Wally Yonamine : The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball

Fitts, Robert K.

University of Nebraska Press（2012/04発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 277 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780803245174
• DDC分類 796.357092

Full Description

Wally Yonamine was both the first Japanese American to play for an NFL franchise and the first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War II. This is the unlikely story of how a shy young man from the sugar plantations of Maui overcame prejudice to integrate two professional sports in two countries. In 1951 the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants chose Yonamine as the first American to play in Japan during the Allied occupation. He entered Japanese baseball when mistrust of Americans was high—and higher still for Japanese Americans whose parents had left the country a generation earlier. Without speaking the language, he helped introduce a hustling style of base running, shaking up the game for both Japanese players and fans. Along the way, Yonamine endured insults, dodged rocks thrown by fans, initiated riots, and was threatened by yakuza (the Japanese mafia). He also won batting titles, was named the 1957 MVP, coached and managed for twenty-five years, and was honored by the emperor of Japan. Overcoming bigotry and hardship on and off the field, Yonamine became a true national hero and a member of Japan's Baseball Hall of Fame.

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Prologue: A Gamble

1. "Just a Country Boy from Olowalu, Maui"

2. Football Star

3. The San Francisco 49ers

4. Lucky Breaks

5. Of Seals and Bees

6. A Winter of Uncertainty

7. Debut

8. The Jackie Robinson of Japan

9. Settling In

10. Lessons from Santa Maria

11. Gaijin Dageki Oh--Foreign Batting Champion

12. World Travelers

13. Hard Labor

14. Lucky Seven

15. Young Giants

16. End of an Era

17. Coach

18. Yonamine Kantoku

19. Sometimes Nice Guys Do Finish First

20. Suketto

21. Hall of Fame

Appendix

Bibliographic Essay

Index