Like every other aspect of life following World War II, baseball had to be rebuilt in Japan. The sport was in its infancy prior to the war, and gaining in popularity as evidenced by throngs of Japanese fans who turned out in the 1930s to see American barnstorming teams that included Babe Ruth.
Animosity from the war lingered for a quarter century after WWII, and played a role in keeping Japanese players from making the transition to Major League Baseball. That and the fact the level of play in Japan was that of an upper-level minor league team in the USA.
Add it all up, and we’re left wondering what might have been if not for the war, and asking if we missed out on an epic battle between home run sluggers because of it.
Let’s look at the top Japanese players that made an impact in the MLB, some of whom may still be influencing your activity at baseball betting sites.
1 Sadaharu Oh
By the time Sadaharu Oh made his debut for the Yomiuri Giants in 1959, Henry Aaron already had 140 home runs and a World Series ring with the Milwaukee Braves. Roughly 14 months after Aaron hit his 755th – and final – home run of his career in 1976, Oh crushed number 756 for Yomiuri in 1977.
Oh would hit another 112 home runs after that, ending his career with 868. While Oh was going deep on pitchers who weren’t of the same caliber as those in the major leagues, most fans today acknowledge his 868 are more legit that Barry Bonds’ 762.
Aaron and Oh had more in common than just being great sluggers. Jackie Robinson had barely broken the color line when Aaron broke into the majors, and Aaron received death threats as he drew nearer to Ruth’s record. Oh’s father was Chinese, and he was barred from playing in some national events in Japan because of that.
Oh’s patented ‘flamingo stance’ and home run swing never took the MLB stage, but his impact was still huge and stretched across the mighty Pacific Ocean to break the stigma of Japanese baseball simply being a bunch of singles hitters.
2 Hideo Nomo
It would be 16 years after Oh retired from baseball that the first bona fide Japanese star made it to MLB, and Hideo Nomo’s sustained success ushered in the wave of Japanese players who have followed him to the bigs.
It wasn’t quite as big as ‘Fernandomania’ that swept through Los Angeles a decade earlier when Fernando Valenzuela donned a Dodgers jersey, but it was close. And just like Valenzuela scabbed over old wounds between Hispanics and the Dodgers with this arrival, Nomo gave Asian-Americans a hero to call their own, forever changing the demographics of MLB fans.
Nomo certainly had his skeptics in the press in 1995 when he bolted on the scene. The same writers who downplayed his numbers from Nippon Professional Baseball quickly changed their tunes when Nomo was 6-1 with a sub-2.00 ERA at the All-Star break.
He would go on to win a pair of strikeout titles during his 12-year career, and Nomo eventually hung ‘em up after a failed comeback bid in 2008. He was the only Japanese player in the majors in 1995, and there will be at least 10 in 2024.
3 Yu Darvish
Early in the movie Bull Durham, Nuke LaLoosh argues with catcher Crash Davis and demands to throw a fastball to “announce my presence with authority.” Yu Darvish used an assortment of pitches to announce his presence in the majors with authority.
Though the Mariners knocked him around a bit in his MLB debut for Texas, Darvish picked up the win and would go 16-9 with a 3.90 ERA during his 2012 rookie campaign. In his first start of 2013, Darvish was an out away from a perfect game against the rival Astros.
He didn’t get the perfect game, but Darvish did get the win and has been piling those up ever since.
4 Ichiro Suzuki
If this list was all about my personal favorite Japanese player, it would begin and end with Ichiro Suzuki. A throwback to an era gone by, if he’d been playing baseball 100 years earlier, it might have been Ichiro being hailed the game’s greatest hitter instead of Ty Cobb.
He didn’t just impact the game by being Japanese, but by obliterating the record books as a member of the human race. Ichiro exploded on the scene as a 27-year-old rookie in 2001, and recorded 200-hit seasons each of his first 10 years in the majors.
In 2004, Ichiro amassed 262 hits to break a record that stood for 84 years, and despite the late start to his career, he still reached the coveted 3,000-hit plateau and ranks 35th all-time with 509 stolen bases.
5 Shohei Ohtani
If there’s one thing Nomo, Darvish and Ichiro had in common with Yu Darvish, it’s that each faced intense media scrutiny, not only from the American press but also the Japanese.
If there’s one thing they didn’t have in common with Ohtani, it’s that none of them could pitch and hit as well as the superstar. Then again, the only player who could was Babe Ruth.
Shohei Ohtani’s 2023 was one for the ages. 👏 pic.twitter.com/i3uBA4nxPT
— MLB (@MLB) September 16, 2023
Relegated to just the role of a hitter for the coming 2024 season due to an arm injury, Ohtani’s current impact on the game is almost immeasurable. The Dodgers, who just inked Ohtani to a huge contract, hope to one day measure it in World Series titles.
