrinement in any Hall of Fame- coming soon!

Noboru Aota in the Hall of Fame

2009-10-10T12:59:00.001-07:00

One last interruption before the completion of the catchers/miracles post- Aota's plaque is now hanging in the Hall. Below is a photo of the hanging of English translation placard underneath the plaques of all four new Hall of Famers:generously sent by Mr. Ryuichi Suzuki of the Hall of Fame in Tokyo. For a closer look, see this photo:

taken by Deanna on her recent visit to the Hall- Thanks Deanna!

Tune in shortly for more info on the catchers of the post war period, and check out the Japan Baseball Hall of Fame site for more info on the inductees and a lot of other great data and exhibits.

Intermissionagain

2009-09-05T20:24:00.000-07:00

#23-

June 12, 2009 was the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Tokyo- just as all of 2009 is the 50th anniversary of Noboru Aota's 1959 farewell- his final goodbye to his slugging days.

Sorry for the second interruption to this post, but its important to point out that the middle of 2009 is, along with the 50th anniversary of so many things, also the start of Aota's eternal residence in the HOF.

On July 24, Noboru Aota was inducted into the Japan Baseball Hall of Fame in a ceremony on the field of the Sapporo Dome. Accepting the honor was his widow, Michiko, along with his grandson, and they can be seen here on the English version of the Japan HOF website. Keep watch on that site- on September 28, the English translations of the new Hall of Famer's plaques (including Aota's) will go live. I was fortunate enough to participate in the translation process and assist Mr. Ryuichi Suzuki (who is in charge of International Public Relations for the Hall of Fame) with the final edits of the text that will not only appear on the site, but hang in the Hall of Fame gallary under the actual plaques. Please check out Mr. Suzuki's hard work here on Sept. 28. And now, the intermissionagain- 1959, fifty years ago this fall, was the end of Noboru Aota's final season as a player, retiring as the all time leader in home runs and number three all time in rbi; fifty years ago...

George Will recently wrote an article disputing the idea that any date, any year, can truly be seen as "changing everything", in which he highlighted the year 1959 as an arguably pivotal year in American history- that is, he argues, if you can consider any year (or decade, for that matter) more pivotal than any other. In 1959, Will points out, Miles Davis recorded the defining record in the evolution of Jazz, the first Americans were slain in Vietnam, the birth control pill was approved by the government, and Lady Chatterley's lover was published. Monumental steps in the development of our cultural and political history, but steps no larger or smaller than those before or after. It was in this year, 1959, Sadaharu Oh's rookie year, the middle of an era, the beginning and the end.

It was, then, in the Spring of 1959, that Noboru Aota began his final year as a player, and prepared for the transition to the coaches bench. Though he hit .270 in 64 games, only three of his hits were home runs- the third, coming most likely sometime in mid July just before manager and ally Fujimoto was fired- it being number 265, a record that would stand for the next five years. He had already cemented his lead in the all time HR category in 1956- by June 24 of that year he had hit the 222nd dinger of his career, and only a few games after that hit his 225th, putting him ahead of Fumio Fujimura as all time leader. He would hit 40 more in his career, but would remain number one for the rest of his career and long after, finally being overtaken in 1963. After a lackluster 1958 (though, not dissimilar to his first season with the Whales), he landed back with the team that had given him a spot after the war, way back in '46- the Hankyu Braves (see image above). Hankyu (who evolved, eventually, into the Orix Blue Wave, and now the Buffaloes), coming off of a third place season, may have been looking for a power boost- their leading slugger in 1958 had 12 hr and less than 60 rbi. It may have just been a homecoming- manager Satayoshi Fujimoto, who had been at the healm of the Giants way back in '42 and had given Noboru his first chance in pro baseball as well as with Yomiuri, providing a comfortable slot in which Aota could finish out his career. In the end, he did not add much pop to the lineup, but more than likely some veteran leadership- either way, the Braves sank to fifth, 40 games out of first. He did, though, lead the team in batting, despite less than 200 plate appearances, and his experience providing an extra coach for the team struggling to climb to a pennant. However, with the July 26th firing of Fujimoto, playing time and innings were few and far between.

Aota shared the outfield on the next-to-last place Braves with Seizo Furukawa (right), also in the twilight of his career. When he retired, Furukawa was fourth on the all time stolen base leader list, and, along with Tokuji Iida, was the only player to amass more than 50 HR and 300 SB in a career, and his 55 triples put him in the top 15. He is still number 10 on the all time stolen bases list.
Like Aota, Furukawa had begun his career in the lean years before the war, coming up with the Dragons as a catcher. He quickly developed into a powerhouse, leading the league in homers in both '42 and '43. After three seasons behind the plate, Furukawa moved to the outfield upon his post-war return to Nagoya. In 1947, he tied Aota for third in the league in HR, but was still traded the next season to the Braves, where he remained for the rest of his career.

There, he quietly combined power and speed for the hapless Braves- though he regularly scored 60-70 runs per season, the Braves never placed higher than second in the Pacific league. During that lone winning year, 1952, he was teamed with Larry Raines, who led the league in runs scored. Over the years Furukawa was teamed with several speedsters, including Raines and Chico Barbon, who pushed him while at the same time overshadowing, season by season, his accomplishments. However, Furukawa (below) was consistant, and his 796 career runs scored rank with the top five run scorers of the post war period. Added to that are his 617 rbi, 370 sb and 2071 total bases- contributions to the Braves that definitely mark him as their MVP position player of the 50's.
Springtime 1959- Sadaharu Oh played his first game on April 11, launching a remarkable career, but April 11 also marked the end of his pitching career when he strode out to first base, a pitching career that had first brought him to fame. It marked the end of one golden age, the beginning of another golden age of baseball in Japan, yet it was just a continuation, another great season for some and a bittersweet transition for others. The end for so many of Aota's former teammates as it was the end for Aota, just as it was a transition for so many of them, including Aota, to the bench. For Aota, that meant joining forces with his old mentor Fujimoto, who had, by 1962, moved over to the Tigers, bringing along Noboru to begin a coaching career that would last another two decades. By the end of his coaching career in 1980, he was alongside Oh once again as he finished out his career; far from his start, in 1942, a teammate of Victor Starffin, in the thick of the Second World War...

Soon, the final installment of the miracles post and the continuation of the review of catchers in the post-war era.

Miracles! pt. 2

2009-07-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

Fred Exley knew that getting off the couch was a miracle- that relativity was in play at the most complex functions of physics as well as the most commonplace actions of each and every human. The real miracle is in not just being; and the real heroes are just those that hold on to "that awful dream of fame". Hard work and consistency make for lasting fame, for those strange-but-true gods of the diamond, but it's the fans that hold on to the awful dreams

There is no miracle in baseball that even comes close to immortilization in the Hall of Fame. Two grand slams in a game is slightly beyond reason, but it is only for one game, consistancy for a brief period, but not for the long haul- Babe Ruth never hit two grand slams in a game, and neither did Sadaharu Oh.
The odds of a player making it through the lower levels, staying healthy and focused enough, and then waiting for the luck it takes to actually be noticed. Once noticed, the miracle is in the timing- lucking onto a team that has the right opening at the right time. If Wally Yonemine doesn't give up first base, do the Giants give a chance to the failed pitcher Sadaharu Oh? One would guess with a talent like Oh's, there would be no problem; but what about those that had to fight, like Hoyt Wilhelm or Motoshi Fujita, who did not make it to the majors until their late 20's and still put together HOF careers?

Between 1937, when the MVP was first awarded to Eiji Sawamura, and 1980, only one catcher, Katsuya Nomura, was so honored as Most Valuable Player. His first award came in 1961, suggesting that no catcher dominated the league to that point. In addition to having no MVP catchers, the post-war era failed to produce a hall of fame catcher, and, in fact, only one pre-war professional catcher, Masahaki Yoshihara, has been elected to the Hall.

Of the one hundred and fifty five players (see list below as well as in post no. 3) who caught at least one professional game in Japan between 1946 and 1955, only two of them, Nomura and Masaaki Mori, made the Hall, and their rookie seasons were at the end of that period. Do any of the others deserve the honor? Or even just the recognition of greatness that membership in the Hall of Fame confers? The first place to look is the Best Nine award.

Read Jim Albright 's excellent statistical analysis of the best players of each decade, and Takeshi Doigaki stands out- the best catcher of the post war period. The numbers don't lie. Like the MVP award, the Best Nine awards were not awarded annually until after the war. The winners for Best Nine were first named in 1947, and the first three for catcher (in the one league system, only one player for each position was so honored) were awarded to Takeshi Doigaki.

Doigaki (right, along with Tiger pitcher Tadayoshi Kajioka) played for three years before the war starting in 1940, and led the Tigers in runs scored in '42, splitting catching and infield duties with the few remaining men not yet on the front lines. When everyone returned in 1946, Doigaki took over as primary catcher for the Tigers, catching in 87 games and finishing the season in the top three in batting, hits and at bats, and in the top ten in almost every other offensive category.

It was not until the next year, though, that the first Best Nine's were awarded since 1940, and Doigaki won the first of six straight as a catcher. Despite hitting .259, he was in the top 15 in the league, once again, in most offensive categories, and, along with Masumi Isekawa, was the best hitting catcher in the league. Looking at the starting catcher for each team in '47, here is a list in order of runs created that season:

Tigers- Takeshi Doigaki- 52.25
Robins- Masumi Isekawa- 41.20
Flyers- Keiichiro Suzuki- 28.90
Giants- Tetsunosuke Fujiwara- 28.87
Braves- Takeshi Hibino- 24.83
Hawks- Keizo Tsutsui- 16.70
Giants- Tamatsu Uchibori- 16.34(for more on Uchibori, see here)
Stars- Isao Tsuji- 11.84

His 52 runs created compared to teamates Fumio Fujimura's and Shosei Go's 59 and 55, respectively, and trailing only Tigers leader Masayasu Kaneda's 68, on par with Hiroshi Oshita's 89 runs created, Tetsuharu Kawakami's 79 runs created, and Kazuto Tsuruoka's 69 runs created. In addition, he handled the best pitching staff in the league, with Bozo Wakabayashi, Tadayoshi Kajioka and Takao Misonoo winning 26, 22, and 18 games (respectively), and only one pitcher with a losing record (1-2) to bring Hanshin the pennant for last time in the one-league era.

After a stellar 1948, he dominated in '49- with a .328 average, fourth in the league, 86 rbi and 16 home runs.

In 1950, the new Pacific League included several newly formed teams, including the Orions, tucked away in Chiba City and soon to be stocked with stars. Kaoru Betto jumped from the Tigers to the Orions along with a streak of his teammates, including Shosei Go, Bozo Wakabayashi, Yasuya Hondo, and Takeshi Doigaki (at left, with new hat). Doigaki did not skip a beat, and won the first three Best Nine awards for a catcher offered in the Pacific League, leaving him with 6 straight awards, a feat topped only by Kastsuya Nomora and Masahiko Mori (the only two post-war catchers in the HOF).

The first Japan Series at the end of that season found the two best catchers from the Pacific and Central Leagues squaring off against each other. Shoji Arakawa, the Best Nine winner for the Robins, out-hit Doigaki (and, incedently, out-hit the rest of his team as well), but did not control his pitching staff as well. Doigaki caught all six games and led the Orions to the first Japan series win. He was never quite as productive in his last few seasons, with the Flyers and Braves, but finished out his career leading all catchers in most lifetime batting categories.

Doigaki again narrowly edged out Masumi Isekawa (below) in 1950 for Best Nine- Isekawa slugged 13 homers along with his .296 average for the third place Stars. Though a consistent slugger for a catcher, Isekawa would always be overshadowed, making only one All-Star team (along with Matsui and Tsutsui in '53) and never making it to a Japan Series.

Charlie Lewis (or Charlie Luis- see March 21, 2007 post here) took over the catching reins for the Hawks when Doigaki moved on to the Flyers in 1954, and proceded to win back to back Best 9's. However, his 22 errors in 1954 (a Pacific League record according to Japan Baseball Daily) demonstrate the focus of the award on hitting prowess over fielding percentage. Charlie left Japan after the 54 season, most likely going back to Hawaii or the West Coast of the US, and leaving the Best Nine to Katsuya Nomura, who took over the next season as the premier catcher in the Pacific League, overshadowing Doigaki's legacy as the best catcher, and the best hitting catcher, of the post war era.

Overshadowed by Doigaki, Luis and Nomura was Keizo Tsutsui, who, as the steady catcher for the Nankai Hawks during the first decade after the end of the war caught in more games than any other catcher of the era without playing any other position. From '46 to '49, he was the primary catcher for the Hawks, handling pitchers like Takehiko Bessho, Nobuo Nakatani, Susumu Yuki and Shisho Takesue.

He hit only .236 lifetime, but this is a testament to his defensive prowess, as he was not only the starting catcher for the Hawks for the first 5 years after the war, but also split duties with his protoge, Jun Matsui, Best 9 catcher in the gap year between the end of Doigaki's rein and the Luis/Nomura years, for the first five years of the 50's. (In fact, they split the catching duties in several Japan Series, including 1953, when Matsui, who hit only .083 to Tsutsui's .375, slammed a home run in game seven, a solo shot that almost put the Hawks up enough to win the game, and the Series). On top of that, Tsutsui was voted to two All-Star teams ('53 & '55) at the end of his decade-long run with the team, during which he played in 4 Japan Series (including being present for Noboru Aota's only Japan Series home run in game 2 of the '51 series) as the crew chief for the Hawks' million dollar infield.

Below is a list of catchers who played their entire career behind the plate without ever moving to another position; and, as this post focuses solely on the post-war era, it includes only those who played at least one game in the decade following the war (1946-1955)- Mori and Yamashita both played the majority of their careers after this period (though Yamashita did start in 1950, playing 532 of those in the post war period), leaving Tsutsui (below right) at the top:

Mori, Masahiko 1884
Yamashita, Ken 1232
Tsutsui, Keizo 1052
Yamamoto, Tetsuya 854
Tokuami, Shigeru 782
Matsui, Jun 679
Kawahara, Masakazu 497
Kiori, Takeyoshi 452
Hara, Katsuhiko 418
Kanbayashi, Shigejiro 323
Kamiichi, Akio 298
Yoshimura, Iwao 285
Yamada, Seizaburo 274
Inoue, Shinichiro 234
Tsuji, Isao 218
Recca, Sal 190
Nemoto, Rikuo 186
Ai, Toshiharu 147
Kotani, Nobuo 101
Higashiguchi, Kiyomi 97
Kotsuji, Hideo 66
Hasebe, Minoru 64
Onodera, Katsuo 62
Okamoto, Mitsuo 54
Munesue, Susumu 53
Wanaka, Michio 53
Arai, Kuzuhiro 48
Atsui, Kiyoshi 48
Kinoshita, Ikuhiko 44
Matsuhashi, Yoshiki 41
Murokawa, Mitsuo 41
Etoh, Daisuke 36
Goto, Hiroyuki 36
Goto, Jinjiro 30
Matsumoto, Isamu 28
Ikehata, Tadao 18
Itoh, Haruo 18
Matsunaga, Eiichi 18
Kawague, Kameiji 17
Ezaki, Masayoshi 16
Hasebe, Eiichi 16
Ichiyanagi, Tadano 16
Kawakami, Michiro 15
Inagawa, Goichi 14
Takahashi, Kazuo 12
Katsuta, Ko 10
Mimura, Tadashi 10
Ogawa, Hideo 9
Taniguchi, Kineji 6
Harada, Yasuaki 4
Nakashizu, Tadahachi 4
Sugiyama, Tetsuo 4
Nakamura, Kunio 3
Sakurai, Sadao 3
Kawase, Hiroyuki 2
Nagai, Yojiro 2
Sakurai, Taro 2
Tohno, Mayumi 2
Kawai, Shizuo 1
Kitamura, Shuichi 1
Taki, Hideo 1
Takiguchi, Toyohiro 1
Yamamoto, Fumiya 1

The rest of this post, including the Central League catchers and the 'Moonlight Graham"'s, will be covered in part 3, which is almost done and will be up as soon as the couch allows....

2009-06-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

Intermission:

Preparations for pt. 2 of the Miracles post has taken longer than expected, so here is a short piece on another great player from the 1950's in Japan. Most well known to American fans of Japanese baseball are the former major league players who have made their way to NPB for one reason or another, guys like Davy Johnson, Dave Hilton, , even Cecil Fielder. They have generally stayed a few years before trying to make an MLB comeback or hanging up their spikes. Even Hall of Famer Larry Doby played 72 games for the Dragons in 1962, hitting 10 home runs in 268 plate attempts. But it was not the former MLB players that forged the path for foreign players in Japan- it was the Nisei scrappers in the 1950's, the Wally Yonemine's, the Dick Kashiwaida's, and the Fibber Hirayama's.
Fibber (Satoshi) Hirayama (above) was born in California, not Hawaii, like many of the other Nisei stars, and played a season for the Stockton (CA) Ports, a team in the St. Louis Browns farm system, before making his way to Japan. After getting out of the army, Wally Yonemine and Kenichi Zenimura put him in contact with the Hiroshima Carp, a team only five years old playing in a town just ten years past the devastation of atomic warfare. According to the excellent Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball, Fibber had been playing baseball in a Japanese Internment Camp in Arizona at the time the Hiroshima bomb was dropped. Following a stint in the Army and his time with the Ports, Hirayama arrived in Hiroshima less than a decade after that bomb had redefined the terms of war and changed the city forever, and the Carp seemed to be the only bright spot in the lives of the people that still inhabited the coastal town. Much has been written about Fibber, the finest being an article by Marc Harris (who wrote the novel Bang the Drum Slowly) for Sports Illustrated in 1958- it covers the 10,000 fan greeting Fibber received upon his arrival in Hiroshima, and the wave of excitement he inspired. The Carp were coming off their best season yet, thanks to their young pitcher Ryohei Hasegawa and the arrival of Makoto Kozuru, and, though they would love their team whether or not they won a single game, the prospect of a winning season seemed to arrive with the young American.
Two teammates helped him feel more at home. One was Kenshi Zenimura, also from Fresno, son of Kenichi Zenimura, one of the most influential Nisei in American Baseball who led the charge to organize teams in the Japanese internment camps set up by the US government during WWII like the teams Fibber played on. The other was Jiro Kaneyama (see Feb. 20 post in this blog), who had arrived with Kozuru and shared the speed and aggressive style of play that Fibber excelled at. In his first season with the Carp, the rookie Hirayama stole 25 bases, third on the Carp behind Kanayama and Kozuru, and scored 46 runs and played the outfield with a strong and aggressive throwing arm. According to Harris, Kaneyama also raved about Fibber's leadership qualities, taking charge on a team that had not yet found its center. The result was the best Carp team yet, winning 58 games and finishing 4th in the Central League, bolstered by Ryohei Hasegawa's 30 wins. Unfortunately, though Fibber would improve in the years to come, this would be the highest placing the Carp would be able to achieve during his stay.
1956 would be his most productive year, though the Carp finished the season 37 games behind Central League champs Giants. Fibber drove in 46 runs while scoring 52, and stole 34 bases, second in the league behind Yoshio Yoshida. He led the Carp in almost every batting category except HR, and his 10 were second, making him one of the few in the Central League that season to make it into double digits with home runs- the league leader that year with 25 was Noboru Aota of the Whales.
With the Carp until 1964, Fibber was consistently productive, continually creating 50 or so runs per year with his speed and aggressive play (and most likely a lot more with his excellent defensive skills) while helping Hiroshima break the .500 mark for the first time in their history in 1960 and making the '56 and '58 All-Star Teams along the way. Since Gold Glove awards were not issued until the early 1970's, he was never so honored, but the anecdotal evidence suggests he deserved quite a few. In the field he gave his all until the end of his career, and ended up staying in Hiroshima as a coach, scout and community member.
In addition to being a great, hustling ballplayer, Fibber was also one of the few bespectacled players in post-war Japanese Baseball, along with my favorite Shissho Takesue (to be covered in a later post) and many others. Below is an attempt to compile a list of all bespectacled players from that era- this is an incomplete list, so please, if you have names to add, include them in a comment and they will be added:

Atsushi Aramaki
Kaoru Betto
Fibber Hirayama
Sashio Himoto
Hiroo I
Shigeya Iijima
Shinichiro Inoue
Tadayashi Kajioka
Shoji Kato
Hirofumi Komae
Hiroyoshi Komatsubara
Sadao Kondoh
Toshimitsu Kunieda
Kenjiro Matsuki
Kozo Matsuo
Takao Misonoo
Minoru Nakamura
Nobouo Nakatani
Jiro Noguchi
Yoshiharu Ogawa
Kanenori Shimakata
Shigeru Sugishita
Tadashi Sugiura
Shissho Takesue
Hiroshi Tsujii
Masahiro Yokoyama
Wally Yonemine

There are still a bunch missing, so please write in if you have any names to add. The second part of Miricles should be done soon, so stay tuned....

2009-05-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

Miracles (pt. 1)
The other night I witnessed, first hand, something miraculous. Chris Richard of the Durham Bulls hit 2 grand slams in the same game, the first player to accomplish the feat in the league since 1957.
In 1936, Tony Lazzeri became the first player to hit two grand slams in one game- not home runs, but grand slams- and only eleven players have done it since in the majors (including Fernando Tatis hitting two in the same inning). In the roughly 300,000 games played since the turn of the 20th Century, only 12 players have done it. In the roughly 50,000 games played in the history of professional baseball in Japan, only one man has done it. Shigeya Iijima.
After the war, Iijima joined the Senators, who would become the Flyers the following year. During the 1946 season, his rookie season, he finished the season seventh in batting with a .312 average and second in home runs with 12, 8 behind fellow rookie and teammate HOF'er Hiroshi Oshita. He also led the Senators in runs, hits, doubles and walks to give him a league leading .426 OBP. All this while splitting fielding duties between first and third base. The following two seasons, the bespectacled Iijima's performance slowly declined, and by the middle of the 1948 season he was only hitting .206 and splitting first base duties with five other players. The presence of three future Hall of Famers, compounded by his age (born in 1918, he had been a 28 year old rookie in '46 and was now looking to be an old 30) most likely led the Flyers to believe that his poor numbers were not going to ever rebound- he was expendable. The following season he found himself, along with Makoto Kozuru (another future HOF teammate from the Flyers in '48), on the Stars of Daiei- leading them to a third place finish, five and a half games ahead of the Flyers. The pair led the Stars in almost every category, and the 31 year old Iijima finished the season with a .548 slugging percentage and 25 home runs, as well as 67 walks, all within the top five in the league.
The following season, several teams were added and two leagues were formed, and Iijima and the Stars took up shop in the new Pacific League. Even with the dramatic rise in stats that resulted from the influx of new players and new stadiums, Iijima still placed third in the PL in home runs and slugging percentage, and won his first of three Best Nine awards for the outfield. With the departure of Kozuru to the Robins, Iijima became the power-center of the Stars, leading them in almost every offensive category (though it is important to point out that Victor Starrfin, while pitching 35 games for the Stars, filled in a number of times at first base, compiling 114 at bats with at .333 batting average, 18 rbi and a .468 slugging percentage). During that four year span ('49-'52) Iijima's slugging percentage never dipped below .500, and he was the premiere run producer for his team (though the Stars never placed higher than third).
His least productive year during that span was 1951, yet it was in October of that year that he hit his two grand slams (off of a fairly terrible Braves pitching staff that had only one pitcher [4-3] with a record over .500). How was it that Iijima came to perform such a feat- a very good hitter at the tail end of a "dead ball" era, though certainly not at the top of the power-hitting elite in the league? Was his performance that October a fluke, or the rest of his career just unlucky enough to fall at the wrong time? Why has no one else done this- and why Iijima? How much does chaos and randomness affect the performan, and legacy, of a player- how does it ensure his place in any "hall of fame"? More on this in part II of this post.

A .282 career hitter, his 115 home runs were enough to place him at 11 on the all time home run list when he retired in 1955. Though he did not play long enough to compile the stats one might associate with a Hall of Famer, he packed a lot of power into a career that essentially began when he was 30 because of the war. What was more impressive was his eye, as in his batting eye. For every strikeout in his career, he drew 1.52 walks- only Kawakami, the God of Batting, had a higher percentage, with a 1.92 walk to strikeout ratio. Here is a list of the top eleven home run hitters of all time at the end of the 1955 season, along with their walk to strikeout ratio:

Tetsuharu Kawakami 1.92
Shigeya Iijima 1.52
Fujio Fujimura 1.48
Karao Betto 1.25
Yoshiyuki Iwamoto 1.16
Tokuji Iida 1.06
Michio Nishizawa 1.04
Makoto Kozuru 1.02
Hiroshi Oshita 0.87
Noboru Aota 0.74
Satoru Sugiyama 0.47

Just for comparison, here are the ratios for Bonds, Ruth and Aaron, respectively: 1.66, 1.55, 1.01. Some may say that the role of a power hitter is not to walk, but to hit the ball hard- but the name of the game is scoring runs, and if a power hitter can also get on base, they are a double threat.

During Iijima's last season with the Stars, he hit only 10 home runs, but he was still in the top 25 hitters in the league, drove in 60 runs and made the all-star team. Despite being, by far, the best player on the Stars that year, he found himself the following year, 1955, on the best team in the league- the Hawks. He provided depth for the Hawks, who went on to almost beat the Giants that year in a thrilling seven game Japan Series, but hit a disappointing .180 in 73 games and retired at the end of the season.
In the next post, look for more miracles- an analysis of a group under-represented in the Hall of Fame, and how random luck and fate plays a role in their legacies.

2009-04-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

The 1936 season, split into a tournament style competition in the Spring and a more conventional schedule in the Fall, kicked off professional baseball in Japan. Everything was new, and no player exceeded 150 at bats. The home run leader that Fall slugged 2, and the stolen base leader, Hisonori Karita, ended up with 16. Number four on that SB list, and in the top ten in batting and rbi, was Seiichi (or Kiyokazu) Hayashi, patrolling the outfield for the Kyojin in both the Spring and Fall seasons. In the Spring tournament he, along with Harayasu Nakajima, led the Giants with 1 home run, and in the Fall he led the new-born Giants in batting, rbi, stolen bases and hits. The Giants, the premiere team in 1936, a team that had already been playing professionally longer than any other team, won the first championship that year despite going 18-9 to the Tigers 24-6 due to their dominance in the tournaments played earlier in the season. One reason for that dominance was their ace, Eiji Sawamura, who outpitched everyone and went 13 and 2 in 15 games, winning almost twice as many games as his nearest competitor.
Unfortunately for both Hayashi and the Giants, he was drafted into the military in January of 1937 (according to Japan Baseball Daily), and would not return to a Giants uniform until 1940, after which he was never very affective and ultimately retired at the end of the 1947 season, another casualty of the long Pacific War.
During that mythic 1936 season, Hayashi patrolled the pre-Korakuen outfield with a sometime pitcher, sometime infielder, jack-of-all-trades named Hachiro Maekawa. While not providing pitching support to the Hall-of-Fame aces of the early Giants pitching staff, he filled gaps and supported every aspect of the team from 1936 through 1938. Though he played some in the industrial leagues, his true calling was in coaching young ballplayers. Born in Hyogo Prefecture, he returned to manage the Takigawa Middle School team, where, in the early 1940's, he taught the finer points of the game to a young Noboru Aota (below).

In 1946, with all of the weary soldiers returning from the war, Aota found himself on the Braves with an old friend and teacher in the bullpen- Maekawa. He pitched well, winning three and losing three while providing veteran leadership to a young pitching staff and easing young Aota back into the league that he would soon dominate.
The benefit Aota gained from not only learning the game early from a member of the original professional team in Japan, but also having the chance to then share the clubhouse and bench with that same teacher, cannot be measured. No doubt he received more intimate coaching and feedback than his teamates, and it is no wonder that he honed his skills so quickly and was back with the Giants within 2 years, setting records as a superstar.

Up Next: Miracles!

2009-04-14T18:08:00.000-07:00

Must point out that Tomoaki Kanemoto is right now hitting .528 with 44 total bases in 41 plate appearances for a 1.222 slugging pct.! Go Tigers!

2009-04-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

1948(pt.2)!-Triples-Doubles-

Kazuo Kasahara was robbed- not until the two league system formed in 1950 was an award given to the rookie of the year. Maybe it's fitting that Kasahara had his phenomenal 1948 season before the award existed- stats like those deserved a rookie of the decade award.
In right field for the Hawks in 1948, sharing the outfield with Toshio Kawanishi and Kazuo Horii, the rookie Kasahara became the first player in the history of professional baseball in Japan to hit 40 doubles. At the same time, he became the first player to score 100 runs in a season, no doubt aided by Hall of Famer Tokuji Iida's 92 rbi (though his 72 rbi placed him second on the Hawks, four ahead of manager/infielder/HOF star and 1948 MVP Tsuruoka). This combination of talent brought the Nankai team the first of several championships they would win over the next decade.

With Takahiso Bessho and Susumi Yumi on the mound, and fellow rookie Chisuke Kizuka already tearing up the basepaths, Kasahara and the Hawks won the second to last championship of the one-league system, edging out Aota, Kawasaki and the powerful Giants by 5 games. This was the beginning of a dynasty that would capture four of the first six Pacific League Championships.
A key factor in that dynasty would join the Hawks two years later, and win the 1951 Rookie of the Year while sharing first names with Kasahara (too bad they could not share the ROY award).

Sharing the infield duties up the middle with Chusuke Kizuka, as well as at the hot corner, Kazuo Kageyama (right) blazed into the Hawks line-up in the first year of the Pacific league and set the record for triples in a season (only to be broken the following season by Masayasu Kaneda- see below). While Kizuka was setting the mark for stolen bases in a season, Kageyama's triples helped the powerless Hawks (they were perennially at the bottom of the home run list) establish themselves as one of, if not the top team in the Pacific League. This combination of speed and golden gloves (the Hawks were at the bottom of the errors list each season as well) helped Kageyama, Kizuka, the veterans Tsuruoka, Kasahara and Iida, win and win- beating out the Lions, their nearest competitor in 1951, by 18 and a half games.
The Million Dollar Infield of Kageyama, Kizuka, Tsuruoka, Iida and Okamoto won the Best Nine (that is, a Hawk won the Best Nine for each infield position) in both 1951 and 1952, a feat that would not be accomplished again until the 1968 Giants, who also added catcher Masahiko Mori to the Best Nine trophy case - the Hawks would have accomplished it twice more, in 1953 and 1955, if not for the stellar play of Futushi Nakanishi at third base for the Lions.
In that 1951 season, Kageyama led the league in triples for the second season in a row (including becoming the first player after the war to hit three triples in a game, still a record tied with six others), while also leading in runs scored and coming in second in batting (behind Oshita, by an amazing .068!- .383 to .315). His 42 stolen bases ranked third (Kizuka was, once again, first), and his .403 on base percentage was second on the Hawks to fellow Kazuo, Kasahara's .418. That season, Kasahara (the other Kazuo, rookie of the 40's) also led the Hawks with a .507 slugging percentage, and provided the veteran leadership the Hawks needed- two years later, however, he was shipped off to the Unions.
Kazuo Kageyama, however, stayed with the Hawks until 1959 (when, after winning five of the first ten Pacific League pennants, the Hawks finally won their first Japan Series), but his productivity took a nose dive after the 1954 season. He led the league in triples almost every season until then, was the Pacific League's leader in triples for the 50's, and he is in the top 15 all time.

"The real trouble with war (modern war) is that it gives no one a chance to kill the right people." Ezra Pound said that in an epilogue to his tribute to Gaudier-Brzeska, the young sculptor who, days before being killed in an attack on Neuville St. Vaast, carved the Virgin Mary from the discarded butt of a rifle- an enthusiastic participant in the defense of France during the first World War- and at the same time a man of sensitive yet blinding artistic vision.
The image of Japanese ballplayers off to war is much like that of Gaudier-Brzeska, instead carving bats from the discarded rifles before charging out of the trench to their destiny. Even star players were thrust into glorious, yet terrifying roles that resulted in kamikaze missions and POW camps. The 1946 season, statistically at least, shows the weariness of that war- and the toll it took on all of the players who returned. Masayasu Kaneda, however, seems to have escaped that weariness. He came back with energy- in 1946 he not only led the league in batting, but set a new record for hits. A career Hanshin Tiger, and the popular captain of the team in the 50's, Kaneda played three lackluster seasons before the war, but returned to hit .347 while collecting 200 total bases for the first of 5 seasons. His true talent was in his combination of speed and power- a talent that led him to be the premier triples hitter in the 1950's.
The following season, in 1947, this talent, along with the blinding speed of Shosei Go and the power of the human locomotive, Fumio Fujimura, led the Tigers to their last championship for decades. Kaneda's 11 triples tied for the league lead, and his .311 average led the Tigers (who, as a team, led all teams in batting average by 25 points) and landed him second in batting in the league. He was also third in the league in runs scored, and carried a .419 slugging percentage.
1948- though he had a decent year (.280 average with 20 stolen bases and 75 runs scored), he was edged out of the limelight by the stars mentioned above- but he returned in 1949 to have his best season. That season he became one of only five players, along with Tokumitsu Harada in 1950, Yoshinori Hirose in 1965, Kenjiro Tamiya in 1956, and Kazuo Matsui in 2000, to hit at least 10 triples and 10 home runs while also stealing at least 20 bases and hitting 30 doubles (a 10, 10, 20, 30). (Yutaka Fukumoto came close in 1973 with 29 doubles, 10 triples, 13 home runs and 95 stolen bases, as did Toshio Naka several times in the 1960s, Shoichi Busujima in 1962, Shigeo Nagashima in 1960, Yasumitsu Toyoda in 1956, and Karao Betto in 1952.) This all around speed and power helped Kaneda score 108 runs and carry a .464 slugging percentage in that last year of the one league system.
After an off year in 1950, Kaneda had a career year in 1951- setting the all time mark for triples in a season (18), while hitting .322 and slugging .511. His 58 rbi and 81 runs scored kept up his eight year average of at least 50 rbi and 70 runs (1946-1953, though in two seasons he dipped one or two runs/rbis below average). Though the Tigers finished third, 20 games behind the powerful Giants, they were in close competition with the second place Dragons thanks to Kaneda's year. Along with Noboru Aota and Yoshiyuki Iwamoto, he was elected to the Best Nine- Outfield for the second of three times in his career.
By the end of his record setting season, he had accumulated 74 career triples (a total that would reach 103 by the time he retired in 1957), putting him one ahead of Shosei Go on the all time list, a position he would hold until 1970 when Shoichi Busujima (who had ended the 1969 season tied with Kaneda at 103, and who will be covered in a later post) surpassed him for the number one spot. Only Kaneda, Busujima and Hall of Famer Yutaka Fukumoto have over 100 lifetime triples- of those three Kaneda accomplished the feat in the fewest amount of at bats (5354ab to 7148 and 8745 ab, respectively). In addition, he hit more than 10 triples in a season six times, a feat no one has matched. And every season that he led the league in triples, he also led the league in doubles. His ability to consistently put himself into scoring position helped him to score 881 times, placing him at number three on the all time list when he retired in 1957- behind only Kawakami and Makoto Kozuru- as one of the premier run producers of the 1950's.

2009-03-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

1948! (pt. 1)

The year 1948 was the first power year in Japanese professional baseball. It was the first season in which any players reached the 100run, 100rbi, 25 home run, 40 double plateaus, and it was also the season in which records would be set in almost every major hitting category only to be immediately broken the following two seasons. It was the first season that Noboru Aota was back on the team to which his spirit was tethered - the Giants- and he declared his jubilation with power.

The first real season after the war- the season opening less than three years after the final bombs dropped on Tokyo, after THE bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most of the players in the league were former soldiers, and some of their former teammates were still in POW camps in Siberia and Northern China. Even the superstars, like Hiroshi Oshita, had been in line as Kamakazi pilots, prepared to give their lives for the Emperer. All of Japan was hungry and food was scarce- see the Kurosawa film “One Wonderful Sunday” to see the kids playing baseball in the middle of a dusty street, in a Tokyo that looks more like an old village than a bustling metropolis.

Between the two of them, Aota and Tetsuharu Kawakami (the "God of Hitting") hit 50 hr, more than any other team (besides the Tigers, who matched the pair with exactly 50) hit during the course of the first long (140game) season in the league's history. Records were set- Aota set the single season record for hits with 174, hr with 25, and missed by one to become one of the first three to break the 100 rbi plateau (the other two were Fujimura and teamate Kawakami). Kazuo Kasahara would become the first player to post 100 runs and 40 doubles in a season (more on him in pt. 2 of this post), and it was the first season since 1938 (aside from the war shortened '44 season) that at least one pitcher did not win 30 or more games).
It was not until he returned to the Giants that he was voted to the best 9 for outfielders, along with Kaoru Betto and Michinori Tsubouchi, with 19 stolen bases on top of 25 home runs and 99 rbi. and a .306 avg- the first of five times in his career. He led the Giants in AB, Hits, Runs, Total Bases and caught stealing.
He was second in the league in slugging with a .499 avg, trailing Kawakami by .023, and was second on the Giants in SB. Aota's 52 strike outs led the Giants, but trailed league leader Satoshi Sugiyama’s 86 by more than a few. This was just a warm up for his spectacular 1950 season in which his 134 rbi (still in the top 10 for rbi's in a season all-time) were matched by 29 stolen bases and a .332 avg.
But first- in 1948 Aota, his first season back with the Giants, came close to winning the triple crown, with a legue leading .306 average and 25 home runs, something not done since his teammate, Harayasu Nakajima (the Roger Connor of Japan, if you can swallow that type of analogy) had won it in 1938. No one would win a triple crown until 1965, though many came close: here is a list of players who led in two of the three TC categories (hr)(rbi)(avg) in a season between 1939-1964:

(C)=Central League, (P)=Pacific League

1939 Tetsuharu Kawakami (_)(75)(.338)
1941 Tetsuharu Kawakami (_)(57)(.310)
1947 Hiroshi Oshita (17)(_)(.315)
1948 Noboru Aota (25)(_)(.306)
1950(C) Makoto Kozuru (51)(161)(_)
1950(P) Karao Betto (43)(105)(_)
1951(C) Noboru Aota (32)(105)(_)

1951(P) Hiroshi Oshita (26)(_)(.383)

1952(C) Michiro Nishizawa (_)(98)(.353)

1953(C) Fumio Fujimura (27)(98)(_)

1953(P) Futoshi Nakanishi (36)(86)(_)

1955(C) Tetsuharu Kawakami (_)(79)(.338)

1955(P) Futoshi Nakanishi (35)(_)(.332)

1956(P) Futoshi Nakanishi (29)(95)(_)

1958(C) Shigeo Nagashima (29)(92)(_)

1958(P) Futoshi Nakanishi (23)(_)(.314)

1959(C) Toru Mori (31)(87)(_)

1960(C) Katsumi Fujimoto (22)(76)(_)

1960(P) Kazuhiro Yamauchi (32)(103)(_)

1961(C) Shigeo Nagashima (28)(_)(.358)

1962(C) Sadaharu Oh (38)(85)(_)

1962(P) Katsuya Nomura (44)(104)(_)

1963(C) Shigeo Nagashima (_)(112)(.341)

1963(P) Katsuya Nomura (52)(135)(_)

1964(C) Sadaharu Oh (55)(119)(_)

1964(P) Katsuya Nomura (41)(115)(_)

Though the list makes the feat seem easy, it is important to note that only four succeeded in leading the league in both Home Runs and Batting in the same season: Aota, Oshita (twice), Nakanishi and Nagashima.

Several players during this time led in two of the three catagories more than once, but only five of those players led in each category at least once:
Aota, Nakanishi and Nagashima, Kawakami and Fujimura- Oshita was never able to lead in rbi in a season. Only Kawakami accomplished it all in the one league system, and Aota was the only to cross over, leading the league in batting and home runs in the one league system, but leading in rbi in the two league system.

Gabriel Schechter recently wrote a great article for the HOF web site about career Triple Crown winners in MLB, highlighting the 9 players who led the league in each of the triple crown categories at least once in their career. So here is a list of all NPB players who led the league in each of the triple crown categories at least once (leaving out the triple crown winners: Nakajima, Oh, Nomura, Bass, Ochiai, and Wells):

Noboru Aota
Tetsuharu Kawakami
Futushi Nakanishi
Fujio Fujimura
Shigeo Nagashima
Koji Yamamoto
Kazuhiro Yamauchi
Nobohiko Matsunaka
Michihiro Ogasawara

In 1948, the Giants had a winning percentage over .600 but still lost out to the Hawks by 4 games. Though the Giants hit twice as many home runs as the Hawks that season, the Hawks stole almost 90 more bases than Yomiuri, and outpaced them in runs, hits, doubles and triples. Though future Giants star Takehiko Bessho won 26 games for the Hawks, their pitching did not compare to the Giants. Yomiuri had two 27 game winners- hall of famer Hiroshi Nakao, who posted a 1.84 era and 187 strike outs (leading the league), and Tokuji Kawasaki:

In 1948 Kawasaki posted a 2.32 era and 82 K's along with a 27-15 record. But it was his 12 shutouts in 25 complete games (still in the top 5 all time for a season), leading the Giants and the league, that belied his true talent. It was said that his shuuto was excellent (see Remembering Japanese Baseball for more), and he possessed a wide range of pitches that focused on style instead of overpowering hitters. Despite his ability to shut down opponents in complete game shutouts, when he did give up runs, he gave them up frequently, allowing over 20 home runs in both the 1949 and 1950 seasons.
He began his career before the war with the Hawks, showing potential but losing more games than he won (perhaps due to poor run support?). After the war he joined the Giants and excelled, winning 24, 27 and 19 games in three seasons. His 24 wins in 1947 came in 32 complete games, with a 2.14 era. Despite this stellar record, he was dealt to the Lions (formed the previous November to help populate the new Pacific League) in 1950.
Though he was an All Star in three seasons, he would not regain his 1948 form until the 1953 season. That season, Kawasaki would have faced several future hall of famers, all in the twilight of their careers- the best hitters in the league were all on his team. 1953 was his most prolific season, on a team that would rival the 49 Giants for greatness- though they were only at the early stages. Though the Lions finished in fourth, and under .500, the 1953 team was the germ that would become a contender: Futoshi Nakanishi, in his second year, led the league in home runs, just ahead of his teamate, rookie of the year Yasumitsu Toyoda, and trailed by Seiji Sekiguchi, a left fielder at the start of a great career (more on him in a later post). All three were following the lead of vetern star Hiroshi Oshita, who had been traded to the Lions two seasons before (immediatly after a season in which he set the single season record for batting, which would stand for almost 40 years). These stars would form the nucleus of a lineup that would drive one of the greatest teams in Japanese baseball history.
The addition of aces Sadaaki Nishimura, Kazuhisa Inao, and others would propel the Lions to greatness. Unfortunately, 1953 was Kawasaki's last season as the ace- soon he would be replaced by Inao and the aces of the future. However, his effectiveness as a reliever would help Nishitetsu to the Japan Series in '54, '56 and '57.
He pitched in two Japan Series with the Lions, proving far more effective in the 1954 series, picking up one win and posting a miniscule 0.60 era in 14 innings over 4 games, though the Lions eventually lost. Remarkably, he gave up 8 hits and 5 runs in only 2 innings work, posting a terrible 11.57 era in the Lions first Series victory in 1956. However, the miraculous pitching of rookie of the year Inao covered any poor performance by Kawasaki. His role in the 1957 series seems to have been strictly an advisory on, as he did not appear in any games.

For his career: when he retired in 1957 he was among the top 10 in wins, losses, k’s, shutouts and era. He is still in the top 25 in many of those categories.

Coming soon- 1948! pt. 2...

2009-03-12T05:53:00.000-07:00

May have spoken too soon about the curse- read Deanna's blurb about what needs to be done....

2009-03-11T17:06:00.001-07:00

A new post is coming soon-1948!-, but I thought I would share the news: The Curse of the Colonel has been lifted!

2009-02-20T12:30:00.000-08:00

Kizuka & Kanayama- Theft Champs of the 1950's

Chusuke Kizuka and Jiro Kanayama are number 4 and 6 on the all time stolen base list, respectively, and are the only players from the immediate post-war era to steal more than 400 bases.

From the beginning of professional baseball in Japan, the inside game has always reigned- speed had always been more popular than power. Read Rob Fitts' book on Wally Yonamine- though the style of base running has changed, the stolen base has been consistently popular throughout- NPB teams averaged 109 sb per season in 1946, 104 for PL in 52, 99 for the CL in 1963, 99 in PL in 1980, 52 by CL in 1993, 67 in PL in 2008. A slight decline, but still enough

From 1956, three years before his retirement, to 1970, Chusuke Kizuka (above right) was the all time stolen base record holder- like Aota, his achievement has been lost to time and the overwhelming achievments of his successors, including Yutaka Fukumoto and his record shattering 1065.

Here is a list of the all-time stolen base leader at the end of each season (2nd place in parentheses)

1936 (S&F)- 27 Karita, Hisanori (17 Matsuki, Kenjiro; Hiramasu, Toshio)
1937 (S&F)- 56 Karita, Hisanori (49 Yamaguchi, Masanobu)
1938 (S&F)- 71 Karita, Hisanori (66 Yamaguchi, Masanobu)
1939- 98 Karita, Hisanori (78 Matsuki, Kenjiro; Shima, Hidenosuke)
1940- 116 Karita, Hisanori (85 Ishida, Masayoshi)
1941- 123 Karita, Hisanori (100 Tsubouchi, Michinori)
1942- 144 Tsubouchi, Michinori (126 Karita, Hisanori)
1943- 180 Tsubouchi, Michinori (154 Go, Shosei)
1944- 196 Tsubouchi, Michinori (173 Go, Shosei)
1946- 222 Tsubouchi, Michinori (200 Yamada, Den)
1947- 243 Tsubouchi, Michinori (238 Go, Shosei)
1948- 273 Go, Shosei (279 Tsubouchi, Michinori)
1949- 287 Go, Shosei (279 Tsubouchi, Michinori)
1950- 316 Go, Shosei (307 Tsubouchi, Michinori)
1951- 344 Tsubouchi, Michinori (316 Go, Shosei)
1952- 344 Tsubouchi, Michinori (316 Go, Shosei)
1953- 344 Tsubouchi, Michinori (341 Kanayama, Jiro)
1954- 374 Kanayama, Jiro (362 Kizuka, Chusuke)
1955- 415 Kanayama, Jiro (400 Kizuka, Chusuke)
1956- 434 Kizuka, Chusuke (433 Kanayama, Jiro)
1957- 464 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1958- 478 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1959- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1960- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1961- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1962- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1963- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1964- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1965- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1966- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1967- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1968- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (456 Kanayama, Jiro)
1969- 479 Kizuka, Chusuke (467 Hirose, Yoshinori)
1970- 495 Hirose, Yoshinori (479 Kizuka, Chusuke)
1971- 531 Hirose, Yoshinori (479 Kizuka, Chusuke)
1972- 573 Hirose, Yoshinori (479 Kizuka, Chusuke)
1973- 577 Hirose, Yoshinori (479 Kizuka, Chusuke)
1974- 583 Hirose, Yoshinori (479 Kizuka, Chusuke)
1975- 593 Hirose, Yoshinori (504 Fukumoto, Yutaka)
1976- 595 Hirose, Yoshinori (566 Fukumoto, Yutaka)
1977- 627 Fukumoto, Yutaka (596 Hirose, Yoshinori)
……….
1988- 1065 Fukumoto, Yutaka (596 Hirose, Yoshinori)

He was voted to the best nine (similar to being an all star, but selected at the end of the season- one for each position including pitcher) as shortstop for the last two years of the one-league system (48 and 49) and as shortstop in the first 3 years of the Pacific League. After one year off he was again voted to the Best 9 as a shortstop in 1955. His best seasons corresponded to the best years of the Hawks, beginning in 1948 when his best-9 performance (assisted by Kazuo Kasahara, who will be discussed in another post soon) at shortstop helped his team capture the championship from the newly invigorated Giants, the only time in Kizuka's career that his Hawks would best the powerful Yomiuri team.

Kizuka began his career as a more balanced player, averageing 50 rbi and 45 sb a season in his first two seasons (48 and 49), but by 1950 had transitioned to a run scorer, stealing a then record 78 bases and scoring 94 runs while hitting .301. In his first 10 seasons, he stole 30 or more bases, and for his career posted an 81% success rate, second only to Yoshinori Hirose for players with more than 400 stolen bases. He played his entire career for the Nankai Hawks, under Kazuto Tsuruoka (aka Yamamoto), the Hall of Fame player/manager, and alongside Tokuji Iida, Kazuo Kageyama and Kazuo Horii, helping them to three consecutive pennants between 1951 and 1953, then again in 55, though they lost to the Giants (and Aota in 51 and 52) in each series. In 4 Japan Series he was terrible at the plate, batting .123 in 81 at bats, but he did steal 3 bases and hit a home run in the 53 series off of Takehiso Bessho (one of two homers in the same inning). The 1951 series was his best, with 4 hits and a stolen base, though his manager and fellow middle infielder Tsuruoka hit .421- and yet, the Hawks still lost in 5 games to Kawakami, Aota, and the rest of the powerhouse Giants. In the '55 series, Kizuka hit only .074 with two hits, one stolen base and one sacrifice, but was awarded Outstanding Technique in the Hawks 7 game loss.

In 1949, Kizuka came close to breaking the single season record for stolen bases, set the year before at 66 by Toshio Kawanishi, and then broke it the following season. That 1950 season was the first following the expansion of the NPB into two leagues, Cental and Pacific. Almost all previous records were broken during that 1950 season, due perhaps to the addition of 7 teams that spread the talent thin. Stolen bases were not immune: Kizuka and Jiro Kanayama set the standard (while shattering Kizuka's previous record) with 78 and 74, respectively. This mark stood until 1956, when it was broken by Akiteru Kono, and then set for good in 1972 by all time stolen base champ and Hall of Famer Yutaka Fukumoto at 106.

Jiro Kanayama (above) began his career in 1943 with the Chunichi Dragons, then known under their war-time moniker of Nagoya, but was used primarily in pinch hit situations as a sacrifice. In '44, however, he led the league in home runs, albeit with 3 in only 35 games. Like Kizuka, he was a middle infielder, and, for most of his career, he was paired with Hall of Famer Makoto Kozoru. They made a good pair in the field as well as at the plate, a fact that is most evident in the 1950 season. While Kozuru led the league in home runs and rbi for the Central League champion Robins, Kanayama led the league in at bats and stolen bases (setting the pace along with Kizuka in the Pacific League) while scoring 104 runs and hitting .311 (and supported by Shoji Arakawa, who led the league in triples and scored 88 runs as well).

Kanayama and Kozuru first played together on Dragons in the inagural season after the war, and helped the last place team in '46 move to 2nd place in '47. The 1947 Dragons were aided by slugger Seizo Furukawa (who will be covered in a later post), whose 11 home runs tied Noboru Aota of the Braves for 3rd on league leaders list. Kozuru and Kanayama moved together to the Flyers in '48, and then together to the Stars in '49, but did not do too much in helping Hiroshi Oshita ('48 HR leader and Flyers star) or Victor Starffin ('49 wins leader and Stars ace) out of the cellar. It was not until they moved (again, together) to the Robins in 1950 that they both hit their stride.

For the next 6 seasons, Kanayama averaged 52 thefts per season, and 68 runs per season, aided by Kozuru's slugging. He led the Cental League, or came in 2nd, in stolen bases every year between 1950 and 1952, but the Robins slid quickly, from champs in '50 to last place in '52. So, in '53, both he and Kozuru moved again, this time to the Hiroshima Carp. There they both wound down their career in Hiroshima [alongside Ryohei Hasegawa, the only hall of fame pitcher with a losing record thanks to the hapless Carp and Fibber Hirayama, who, upon his arrival from California received a huge welcoming parade in Hiroshima], helping the lowly Carp avoid the bottom of the Central league, but never helping them to achieve a .500 mark.

.......

A news magazine recently quoted director Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir) citing his mother as saying "there were no superheroes except for Federico Fellini". Fellini has said that we all have a bit of circus dust in the salty tang of our blood (though Fellini may have been more interested in the clowns than the superheros)- the nature of hero as entertainer as well as warrior- in Japan as well as Rome as well as Israel. Few things in baseball are as entertaining as a stolen base, the air of anticipation, the speed and grace and dramatic meeting of the ball and baserunner. Jackie Robinson steeling home is one of the most culturally significant contributions baseball has made to American culture: think of Jesse Jacksons famous eulogy in which he said that Jackie stole home, and he's safe. Aota, though a warrrior, was entertainer as well, strong as an ox and blasting home runs, fast on the basepaths and the only postwar player to have 250 hr and 150 sb; in addition he is one of only a handful (including Fujimura and most likely a few others) to have over 200hr and 150sb- though the 200/150 club does not have much of a ring to it. A five tool player, as described in the excellent new book by Rob Fitts, was rarely appreciated before Wally Yonemine, and so the 200/150 club members are remembered only for the 200- the heroics of power once again overshadowing the heroics of grace.

Back to the timeline:
Noboru Aota began his career with the Giants in 1942 and 43, but when he returned from the war, he spent two seasons with the Hankyu Braves:

It was with the Braves that he honed the skills that would bring him back to the team most connected with his spirit, the Giants. 1947 saw him tie for 3rd in home runs with Furukawa, and steal 20 or more bases for the second season in a row. The Braves of 46-47 were no powerhouse team, though they had some stars including Den Yamada, the Noguchi brothers (Akira and his Hall of Fame brother Jiro), Rentaro Imanishi, who won 20 games in 47, and Fujio Ueda, who left the Braves the following season to become an umpire. The following season his power and speed would catapult him to the top of the league, and his return to the Giants would help usher in a second golden age for the team.

Next Post: 1948!

2009-02-08T18:19:00.000-08:00

Dick Howser is remembered for his abilities as a coach and manager, and not as much for his days in the lineup as a short stop in the American League. However, his 1961 rookie card describes an imposing force: “Dick was a terror last year as his bat reaped destruction through two leagues.” Though it may be hard to picture Howser's bat reaping any type of destruction, the imagery of power and fear instilled by a ballplayer feeds to our perception of them as idols or spirits- gods that produce runs, runs being the blood of the game. Noboru Aota could produce runs at a destructive rate- he is one of the three players who played their careers before 1959 to finish with more than 1000 rbi. The other two are Tetsuharu Kawakami (the God of Batting) and Fumio Fujimura (with a bat named "clothesline"). His durability was matched by his seasonal terror: of the top 7 all time single season rbi record holders, four accomplished their feat in the powerhouse season of 1950, and Aota hit 134 that season, landing him at number 7 on the list (a mark that would be equaled 35 years later by Randy Bass as he helped the Hanshin Tigers win their first ever Japan Series). And between 1948 and 1951, he averaged 110 rbi per season- from the start, Aota was a reaper of runs, tied for the league lead in only his second season, that great 1943 season that was the last remnant of the original professional league. That '43 season was also the season that Den Yamada set the pre-war record for stolen bases in a season.

Yamada set the single season stolen base mark in 1943 with 56 stolen bases, just ahead of Hall of Famer Shosei Go, who had 54. Not too long after beginning his career in 1937, he was the first player, along with Yoshio Gomi (who, according to Japan Baseball Daily, was a POW in Siberia as well as a business owner after the war, opening a taxi stand with Makoto Kozoru and Jiro Kanayama [another SB champ who will be covered in the next post]) to steal 30 bases in a season.
After returning from the war, he did not miss a step in the 1946 season, ending up 2nd in the league in stolen bases with 36 . He played for the Braves that season , leading them in stolen bases, walks and runs, though his teammate, Noboru Aota, fresh from the war, was runner up in sb and runs. Aota led that great Hankyu team in both total bases and rbi, most likely driving in Yamada frequently. However, their best pitcher that year, Jiro Noguchi, who had won between 25 and 40 games for 5 seasons in a row before the war, but, like most of the men returning from that terrible war, was too exhausted to produce much- hence the low statistical record and fourth place finish for the whole team despite the great group of players that season.

Yamada spent his entire career with the Hankyu Braves, and only came close to winning a championship in 1941, when his team came in second to the Tokyo Kyojin (Giants) (who, with the exception of the spring 1938 season, when the Tigers won it all, had been at the head of the league at the end of every season since pro baseball’s inception). The 1941 Hankyu team included Kotaro Mori, who went 30-8 with a 0.89 era- though the season is the definition of a dead-ball era season. Yamada was 10th in the league in batting with his .234 average, and the only player to hit over .267 was Tetsuharu Kawakami, who beat out the competition by 43 points with a .310 mark. Though 6 of the 10 batting leaders were teammates of Kawakami on the pennant winning Kyojin (Giants), Hankyu's team average (led by Yamada) was .207, along with Kyojin the only team to hit over .200. The season ended only a few months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and baseball in Japan did not return to form until Yamada was ready to retire- a fading baseball hero in a time when heros were overlooked so that everyone could forget....

2009-01-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

Tamotsu Uchibori, a catcher who spent his entire career with the Yomiuri Giants, was part of the select group of players who made up the first professional team in Japanese Baseball History, playing an instrumental role in the first two golden eras of the Tokyo team. Of the four catchers to play on the early Giants teams, two died in the war in the Pacific. Uchibori was in Burma with one of them, Masaki Yoshiwara, who was considered to be an instrumental part of the early Giants and, by some, the best of all Giant's catchers. Though Uchibori hit safely only three times in Japanese Professional Baseball's inagural season, he handled most of the primary catching duties for the 1937 seasons (Spring and Fall- for a pitching staff that included future Hall of Famers Eiji Sawamura and Victor Starffin), recorded 71 total bases and 34 rbi in 308 at bats.

Though Uchibori's stats are not impressive, he played on many of the great early teams as well as having a few good years after spending five or six years at war. At 17, he is on the manifest for the M.S. Chichibu Maru, sailing from Yokohama on Valentines day in 1935 (along with Sawamura and Takeshi Nakayama, a fellow catcher who would later catch Sawamura's first no-hitter) for the Dai Nippon Tokyo Baseball Club's tour of North America. This was the team, formed by the Yomiuri Shimbun to, at first tour the U.S. and Canada, and then become the first professional team in Japan. By June, the team had made their way into the prairie provinces of Western Canada, to the town of Saskatoon. On the evening of June 19, Uchibori and his battery-mate, Eiji Sawamura, took on the Saskatoon All-Stars for 9 innings and shut them down 14-0. Uchibori scored a run and stole a base while recording 16 putouts and probably chatting with umpire "Bunny" Clouston. When the Dai Nippon team returned to Japan and became the Tokyo Giants, Uchibori continued until 1938, went off to war, and did not return until 1946. He became their primary catcher for the Giants during the birth of their second golden era, and was splitting the catching duties with Toshiyaki Takemiya when Noboru Aota returned to the team in '48.

Note on Sources: I pull much of my information from Daniel E. Johnson's statistical book of Japanese Baseball, the works of Rob Fitts and Robert Whiting, the Data Warehouse on the Japan Baseball Daily site as well as bits of information from my ongoing research into the subject. The cards are all from my collection. If you have any questions please feel free to email me.

2009-01-29T18:09:00.000-08:00

Unruly Bronco, Unruly Mustang, Restive Horse- these are some of the ways that Noboro Aota's nickname- jaja-uma - have been translated. His strength was legendary- accounts in the oral histories of Rob Fitts have him tossing grenades almost 230 feet- and his position at retirement as all-time home run leader in Japan illustrates the power he possessed. He liked to drink-while fighting with Takehiro Bessho he tore down a friends home and then drunkenly left- a flawed hero, like any hero should be. I am not sure why I venerate/revere a restive horse, why I collect these old heroes from a place I have never been. Maybe it is something handed down from civilization to civilization, but I am not sure if it is Zeus or Brahma who is responsible.

His first home run, some time in July or August of 1942(seven months after pearl harbor),a year when Seizo Furukawa led the league with 8 (I will feature him in the coming weeks), and the Giants were known under their wartime moniker the Tokyo Kyojin....... was the home run leader in five separate seasons 48, 51, 53, 56-57, the first of which he shared the title with teammate Tetsuharu Kawakami, when they were the only two players in the league to hit more than 20. That season he also led the league in batting, and came in third in the RBI race and just missing the triple crown and making his first best 9 along with Chusuke Kizuka (who I will also feature soon).....From his retirement in 1959 to 1963, when Yamauchi overtook him (albeit briefly, before he was taken over by Nomura and then Oh) Aota was the all time home run leader, though, I am not sure what, if any, fanfare was made about the feat. Here is a list of the all time leader at the end of each season beginning in 1938:

1938- 21 Nakajima, Haruyasu (15 Yamashita, Yamashita)
1939- 27 Nakajima, Haruyasu (22 Kageura, Masaru)
1940- 31 Nakajima, Haruyasu (22 Kageura, Masaru)
1941- 34 Nakajima, Haruyasu (23 Karita, Hisonori)
1942- 41 Nakajima, Haruyasu (23 Karita, Hisonori)
1943- 44 Nakajima, Haruyasu (25 Karita, Hisonori; Kageura, Masaru)
1944- 44 Nakajima, Haruyasu (25 Karita, Hisonori; Kageura, Masaru)
1946- 44 Nakajima, Haruyasu (33 Kawakami, Tetsuharu)
1947- 44 Nakajima, Haruyasu (39 Kawakami, Tetsuharu)
1948- 64 Kawakami, Tetsuharu (53 Oshita, Hiroshi)
1949- 91 Oshita, Hiroshi (88 Kawakami, Tetsuharu)
1950- 117 Kawakami, Tetsuharu (115 Kozoru, Makoto)
1951- 139 Kozoru, Makoto (133 Aota, Noboru)
1952- 156 Kozoru, Makoto (151 Aota, Noboru; Fujimura, Fumio)
1953- 178 Fujimura, Fumio (170 Kozoru, Makoto)
1954- 199 Fujimura, Fumio (191 Aota, Noboru)
1955- 220 Fujimura, Fumio (208 Aota, Noboru)
1956- 233 Aota, Noboru (224 Fujimura, Fumio)
1957- 255 Aota, Noboru (224 Fujimura, Fumio)
1958- 262 Aota, Noboru (230 Kozoru, Makoto)
1959- 265 Aota, Noboru (230 Kozoru, Makoto)
1960- 265 Aota, Noboru (230 Kozoru, Makoto)
1961- 265 Aota, Noboru (230 Kozoru, Makoto)
1962- 265 Aota, Noboru (230 Kozoru, Makoto)
1963- 265 Aota, Noboru (262 Yamauchi, Kazuhiro)
1964- 293 Yamauchi, Kazuhiro (274 Nomura, Katsuya)
1965- 316 Nomura, Katsuya (313 Yamauchi, Kazuhiro)
1966- 350 Nomura, Katsuya (331 Yamauchi, Kazuhiro)
1967- 385 Nomura, Katsuya (349 Yamauchi, Kazuhiro)
1968- 423 Nomura, Katsuya (370 Yamauchi, Kazuhiro)
1969- 465 Nomura, Katsuya (400 Oh, Sadaharu)
1970- 507 Nomura, Katsuya (447 Oh, Sadaharu)
1971- 536 Nomura, Katsuya (486 Oh, Sadaharu)
1972- 571 Nomura, Katsuya (534 Oh, Sadaharu)
1973- 599 Nomura, Katsuya (585 Oh, Sadaharu)
1974- 634 Oh, Sadaharu (611 Nomura, Katsuya)
......
1980- 868 Oh, Sadaharu (657 Nomura, Katsuya)

And why do I dote on him? Frank Gifford fumbled twice in the greatest football game ever played, and then went on to marry Kathy Lee. Fred Exley could only stand in the background as he cheered Frank on- We are all fan’s even if we want to be heroes, and heroes are strange.

"The question took me unawares, and I did not answer her for a long time. I had never before tried to articulate what the thing was, and I was fairly sure that whatever I said would come out badly and be taken all wrong. But I thought I would say something. The heavy hum of the wheels was beneath us, the darkness of the cab enshrouded us the atmosphere seemed conducive to talk. I told her about my first year in New York, how I had had this awful dream of fame, but that, unlike Gifford- who had possessed the legs and the hands and the agility, the tools of his art- I had come to New York with none of the tools of mine, writing." -Exley, "A Fan's Notes"230-231.

2009-01-29T17:39:00.000-08:00

Each post I plan to highlight the career of a player who, like Aota, was great in his day but has not been recognized by the Hall of Fame. I am not endorsing their enshrinement- just showing the images and feats of great players from the past. Since the focus is on Home Runs, here is a great home run hitter of the 50's:

Satoshi Sugiyama

He was an instrumental part of the 1954 Dragons championship team- a team for whom he hit almost half of the home runs in the season: 28 of 70. He also led the league in rbi and, along with Michio Nishizawa, a rookie infielder named Noboru Inoue (who would go on to be one of the star infielders of the 50's), and Shigeru Sugishita, led the Dragons to a 86-40 mark, winning the Cental League from the Giants by 5 and a half games. They were led by Hall of Famer Shunichi Amachi, a former Mejii University catcher in his fourth year as Dragons mangager. They won the series, only the fifth ever played, in 7 games against the first of the powerhouse Lions teams- though Sugiyama played in only one game and got only one hit (thought he did score a run). The Dragons would not win another Series until the Perfect 7th game of the 2007 Series. That season he was one of the three outfielders to be named best 9 in the Central League, along with Hiroyuki Watanabe and Wally Yonemine, and was voted to the all star team as well.

Beginning in 1948 he was one of the top hr hitters of the 1950's- by 1959 he was one of only five players to have accumulated 200 home runs, along with Aota, Fumio Fujimura, Makoto Kozuru and Michio Nishizawa. However, his 789 strikeouts leads all of these home run hitters. In only his second season, 1949, he was one of the five players to hit more than 30 home runs, along with Fujimura, Nishizawa, Betto and Oshita. He also twice led the leauge in strikeouts, and never broke the 100 rbi barrier. In 1952, when the power surge caused by the expansion to two leagues had died down, he made the best nine for the first of two times while leading the league in Home Runs with 27 and hitting .306 with a .639 slugging percentage. He spent his last year helping the newly christened Buffaloes (a name much more charming and appropriate than Pearls) climb out of the cellar- they finished with fewer than 90 losses for the first time in three seasons. After he left, the Buffaloes lost a record 103 games in 1961, while he went on to a long coaching career.

2009-01-13T03:14:00.000-08:00

When I dreamed up this forum, the idea was to shine a light on the great players of the early era of baseball in Japan- players like Aota who were great but had not yet been recognized by the Hall of Fame. However, this morning I learned of the election of Aota to the Hall- I am filled with both excitement and sadness. Excitement for the one to whom I believe this honor is a long time coming, but sadness that the unsung hero of my story will no longer be the flag-bearer of the cause. Still, I think it is a good place to begin, at an ending. So, from now on, this will highlight other players who will one day be recognized as Aota has been......