Read the full story on SportsLook - [ODDS and EVENS] Masanori Murakami: An MLB Debut 60 Years Ago and a Lesson in Loyalty
The timing was perfect for Masanori Murakami to be the guest of honor at a Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan press luncheon on Monday, September 2.
A day earlier was the 60th anniversary of his MLB debut with the San Francisco Giants. And like the world around us, baseball has changed rapidly in the years since Murakami stepped on the mound in the eighth inning at Shea Stadium in New York on September 1, 1964. MLB's first Japanese pitcher tossed a scoreless inning and struck out two in the Giants' 4-1 loss to the New York Mets.
Murakami made 53 more pitching appearances for San Francisco in the 1964 and '65 seasons, recording a 5-1 overall record and a 3.43 ERA with 100 strikeouts in 89 innings. He then returned to Japan, playing the rest of his career before retiring in 1982.
More than 40 years after his final game, Murakami acknowledged he felt regret about not playing for a few more years in the majors. He also told the FCCJ audience that he wishes that then-NPB commissioner Yushi Uchimura had found a way for Japanese players to have a permanent presence in MLB. (In those days, a working agreement didn't exist between pro baseball in the United States and Japan.)
Nobody knew at the time that the first Japanese MLB player would be the last until Hideo Nomo "retired" from the Kintetsu Buffaloes and joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995, ushering in a new era of baseball. The floodgates then opened for Japanese players to follow.
Masanori Murakami: The Importance of a Promise
Nearly four months after his 80th birthday on May 6, Murakami regaled guests at the afternoon luncheon with insightful stories about his life, seminal moments in his development as a player and his baseball career.
He also told the crowd that it was important to him to keep a promise to Nankai Hawks manager Kazuto Tsuruoka, his first pro skipper. It was a promise made before he ever pitched a game for San Francisco or the club's California League affiliate (Fresno Giants).
"I came back to Japan because Mr Tsuruoka actually kept a promise with me to send me over to America," Murakami said on Monday. "And I actually kept the promise with him to come back to Japan after a certain time."
Speaking of the Giants organization, who initially had a three-month deal in place for Murakami, he added that "they were kind enough to extend my stay over to two years and I was thankful for that."
In 1965, Murakami demonstrated again and again in his 45 appearances that he had the skills to pitch in the majors. Most notably, he fanned 85 batters in 74⅓ innings and allowed only 57 hits.
Looking back, Murakami believes that if had pitched for the Giants in 1966 he probably would have extended his MLB career for "five or six more years because I was getting better and better towards the end of my American baseball career."
To this day, he has bittersweet feelings on the matter.
"It was unfortunate that I had to come back, but at the same time I was able to keep a good promise with Mr Tsuruoka," Murakami admitted. "And I'm very proud that I didn't break any promises with him."
Childhood Memories
Recalling his childhood days in Otsuki, Yamanashi Prefecture, Masanori Murakami described his father as a strict disciplinarian, as someone who bore the emotional scars of being a Soviet prisoner of war in Manchukuo (now a part of China) during World War II.
The elder Murakami wanted his son to become a doctor or surgeon.
But the father also allowed his son to enjoy childhood. He gave him permission to play softball, starting when he was a fourth-year elementary school student and continuing until he graduated from the school two years later.
Murakami's earliest days as a softball player were without a vital piece of equipment. "I wanted to play, but I had no glove at all," he said.
Before one of his father's business trips, Murakami discussed this less-than-ideal situation with his older sister, seeking her advice on how he should request a glove.
What was his sister's advice?
"Maybe you should write a letter to him and leave it at his pillow side while he's sleeping," he remembered her saying.
"So I actually wrote that letter to ask for a glove ― I'm a left-hander, so [it was] the glove that goes on my right hand," he reported more than 70 years later.
That letter was placed next to his father's pillow that night.
After Murakami's father returned from his business trip the next day, he received a new glove. He recalled that moment as a joyful one.
Quitting Judo, Starting to Play Baseball
As a junior-high school student, Murakami quit practicing judo, which his father had pushed him to pursue, and without notifying him he began playing on the school's baseball club. He feared his father would be angry at him.
But a conversation between the baseball team's manager and Murakami's father defused a potentially volatile situation.
"He promised my father that I would study as hard as I play baseball," Murakami recalled, emphasizing the focus on academics was important to his father.
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Author: Ed Odeven
Find Ed on JAPAN Forward's dedicated website, SportsLook. Follow his [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.
