Twenty-five years ago, in April 1999, there were six Japanese players on Major League Baseball rosters. Hideo Nomo was the most famous of the bunch, but there were other names, too. Masato Yoshii, Hideki Irabu, Mac Suzuki and Shigetoshi Hasegawa ended up pitching at least five MLB seasons. They were big leaguers and trailblazers. But they were rarities in MLB, which by and large still treated Japanese players as if they had something to prove.
When Darvish debuted in 2012, a Japanese player finding stardom in the United States still qualified as a rarity. The first Japanese standout to make the leap was reliever Masanori Murakami,began with the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and ended a year later when a contract dispute with his NPB team forced him to return to Japan.
“The trend of Japanese players wanting to come play across the ocean started with the legend Ichiro. Everyone looked up to him. More recently it’s Darvish; he played a big role. Then came Ohtani. And I think more and more Japanese players are coming over, and everyone is looking up to them,” Senga said through an interpreter. “Because they look up to them, they want to come over here.”His two innings of one-run ball and two strikeouts in that game were eclipsed by Ohtani’s relief appearance and.
“Back in the day, I think kids in elementary school wanted to become professional baseball players. Now, I think kids in elementary school want to go to the U.S. to become a professional baseball player. It’s so much more tangible.”, for example, seemed to plant the seeds of belief that led Nomo and others to make the jump later that decade.
He worried his son, who was the top-ranked Japanese high school player last year largely because of his power, might find himself docked because of what he does not do well instead of lauded because of what he does. He said, in his experience, MLB evaluators are more willing to overlook shortcomings in one area of a player’s game to foster excellence in another.
“Organizationally in Japan, they like to stick to their roots, stay with the ways they have been doing things, so it can be a little tough for players to try new things. But the players themselves are not like that at all. They’re eager to learn,” Senga said. “Whatever is trending over here, they’re eager to learn, and they’ll try new things to get better and make their way over here.”
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