Japanese Baseball Players
By: Aaron Bible
History of Japanese Baseball
• Baseball is one of the most popular sports
in Japan. It was introduced to Japan in
1872 by Horace Wilson, who taught at the
Kaisei School in Tokyo. The first baseball
team was called the Shimbashi Athletic
Club and was created in 1878.
1st Japanese player in U.S.
• Masamori Murakami was the first
Japanese baseball player to play in the
U.S..
• He played for the San Francisco Giants for
just over 1 season.
• He debuted on September 1, 1964. His
last major league appearance on October
1, 1965.
• He actually had some success here with a
career ERA of 3.43 in his MLB career.
Here he is folks.
Hideo Nomo
• He was the second Japanese player to
play in MLB.
• He had a very successful MLB career
spanning 13 MLB seasons.
• His career highlights feature rookie of the
year in 1995. Plus throwing two no-hitters
in both 1996 and 2001.
Hideo Nomo everybody…
Ichiro/Hedeki Matsui
• Ichiro sighed with the Seattle Mariners in
2001 and has played greatly with them
ever since.
• He has the record for most hits in a single
season at 256. In 2001 he received MVP
and rookie of the year award in the same
year.
• Hedeki Matsui a.k.a. “Godzilla”. Has
played in the Majors since and has had
similar success, although his power is
fading.
Tsuyoshi Nishioka
• In the last offseason the Twins outbid
every other team for the right to negotiate
on a contract with him.
• He later agreed on a three year deal worth
9.75 million dollars.
• Just 10 days after making his debut,
Nishioka broke his fibula trying to turn a
double play.
Pictures
Quick Facts
• There are 44 players from Japan who
have played in the majors.
• There are 13 active players.
• There are 31 inactive or retired players.
• Most Japanese players who come over
are pitchers.
• Japanese middle-infielders have not had
much success in MLB.
Thanks for watching!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeIPsl
Oqs3g