Going Big: Japanese Baseball’s Impact on the Major Leagues

Leron Lee stands behind a podium as the proud owner of multiple highly regarded baseball records. His statistics are impressive, his career accomplishments numerous, and his demeanor engaging. He comes from a family of athletes, as he is the uncle of Chicago Cubs’ first baseman Derrek Lee and brother of Leon Lee, another former star. Why, then, would he need an introduction before a gathering of baseball fans at a recent appearance in a San Francisco?

As it turns out, Lee is largely unknown to American fans because he spent the bulk of his productive seasons playing baseball in Japan. While Lee did spend time with Major League franchises, his major impact on the sport took place during his 11 years playing for the Mainichi Orions of the Pacific League. Lee, who is 56 years of age, provides the insights and knowledge of a player raised in America, but because of his experiences in Japan he has a unique understanding of baseball and sporting cultures in both lands.

On this Wednesday night, Lee is a member of a panel along with author Robert Whiting and sportscaster Steve Bitker, all of whom have been asked to explain the impact of Japanese professionals to the highest level of baseball in the United States. The setting is the elegant Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill, and the evening is hosted by the Japan Society of Northern California. Around 50 guests are in attendance, a rather small turnout considering that the event was open to the general public and the space allowed for around 100.

Those who did arrive, however, were privy to the trio’s knowledgeable banter about topics as wide ranging as Hideki Matsui’s impact on the New York economy and differences in training techniques between the two countries. Whiting wryly informs us that this is yet another stop on his “19-city death tour” in support of his new book The Meaning of Ichiro. In a typical use of international baseball jargon, he likened his heavy travel schedule to a rigorous “1000 fungo drill” employed at baseball practices in Japan. An accomplished writer, Whiting has written several novels, traveled extensively, and been a journalist for myriad publications such as The New York Times. Bitker is a morning sports anchor for radio station KCBS, author, and occasional announcer for the Oakland Athletics. While he mostly performs the role of moderator, he has spent time in Tokyo and intelligently questions Lee and Whiting on subjects with which he has obvious familiarity. This is not surprising, as he explains that his “two great loves” are Japan and baseball.
The seminar is entitled “Play Ball: Godzilla in the Major Leagues,” but the major goal of its planners is to make sense of the effect of Japanese pros on the American game as well as the cross-cultural exchange that has resulted. According to Whiting, the first such player was Masanori Murakami, a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and 1965. Despite his efforts, no one would follow Murakami’s path until Hideo Nomo took advantage of a contractual loophole and risked his reputation in Japan to leave Kintetsu for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995. There is little doubt that Nomo’s presence in America enticed many residents of Japan to pay attention to American baseball. For example, Whiting remembers an elderly woman in Tokyo approaching him to ask why the Dodgers had recently acquired a struggling pitcher for their starting rotation.

The idea of Japanese competing in the United States has not always held popular appeal. Whiting quoted Lee himself as saying “the Japanese and American games are on parallel tracks that will never cross” in his 1989 work You Gotta Have Wa. Additionally, the author confides that his first book was turned down by 13 publishers complaining that baseball and Japan were both “bad sellers” when it came to subject matter. Now, however, he likes to point out how successful recent players have been in both drawing American fans and further piquing Japan’s interest in the game. His anecdotal support is convincing: Hideki Matsui is credited with bringing $100 million to the New York economy in 2003, and the Seattle Mariners sold enough souvenirs in the first two weeks of Spring Training to cover Ichiro Suzuki’s entire salary. The home stadiums also show signs of their arrival: Yankee Stadium routinely sports advertisements in Japanese, and the Mariners’ Safeco Field has found a niche selling “Ichi-roll” sushi to hungry fans. Such players’ publicity often transcends their play on the field: the author explained that TV Guide had named Matsui one of the ‘23 Most Lovable Men’ for his affable demeanor and hospitality toward media and fans.

The relatively large number of Japanese-born players in the Major Leagues in recent years has prompted the broadcasting of hundreds of games per year in their homeland. According to Whiting, even exhibition Mariners games appear on television, and every regular season Yankees contest is also available. Bitker mentions that $275 million was paid for the rights to broadcast Major League games in Japan. As a show of support for Japanese fans, MLB began the 2004 season with Matsui’s Yankees playing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the Tokyo Dome for two games. As if on cue, Matsui homered in the series and had his best games of the young season in his homeland.
What Leron Lee did not anticipate was a phenomenon which has significantly altered baseball and Japanese-American relations as well as globalization in general. To Lee, the influx of professional Japanese players to American baseball’s highest level particularly in the last several years is a mirror image of a phenomenon that began decades ago in which some talented Americans opted to sign with Japanese teams. He uses as examples players like himself, his brother Leon, and stars of the past such as Joe Pepitone. One debate that American players in Japan create is the definition of exactly what makes a Japanese athlete. For instance, Sadaharu Oh, a much-revered player, had a Chinese mother, and pitcher Hideki Irabu is of mixed parentage. However, American pros face some forms of discrimination: Tuffy Rhodes has played in Japanese baseball and was denied a chance to break the home run record after he tied Oh’s mark because at the end of the season a team simply refused to pitch to him. That team, interestingly, was managed by Oh, who received scorn in the Asahi Shimbun for his club’s actions, who called them ‘disgraceful.’

Baseball has contributed to, and perhaps coincided with, a new surge in the popularity of Japanese culture in America. Whiting is amazed to see Americans honoring Ichiro by wearing headbands with kanji written on them, but also is fascinated by non-sporting influences like manga and sushi, of which many were unaware as recently as a decade ago. Lee is of the same opinion, saying he couldn’t have envisioned Nintendo owning the Seattle franchise or minor outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo selling the most souvenirs on the San Francisco Giants. Whiting believes part of the openness between the two nations has to do with shifting attitudes toward foreigners in general on the part of the Japanese. He points out that in the middle of the 1980s, above 50% of Japanese polled did not want their children to marry a non-Japanese citizen. However, this changed dramatically the decade afterward. It also helps Japanese players that they are taught English from an early age, says Lee. While most Americans learning Japanese begin from a ‘blank slate,’ a majority of Japanese understands English and thus has a foundation from which to proceed. He mentions Seattle relief pitcher Shigetoshi Hasegawa, who at first struggled at press conferences to physically speak the language but significantly built up his confidence over time.

While the audience seemed a little surprised that Ichiro was the subject of more attention than the headline name Matsui, the commentary was received warmly. When asked about the most recent acquisition of the New York Mets, shortstop Kazuo Matsui, Lee replied astonishingly that he was half a step quicker than Ichiro himself. Another guest inquired about Ichiro’s skill level; according to Whiting, some professionals believe he’s the best all-around talent they have ever seen. If there is anything the panelists hoped to demonstrate, it was that baseball is one of many bridges that can bring cultures together. Whiting quoted former Giants manager Dusty Baker, who when asked about his player Shinjo’s hairstyle commented simply, “He’s pretty cool.” Finally, it seems that the American public is largely in agreement about the ever-increasing numbers of Japanese players in the nation’s most hallowed pastime.