Asian pioneer Murakami recalls pitching...and FBI protection

Asian pioneer Murakami recalls pitching...and FBI protection

By Shigemi Sato (AFP) – Sep 7, 2009

TOKYO — Despite requiring FBI protection and witnessing black teammates suffer widespread discrimination, Masanori "Mashi" Murakami insists US baseball in the 1960s was a golden age.

Now 65, Japanese pitcher Murakami, the first native Asian to star in the major leagues, vividly remembers the hate mail and seeing black teammate Willie Mays prevented from living in a white residential neighbourhood.

"If I was given another chance, I'd still prefer to play in the major leagues of 45 years ago," Murakami told AFP.

"The players were fair and there was no such problem as drugs."

Murakami was speaking on the anniversary of his major league debut as a 20-year-old relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in September, 1964.

Murakami's MLB stint lasted only two years before his Japanese club Nankai Hawks, keen to take advantage of the left-hander's growing reputation, called him home.

It took another 30 years before strikeout star Hideo Nomo signed up with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995 to pave the way for a drain of talent across the Pacific from Japan as well as neighbouring South Korea and Taiwan.

Some two dozens of native Asians, including 18 Japanese, are currently plying there trade in MLB this season.

Among them are Seattle Mariners lead-off man Ichiro Suzuki, New York Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui and Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Matsuzaka, who will turn 29 on Sunday, signed a six-year, 52 million-dollar contract with the Red Sox in 2006.

Suzuki and Matsuzaka helped Japan retain the World Baseball Classic title, the sport's answer to the football World Cup, last March.

"I didn't expect Japanese players to make such an impact," Murakami said. "The players nowadays are very privileged."

In 1964, a year after joining the Nankai Hawks of Japan's Pacific League, Murakami and two teammates were sent to play for the San Francisco Giants' single-A affiliate Fresno.

In August that year, Murakami was raised to full Giants status to become the first native Asian MLB player. On his majors debut, Murakami appeared in the eighth inning and held the New York Mets scoreless.

In his two seasons with the Giants, he struck out 100 batters over 89 innings, racking up a 3.43 earned run average (ERA), with his best pitch being a sharp screwball.

The 1.83m (six-foot) pitcher had five wins, one loss and nine saves in 54 games, becoming a hero in San Francisco and the pride of the huge Japanese-American community in the Californian city.

But there was a dark side to fame with Murakami recalling how Giants manager Herman Franks received death threats for using a Japanese player.

"The FBI protected me for about a week," explained Murakami. "It was because I was Japanese. The sender might have been someone whose family had suffered because of World War II."

When he returned home, Murakami won more than 100 games over 17 years with three Japanese teams before retiring in 1982.

He then served as an Asian scouting coordinator for the Giants, a newspaper columnist and an MLB commentator for the public broadcaster NHK.

Murakami has encouraged more Japanese players to seek a career in MLB which he called "the best place for a baseball player to be".

He claims the domestic leagues are dogged by poor working conditions with limited bonuses for championship series appearances and minimal pensions.

"I think they should go - to put it bluntly - when they can sell themselves at high prices," he told the anniversary dinner. "This is business."