On the blog today, from my recent "Whole Nine: Series 2" custom set
released a few months back, my "missing" 1966 card for Masanori
Murakami, the first Japanese-player to play Major League ball:
While
mainly known as the groundbreaking player from Japan, many may forget
that he was nothing short of excellent in his brief two year career in
the Big Leagues, and could have gone on to put in a wonderful career
here in the States if it wasn't for issues with the fact that he was
wanted back in Japan to play by Japanese officials.
As a
20-year-old making the historic switch to American ball, Murakami fared
very well in 1964, going 1-0 over nine appearances, with a sparkling
1.80 ERA over 15 innings of work, striking out 15 against only one walk,
picking up a save.
After an off-season that had a lot of
arguing between both sides of the Pacific as to where he'd play in 1965,
Murakami was back with the San Francisco Giants, once again proving
himself a worthy pitcher in the Majors, going 4-1 over 45 appearances
with a 3.75 ERA in 74.1 innings of work, striking out 85 against 22
walks, recording eight saves.
This performance got him a ton
of attention both here and in Japan, becoming somewhat of a folk hero in
his home country, with Murakami believing he'd be playing in the States
for the foreseeable future.
However, Japanese officials
convinced him to stay in Japan to play there, causing some fighting
among officials for both countries, each side arguing as to why Murakami
should be playing for them, eventually causing a rift between American
and Japanese ball that would exist for decades after that.
With
his home country putting pressure on the young pitcher, he decided to
resign with the Nankai Hawks, even though he did want to return to the
States to play for the Giants, thus ending his career in the Big
Leagues.
His final numbers were great, going 5-1 over 54
games, with a 3.43 ERA over 89.1 innings, striking out 100 batters
against only 23 walks, with nine saves for the Giants.
He
would return to play in Japan, where he'd put in another 17 seasons,
finishing with a record of 103-82 over 566 games, retiring after the
1982 season.
Incredible that we'd have to wait until a fellow
by the name of Hideo Nomo came along to see another Japanese player make
it here in the States.