By Ethen Lieser
Might as well be thrown into a fire pit — that’s what it is. It’s like stepping into the ring with Muhammad Ali, or playing chess against Bobby Fischer. No chance, right? Lenn Sakata went through that burst of raw emotion. And even after 24 years, he can recall that event, his major league debut, with infinite detail.
During the summer of 1977, after a series of injuries to the Milwaukee Brewers’ infield, a skinny Japanese American finally got his shot at the bigs. “They had to call somebody up and it just happened that I was doing the best at the time,” Sakata says. The way his debut unfolded, though, would make any 23-year-old’s knees buckle. The place: Yankee Stadium. The pitcher: Hall-of-Famer Jim “Catfish” Hunter. The result: Sakata whiffed — oh, well.
“It was just awesome to be there because the Yankees had Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson and Craig Nettles,” Sakata says. “Just the fact of opening up in Yankee Stadium can make you feel nervous. Then when you see all those great players on the field, you wonder if you belong out here.”
Born in Hawaii, Sakata has always been around baseball through the insistence of his father and uncle, who played professionally in Japan. After excelling in high school baseball, Sakata moved on to Treasure Valley Junior College for one year. There, he was drafted for the first time by the San Francisco Giants, but did not accept because they did not offer enough money.
“I was able to go back to college and further my education, not only in schooling, but also in baseball,” Sakata says. “The first time I got drafted, I was almost shocked because I would have never believed that I would have an opportunity to play professional baseball, especially being small and Asian. Nobody ever thought that was possible.”
But it was possible. Sakata would go on to Gonzaga, where he was drafted by the San Diego Padres as a junior and the Brewers after his senior season. Sakata skipped A-ball and started off in Double-A through a stipulation in his contract. “I knew that A-ball was difficult, a tough lifestyle,” he says. “I figured the sooner you find out if you can play the better.” Sakata went on to play on four different major league teams in his 11-year career, highlighted by a World Series title with the Orioles.
Sakata, however, doesn’t talk so glowingly about the game today. Would he accept the opportunity to manage in the majors? Absolutely not, he says. “There are too many strings attached now. Today, the manager really doesn’t have control of the team becausü most of the time, it’s the general managers, owners or agents who run the team. If you go into a situation where you don’t have any control, you aren’t going to have any fun because the players are telling you what to do. I don’t want to go through that crap.”
Sakata also feels there is a lack of talent in the game, mainly caused by the recent addition of expansion teams. “Baseball today is watered down,” he says. “Pitching is not as good as it used to be. That’s the reason why there are so many more runs scored and home runs hit.” The minor leagues are also crumbling from this problem, he says. Sakata believes farm systems unfairly pay more attention to high draft picks because of the money they spent on them.
“It is killing the farm systems because they spend all the money on the first three or four players,” Sakata says. “It waters down the players entering the minors. When I was in the minors, you had to play well or else you were going to lose your job. That’s just the way it worked. When that June draft comes around and you’re hitting .200, you’re out the door.
“But that’s all changed now. There is no criterion for moving up the ladder. I mean if you’re making a lot of money and you’re hitting .250 or have a 9-15 record, they can move you up to the next level. In my day, if you don’t hit .300, you could be released, or if you don’t have a winning record you could be released. So, sometimes, I’m wondering what is going on. The guys with the money get to move up and they don’t even care if the other guys are doing good. I don’t understand that. I thought it was a level playing field where everybody has a chance to make it.”
But as the second-year manager for the San Jose Giants, Sakata, 47, is doing his part to reverse this problem. He makes an effort to give all his players a fair opportunity to play, displays no favoritism to high draft picks, and most importantly, he’s honest.
“It’s always tough when you have to tell someone he can’t play anymore, but that’s the business part of this game,” Sakata says. “I still feel this is my calling. But in time, I will be too old to do the physical stuff, so someone will have to tell me when it’s time to retire.”
Reach Ethen Lieser at elieser@asianweek.com.
