Asian and Asian Americans in Major League Baseball
By Anthony Hayes
This spring the New York Mets’ Benny Agbayani accomplished something that every young baseball player dreams of: He hit a grand slam home run to win the first game of the major league season before 60,000 screaming fans.
The twist is that Agbayani, 28, and a native of Hawaii, was in Tokyo, Japan when he hit the historic shot against the Chicago Cubs. It was the first major league game to ever be held outside of the Americas or Hawaii. It’s fitting that Agbayani, who is Filipino and Samoan American, is a true child of the Pacific Rim.
“It meant a lot to me because I was on the Pacific when I hit it,” the player says. “Japan and Hawaii have a great connection going on. Heck, they own half the Islands. When my career ends, I think they will remember me back there.”
The Agbayani home run in Japan was just the latest bulletin in a long series of news flashes in the past few years touting Asian and Asian American baseball players.
First Came Hideo Nomo
The phenomenon began in 1995 when lefty Hideo Nomo bolted the Japanese major leagues, joined the Los Angeles Dodgers and proceeded to set the baseball world on its ear with his dazzling pitches and corkscrew delivery. Prior to Nomo, the last foreign-born Asian player in the big leagues was Masanori Murakami. Murakami pitched for the San Francisco Giants from 1964 to ’65.
But Nomo was different. At 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, Nomo led the National League in strikeouts in his first season with the Dodgers and posted an outstanding 2.54 earned run average. Nomo won N.L. Rookie of the Year award honors. In 1996 he had another outstanding season, winning 16 games, including a no-hitter at home run happy Denver. After Nomo, Asian players weren’t considered inconsequential 98-pound weaklings. It was, as the T-shirts and banners proclaimed, “Nomo Mr. Nice Guy.”
Since then teams have searched throughout Asia for the next Nomo. From Korean sandlots to Taiwanese college diamonds, wherever baseball is being played, there’s a good chance an American scout has passed through.
Currently there are many Asian players in the majors. They include Los Angeles’ Chan Ho Park, Kansas City’s Mac Suzuki, Seattle’s Kazuhiro Sasaki, Anaheim’s Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Byung-Hyun Kim of Arizona, Colorado’s Masoto Yoshii and Montreal’s Hideki Irabu. Nomo is now with Detroit where he remains a very effective starting pitcher.
“Without Nomo, this would not have happened. He became a bigger star here than he ever was in Japan,” says Lenn Sakata, 48, a former major league infielder and current manager of the Bakersfield Blaze, a San Francisco Giants minor league club. “It would have been different if he struggled. Nomo boosted confidence in the players over there that they could come to the states and do well.”
Sakata is something of a sensei (teacher) when it comes to the history of Asians and Asian Americans in baseball. A fourth-generation Japanese American from Hawaii, he played in parts of 11 major league seasons with four different teams. Sakata also had the unique opportunity to play and manage in the Japanese professional leagues. He spent the four seasons, 1994-’97, managing the Chiba Lotte Marines, a Japanese minor league team. Today, players such as Agbayani seek his advice.
Though playing in the United States is seen as a viable option for many Asian prospects, Sakata says a good percentage of Japanese players still look at playing in America with caution.
“Some are afraid to come over. They are making a good living there, and the United States is still somewhat of the great unknown,” Sakata says. “The players over there have become more independent. Guys are holding out for more money—something they didn’t do before.”
Some baseball critics have speculated that major league clubs have signed Asian players in part for their drawing power at the turnstiles—and once the novelty of seeing Asian players wears off, fewer teams will pursue them. Eric Kubota, the international scouting director of the Oakland A’s and one of a few Asian Americans working in baseball operations for a major league team, doubts many teams would be that calculating, but he says clubs have noticed the drawing power of Asian ballplayers.
“I don’t think a team would make a player move solely for public relations reasons. But on the other hand, I think the Los Angeles Dodgers management is very aware that when Chan Ho Park pitches at Dodger Stadium it helps attendance,” Kubota says.
Asian Americans Underrepresented
But there’s an odd twist to the Asian invasion of major league baseball. While the recent Asian imports have proven to have major league skills in overseas teams, big league scouts have traditionally ignored and continue to overlook Asian American players.
Only a handful of American-born-and-raised players of Asian heritage have appeared at the big league level. The current Asian American players list includes Agbayani, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Danny Graves and Chicago White Sox pitcher Jim Parque. Atlanta’s Bruce Chen was born and raised in Panama.
In spite of that, Asian Americans have had a long and interesting history in baseball, in leagues of their own. In the 1920s, a semi-pro league of Japanese Americans flourished on the West Coast. The teams’ impact didn’t approach that of the Negro Leagues, but they were very popular with the Japanese American community. Teams would travel from town to town on weekends and compete in privately owned ballparks. Occasionally the clubs competed against barnstorming all-star teams composed of such baseball legends as Babe Ruth. During World War II, the games continued in the internment camps, and baseball is often credited in helping raise spirits in those dreary locales, far from home.
Later, Asian American ball players paved the way for today’s players. Sakata, all-star pitchers Ron Darling and Atlee Hammaker, and outfielder Mike Lum were among them.
Agbayani, a husky, 6-foot, 225-pounder who sports an intricate tattoo on his left bicep combining a traditional Polynesian pattern and motif of baseballs and bats, says making the adjustment to professional baseball was difficult.
“No one on my team was from a similar background or culture. Some people thought I was Latin or black,” says Agbayani. “It got very lonely. I didn’t have anyone from my own race to talk to. In Hawaii, everyone gives you a hug. Here, they just give you a handshake. There’s no feeling of ohana [family].”
Darling, another Hawaiian product, was a standout starting pitcher for more than a decade with the Mets and the Oakland A’s. Now an up-and-coming broadcaster on the cable TV’s Fox Sports Net, Darling co-hosts the daily nationwide show “Baseball Today.”
Darling, whose mother is Chinese-Hawaiian, says scouts may find it easy to overlook Asian American talent.
“Scouts look for raw talent. If a player is extra fast or has a strong arm, he’ll get noticed. Scouts will get a feather in their cap if they find a kid who’s 6-foot-4, 240 pounds, who can throw the ball through a brick wall,” says Darling. “But just because he’s big and strong doesn’t mean he knows how to pitch, or has finesse and good control.
“On the surface, it looks better to recommend a player who looks like a big leaguer over a smaller Asian kid who might not throw as hard but knows how to throw strikes and pitch with finesse. I like to remind people of tennis player Michael Chang. He’s not the biggest tennis player and doesn’t hit the ball as hard as others. But no one has as much heart, and he knows how to win.”
Darling believes that the influx of Asian baseball talent from around the world will result in more Asian American prospects being inked.
“I think baseball has to start looking in their own backyard for hidden talent as well as around the world. I know for a fact that there are hundreds of Korean kids in L.A. who live and die with the Dodgers. After Chan Ho Park pitches, they go out to the backyard to play catch and they’re throwing the ball just a bit harder,” Darling says.
So why haven’t more Asian Americans succeeded in professional baseball? Sakata says old prejudices still exist regarding smaller ball players. The teams seem to forget that the baseball Hall of Fame is full of small players such as Phil Rizzuto, Pee Wee Reese, Joe Morgan and Wee Willie Keeler.
“I used to hear a lot of cracks about my size,” Sakata says. “Because I was small, people thought I was weak. So at times, I think I tried to overcompensate by trying to hit home runs,” the 5-foot-9 Sakata says.
Baseball also has a reputation of harboring its share of intolerant rednecks. John Rocker’s recent infamous diatribe against minorities and gays—and the standing ovations he received at Atlanta home games after those comments—are proof that those attitudes still exist in the game.
“When I was playing I would hear ethnic slurs from the stands, especially in eastern cities like Cleveland and Detroit,” Sakata says. “There are always going to be mean bastards out there. Baseball provides a great learning experience in human relations. People come from all over the world and live together with one common link: the love of baseball.’’
Behind the Scenes
In addition, few Asian Americans have occupied front office or coaching positions in baseball. Wendell Kim of the Boston Red Sox is the lone Asian American with an assistant coaching position in the big leagues. Meanwhile, Oakland’s Kubota and Kim Ng, assistant general manager with the New York Yankees, are two of the first Asian Americans to work in baseball operations at the big league level.
Ng, 31, describes herself as a lifelong athlete. She grew up in New York City playing softball. Ng broke into professional baseball as an intern in the Chicago White Sox’s front office. She’s now in her third season with the Yankees, and the team has won the World Series during her first two seasons with them.
Today her duties range from player evaluations to contract negotiations. “In other words, everything it takes to put a winning team on the field,” Ng quips. As a woman and a minority, Ng belongs to two groups that have been scarce in baseball front offices.
“I think I will have more obstacles as a woman as opposed to being Asian. The Asian markets have opened up. We are very involved in Asia and have recently signed a Taiwanese prospect,” she says.
She’s optimistic that the recent influx of Asian talent will lead to more positions in coaching and front office jobs for Asians and Asian Americans. “I think the minority hiring efforts baseball is currently focusing on are on Hispanics and African Americans, because those are the players you see on the teams. I think once you see more Asians on the field you’ll see that reflected in more coaches and managers being hired,” Ng says. “I’ve never hypothesized why there aren’t more Asian Americans in baseball. It’s the same in football, basketball and hockey. I don’t know how much importance the game plays in the lives of Asian American kids.”
But even reliable vets like Sakata can’t get a break in the majors. He’s still a long way from joining Kubota, Ng, and Kim in the big leagues. Sakata manages at the single A-level of minor league baseball.
“I’m in kind of a year-to-year position. I don’t really know how I stand in the Giants’ organization,” says Sakata, who managed the Giants’ San Jose minor league club in 1999. “Will there ever be an Asian manager? I don’t know, I might be the only candidate to choose from.’’
Sakata was in a similar situation in Japan. Despite his Japanese heritage, Sakata says he was treated like any other foreigner. Each Japanese club is allowed a limited number of foreign players. Some Americans have had long and productive careers in Japan, but they remain outsiders or gaijin, wrote Robert Whiting in You Gotta Have Wa, his book on Japanese baseball.
Sakata agrees with Whiting’s assessment. “I don’t speak Japanese so I was just another American,” says the manager, who used an interpreter to converse with his players. “Despite being manager, I was not considered a member of the inner circle. Often I was not consulted on player moves. It was very frustrating.”
Sakata found that Japanese baseball and its style reflected the country’s culture. Some players have been known to strike out on purpose rather than risk hitting into a double play if they are not confident of getting a hit.
“It’s a very conservative style of play. The Japanese prefer to bunt whenever possible; some managers will bunt in the first inning,” Sakata says. “The Japanese managers are afraid of failing and losing face. So they take the conservative approach.”
But in spite of those differences, Sakata says all of the young ball players he comes in contact with have some common traits.
“They all want to learn and get better and make the major leagues,” he says. “Whether that’s in the U.S. or Japan, they want to be the best they can.”
Asian and Asian American Players in Major League Baseball:
Links to Profiles and Stats
(each of these links will open a new browser window at espn.go.com)