Four Players to Play for the New York Yankees and Yomiuri Giants

I was watching the opening day game between the fabled Japanese league rivals Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants on One World Sports (@ONEWorldSports) when the announcer Ed Cohen (@edcohensports) mentioned that Giants legend Hideki Matsui was in the announcers booth at the Tokyo Dome. Cohen would talk about Matsui's career in Japan as well as his career with the New York Yankees (2003-2009). Cohen would mention that there have been four players to play for both the New York Yankees and the Tokyo/Yomiuri Giants.

1. Roy White

Photo Credit Japanese Baseball Cards

Roy White played his entire career with the New York Yankees (1965-1979) with a quiet style that contrasted to the legendary "Bronx Zoo" Yankees teams of the mid to late 1970's before making the trip over the Pacific to play for the Giants.

White played three seasons in Japan starting in 1980 (1980-1983) and would play alongside Japanese leagues legend Sadaharu Oh. White would make history when he hit three homers in the same game. One was a game tying homer and the last a game winning homer. White, being a switch hitter homered from both sides of the plate. Here is a video showing his homeruns.


White would help the Giants win Central League pennant and the Japan Series in 1981 and would retire from professional baseball after the 1982 season in Japan. Here are White's Japanese statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference.com

2. Jesse Barfield

Photo Credit Japanese Baseball Cards

Barfield was a player with a cannon for an right arm while forming a dominant duo with George Bell on the Toronto Blue Jays teams in the mid-1980's. Barfield would be traded to New York in what seemed to be an unending series of trades that had the Yankees trading young prospects for veteran players. On April 30, 1989, Barfield was traded to the Yankees for pitcher Al Leiter and played in New York until 1992. Barfield would sign to play in Japan for the 1993 season.

According to the Random Jays Stuff tumblr post Jesse Barfield Yomiuri Giants 1993 BBM card:

the Yomiuri Giants gave him a chance in 1993, and signed him for a reported $1.7 million for the season. Jesse hit a two-run HR in his debut to help the Giants to victory, but by the All Star break he was only hitting .185. He wound up with a .215 average in 104 games, missing a month with a relapse of the wrist injury. He did manage to hit 26 HR (6th in the Central League) and his cannon arm still impressed, but had only 53 RBI and led the league in strikeouts with 127.

Still, the crosstown (Tokyo) rival and Central League pennant-winning Yakult Swallows offered Jesse a contract for the 1994 season, thinking they detected and could correct a big flaw in his swing, and he verbally agreed to a deal.

However Barfield was living in Houston in those days and when the Astros invited him to spring training for 1994 he took the risk (the Swallows offer was guaranteed, the Astros’ was not) and accepted the Houston offer instead. This displeased the Swallows’ management greatly, but Jesse ended up writing the team president a letter of apology. Jesse was projected to be the Astros’ opening day RF by some (James Mouton ended up playing the most games in RF that year), but again injuries held him back and he retired before the season began.

Interesting note on the 1993 Giants: Jesse’s teammates included Lloyd Moseby and a 19 year old Hideki Matsui.

Here are Jesse Barfield's statistics from his one season in Japan courtesy of Baseball Reference.com:

3. Mariano Duncan

Duncan was the man who was quoted as saying "We play today, we win today. That's it." while playing second base for the 1996 Yankees. Duncan has spent his entire career in the National League with the Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies before signing as a free agent with the Yankees for the 1996 season. After he got into a public issue with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner during the 1997, Duncan would be traded to the Toronto Blue Jays (after a voided trade with Kenny Rogers to the San Diego Padres for slugger Greg Vaughn). Duncan would end up signing with the Tokyo Giants for the 1998 season. His contract was deemed to be between $1.5-million and $2.0-million dollars. Duncan did not have a very successful season in a limited role with the Giants.

In the article Mariano's Journey to the Far East Not Far Enough to Forget Boss by Rafael Hermoso from the New York Daily News website dated February 25, 1999, describes the difficulties Duncan had adjusting to the Japanese game:

Duncan's attempt to forget the Boss took him to Japan last season, a decision he now regrets and blames on his now being a non-roster invitee. "I wanted to go to Japan because I wanted to get my mind straight, I wanted to clear my mind of all the problems I went through in New York," Duncan said. "To tell you the truth, I think I made the wrong decision. For me, going to Japan almost cost my career.

" Duncan asked to be traded and was, twice. First he went to the Padres in the aborted Greg Vaughn deal, then to the Blue Jays for outfielder Angel Ramirez. Duncan's problems followed him to the Yomiuri Giants, where hit .232 with 10 home runs in 207 at-bats last season, saying he never adjusted to the Giants' strict management style. "Those guys are very difficult to play for," Duncan said. "They don't communicate with you. I only talked to the manager one time in seven months and that's not right. I wanted to know what was going on and nobody would tell me anything.

" "The politics of baseball," is what Bobby Valentine, who managed in Japan in 1995, called it. "They make it difficult.

Duncan would be a non-roster invitee with the New York Mets for the 1999 season and would not make the team and retired. Here are Mariano Duncan's Japanese statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference.com:

4. Hideki Matsui

Photo Credit Japanese Baseball Cards

Matsui came over from the Yomiuri Giants in 2003 with a legendary reputation as a major home run hitter and major superstar in Japan. Matsui was a three-time Central League MVP award winner (1996, 2000, 2002) with nine all-star appearances in Japan and three Japan Series championship with MVP awards honors in the 2000 Japan Series. Here are Hideki Matsui's Japanese statistics from Baseball Reference.com:

During the exhibition series in Japan following the 2002 season, Matsui and Barry Bonds locked up in a homerun hitting contest with Bonds winning the event eight homers to Matsui's five. Here is the newspaper article Bonds beats Matsui in home run hitting contest from the Ludington Daily News from November 15, 2002 from the Google News Website:

The Yankees signed Matsui to a three-year $21-million dollar deal on December 19, 2002.  contract on December 19, 2002. Instead of the slugger the Yankees expected to sign, they received a complete player who never complained and let his bat and abilities in the field speak for him. They would later sign/extend him to a four-year $56 million dollar deal on November 15, 2005. According to Tyler Kepner in his article Matsui Signs With Yankees Just Before Deadline from the New York Times website dated November 16, 2005:

Matsui's previous contract stipulated that the Yankees had to release him and allow him to become a free agent if they did not sign him by Nov. 15. They would have then lost their rights to re-sign Matsui for six months...In signing before last night's deadline, Matsui forfeited his chance to test the free-agent market; he would have been among the best players available.

Matsui was a two-time All-Star (2003-2004), runner up for the 2003 American League Rookie of the Year award (which he should have won) and would end up winning the 2009 World Series MVP award in his last season with the Yankees. He would play for three more seasons before signing a one day contract with the Yankees and retiring as a Yankee in 2013.

(***AUTHOR'S NOTE I originally posted that the Yankees signed Matui to a six-year $73 million dollar contract in 2002. I was thankfully corrected by +Patrick Newman of the blogsite NPBTracker.com. He is also a regular contributor to the website JapaneseBaseball.com. Feel free to check out both sites to keep up with news and points of view on the world of Japanese Yakyū.)

If I happen to miss any other players to don the New York Yankees and Yomiuri Giants uniforms, please feel free to let me know. Happy Opening Day!!!!!

Until Then Play Ball
Baseball Sisco

Tony Mullane: The Apollo of the Box

I often wonder if the fans of the future will look back at today's players in the same way I look back of the players of yesteryear. I love reading stories of the characters that played the game back in the dead ball era. It seems to me that players today are so image conscious that genuine characters are few and far between. In reading The Emerald Diamond: How The Irish Transformed America's Greatest Pastime by Charley Rosen, One such character that I came across from the dead ball era was Anthony John "Tony" Mullane (January 30, 1859-April 25, 1944).

Now Mullane was a 13-year veteran of the American Association (Louisville, St. Louis, Toledo and Cincinnati) and National League (Detroit, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Cleveland) who compiled a 280-222 record with a 3.05 ERA winning 30 games in five consecutive seasons played (1882-1884/1886-1887). In 555 games started, he had 502 decisions with 468 complete games and 52 games finished out of the bullpen. He would strike out 1803 batters, walk 1408 and give up 4195 hits in 4531.1 innings pitched for a WHIP of 1.237. Pretty impressive. No? Well, it gets better.

According to Rosen:

Prominent among these Irishmen was Tony Mullane, who won 30 games in five consecutive seasons. During the 1880's, Mullane's excellence was rewarded with a average salary of $6,000 (equal to $85,000 in today's economy), which rightly placed him among the top earners of the time.

Because of his stylish clothes, his magnificent handlebar mustache, and his way with the ladies, Mullane had several nicknames, most notable "The Count" and the "Apollo of the Box." His incredible athleticism was proven both during and after he injured his right arm in throwing a baseball the prodigious distance of 416 feet, 7 3/4 inches, to demonstrate his strength. This feat was all the more remarkable since the leansome 5'10" Mullane only weight 165 pounds.

Mullane responded by pitching left-handed, with only minimal loss of effectiveness, until his right arm was fully healed.

The Apollo of the Box. Think about that. That meant that Mullane was a good looking dude to be compared to the Greek God Apollo. Check him out for yourself. What do you think. Back to the ambidextrous story.

In the article Two-Handed Approach: Ambidextrous pitching star Tony Mullane to be considered by Pre-Integration Era Committee By Bill Francis dated November 20, 2012 from the national Baseball Hall of Fame website, Mullane is quoted as recovering from his injury as follows:

“I simply put on two heavy sweaters, and although it hurt me even to raise my arm, I went to work and pitched ball after ball,” is how Mullane explained his method of recovery. “Great streams of perspiration poured off me, and it hurt me so badly that I had to grit my teeth. It was a case of grin and bear it. I was bound to work it out and I succeeded. The sweat did me good. Although the pain was intense I persevered and the soreness left me. The arm was a little weak at first, but now it’s as good as ever. Had I sat around nursing my sore arm, I am confident that I would not now be solid as a pitcher.”

Players today would have sat on the DL nursing the sore arm. Francis also states:

Among Mullane’s other notable pitching achievements was tossing a no-hitter for Louisville against Cincinnati on Sept. 11, 1882, and going all 20 innings, the record at the time for a big league contest, for Cincinnati against Chicago’s Ad Gumbert, who also went the distance, in a 7-7 tie on June 30, 1892.

I came across an article Cork’s Tony Mullane remains longshot for Hall of Fame by Dave Hannigan dated February 16, 2011 from the Irish Echo webpage that describes Mullane's chances at being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame (he was not inducted). One angle the article touches on is how Mullane was a racist. While it was not right, it was not rare for the era. I'll let you read on that for yourselves if you feel so inclined to do so.

Mullane would end up retiring from the game in 1894 and served as an umpire before joining the Chicago Police Department, rising to the rank of Detective. He would pass away on April 25, 1944 at the age of 85.

As I come across some of the more colorful members of the professional baseball fraternity, I'll post about them for your reading pleasure.

Until Then Play Ball,
Sisco Kid

Joe Quinn The First Australian Major Leaguer

With the recent two-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. The Arizona Diamondbacks played at the historic Sydney Cricket Ground, I wanted to take a look at someone I came across from reading The Emerald Diamond: How The Irish Transformed America's Greatest Pastime by Charley Rosen. Rosen highlights that in the late 1890's, one of the most popular baseball players of the era was an Australian-born Irishman by the name of Joe Quinn. Quinn not only was the first Australian-born major leaguer, he was also the first Australian-born manager of a major league team.

Born on Christmas Eve, 1864 in Sydney, Australia Joe Quinn would make his debut for the St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association Baseball League in 1884. Quinn would bat .270 in his rookie season for the Maroons. Baseball politics of the era caused the rapid rise and falls of leagues and the Union Association (UA) was no different. Surviving for only one season, the UA's best team was the St. Louis Maroons that finished their initial season with a 94-19 record. Being the best of a dying league, the National League added the Maroons. In a sign of how weak the UA was, in 1885 the Maroons finished in dead last with a 36-72 with Quinn batting .21. He would play another season for the Maroons before being inactive for the 1887 season.

Quinn would return to professional baseball with the Boston Beaneaters in the National League for the 1888-1889 seasons before jumping ship to the Players League in 1890. Quinn was a tireless champion for players rights. According to the article Joe Quinn, the Australian baseball legend you’ve never heard of by Alex Brown of the Couriermail.com.au from March 21, 2014:

Nicknamed “Ol’ Reliable”, Quinn was a tireless campaigner for players’ rights during an era of rough-and-tumble industrial relations. Perhaps the best example of this was his role in a player rebellion against the draconian labour restrictions placed upon athletes by major league owners in 1890. He was a frontman, a mouthpiece, for the breakaway Players’ League and communicated their objectives to the press in defiance of the millionaire owners of National League ballclubs. The press respected him, the players loved him, the owners feared him.

The Players League came about due to the players bristling at the lack of freedom and options that they available to them due to the reserve clause. According to Scott Simkus author of Outsider Baseball: The Weird World of Hardball on the Fringe 1876-1950:

In order to curb escalating salaries, big-league owners formally adopted the first official version of the reserve clause in December 1879. During this era, all players signed one-year contracts, but under the new clause, teams were able to "reserve" the services of a certain number of players for the upcoming season, even after their contracts had expired. By 1885, the reserve clause was expanded to include everybody. players were forbidden from shopping their services to other clubs or leagues and therefore had almost zero leverage when negotiating compensation issues with their employers. About the only thing players could do, when dickering over contract details, was threaten to hold out. At the time, it was either shut up and sign the contract or hunker down in a nerve-racking one-man player strike.

In one season for the Boston franchise in the Players League, Quinn would bat .301 . Upon the demise of the Players League after their only season, Quinn would return to the National League Boston Beaneaters for two more season before being traded to the St. Louis Browns for the 1893 season. It was during this season, that Quinn was recognized by the Sporting News as being the most popular Baseball Player in America. Quinn would become the player/manager of the St. Louis Browns in 1895 leading the team to a 11-28 record. Quinn would play in St. Louis until part of the 1896 season when he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in the National League (not the same Baltimore Orioles franchise that exists today in the American League). 

Quinn would return to player/managing with the Cleveland Spiders in 1899. The team is arguably the worst professional baseball team to play for any league. The Spiders would finish the 1899 season with a 12-104  record (.103 winning percentage). Alex Brown sheds light on why this team was so bad in his article Joe Quinn, the Australian baseball legend you’ve never heard of by Alex Brown of the Couriermail.com.au:

Quinn had the dubious distinction of captain/coaching the Cleveland Spiders to a 12-104 season record - finishing a whopping 84 games out of first place. The 1899 Spiders, nicknamed “The Misfits” by the local press, are considered the worst team in major league history. But fault can hardly be levelled at Quinn. The team’s fate was effectively sealed when team owner Frank Robison sent all Cleveland’s best players to the St Louis Cardinals, who he also owned.

Quinn play for a handful of National League teams before jumping ship to a new rival of the National League: Ban Johnson's American League. Quinn would finish his playing career with the Washington Senators in 1901 with a .252 average. In seventeen seasons, Quinn would have a lifetime .262 batting with a slash line of .302/.328/.631. Quinn would score 893 with 1800 hits (228 2B/70 3B/30 HR) with 796 RBI, 268 stolen bases, 365 walks and 294 strikeouts. Quinn would also have a 23-132 record in (.148 winning percentage) two seasons as a manager.

Last year Quinn was inducted into the Australian Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Australian journalist and librarian Rochelle Llewelyn Nicholls will have a biography of Joe Quinn released later this year entitiled “Joe Quinn - Among The Rowdies”.

For Further Reading
- Click Here to access Joe Quinn's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here to read the article Australian Baseball: A Brief History by official MLB historian John Thorn dated March 3, 2014

Rudy Hernández The First Dominican Pitcher in MLB

I was always under the impression that the first Domican pitcher in the majors was the legendary Dominican Dandy, Hall of Famer Juan Marichal. That impression was wrong. In reading Beisbol Dominicano: Origines, Evoluciones y Heroes Edicion 2006 by Hector J. Cruz, I found out that there was a Dominican pitcher who made his debut 16 days before Marichal did for the San Francisco Giants on July 19, 1960. On July 3, 1960 Rudy Hernández made his debut in relief during the first game of a doubleheader for the Washington Senators against the Cleveland Indians.

Hernández was born on December 10, 1931 in the city of Santiago de Los Caballeros to a Dominican father and Puerto Rican mother. According to Cruz, the family would emigrate to New York City during the 1940's where Hernández would grow to the height of 6' 3" garnering the attention of many baseball teams including the hometown New York Giants. Hernández would sign a contract with the New York Giants before the beginning of the 1950 season. According to Malcolm Allen in his article on Rudy Hernández which was published in La Prensa del Beisbol Latino (a quarterly newsletter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)), Hernández was signed as an outfielder with some power but could never get any higher than Class A ball. (AUTHOR'S NOTE: I tried to contact the author of the referenced article to find out exactly when it was published in La Prensa del Beisbol newsletter. Up to today's date he has yet to contact me. So I am going to use his article as a reference in a second hand nature from this post: RUDY HERNANDEZ of the Washington Senators – First Major League Baseball Pitcher Born in the Dominican Republic. If and when I do hear back from Mr. Allen, I'll rewrite the post).

After a suggestion (due to his powerful arm) by Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Steve Ridzik during the Puerto Rican Winter Ball season (possibly while both played together with los Cangrejeros de Santurce), Hernández would change positions and try his hand at pitching. According to Allen, Hernandez went 15-4 for the Class C Muskogee Giants in his first season as a pitcher but his career was derailed by a two year stint in the U.S. Military. He would return to the Giants minor leagues in 1956 and would stay there through the 1958 season. He would be either traded or sold to the Washington Senators of the American League (I'm unsure which type of transaction) before the start of the 1959 season.

Hernández would spend almost a year and a half in the Senators' minor league system before finally getting his big break at the age of 28 on July 3, 1960. In his first appearance in relief, Hernandez would face eleven batters over three innings pitched allowing one hit, one walk while striking out two batters. On July 9, 1960 against the Baltimore Orioles, Hernández became the first Dominican pitcher to record a win by hurling three shoutout innings in relief allowing one hit and one walk with three strikeouts. Over the course of the 1960 season, Hernández would make 21 appearances for the Senators (all in relief) and he would compile a 4-1 record with a 4.41 ERA in 34.1 innings pitched. He gave up 34 hits, 24 runs (17 earned) with 21 walks and 22 strikeouts for a WHIP of 1.587.

The next season marked the movement of the Washington Senators to Minneapolis becoming the Minnesota Twins. As a condition of allowing the Senators to leave Washington for Minnesota, a new team also called the Senators would replace the old Senators in the nation's capital. On December 14, 1960, Hernández would be put up in the 1961 expansion draft by the Twins and would be drafted by the new Washington Senators with the 56th pick. (AUTHOR'S NOTE: The second Washington Senators would play in Washington D.C. from 1961-1971 when the team was moved to Arlington, Texas becoming the Texas Rangers.)

In his last season in the majors, Hernández went 0-1 with a 3.00 ERA in 7 relief appearances. He had 9.0 innings pitched, gave up 8 hits, 5 runs (3 earned) with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts for a WHIP of 1.222. According to Cruz, Hernández would play for Las Aguilas Cibaeñas and Los Leones del Escogido of the Dominican League. He would later move to Puerto Rico and worked within the Department of Sports of the Puerto Rican government.

Though his time in the majors was brief and pales in comparison to Marichal's Hall of Fame career, we should never forget who was the first Dominican pitcher in the majors though to many he is just a footnote in Latino Baseball history.

On a side note, Hernández was the owner of a bar on the corner of San Jorge and Loiza streets in San Juan, Puerto Rico by the name of Rudy’s 10th Inning Lounge. In 1971, the officers of Temple Beth Shalom decided to purchase a permanent home for the congregation. One location shown by the real estate agents was the building where Hernández's bar was located. After two years of legal proceedings, the eviction of Hernandez was complete and the temple was built. For more informations, click on the following links: TBS'S (Temple Beth Shalom) Building Beginnings and Temple Beth Shalom origins.

Sisco Kid

For Further Reading
- Click here to access Rudy Hernández's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com