Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer

by Robert K. Fitts

In the spring of 1964, the Nankai Hawks of Japan’s Pacific League sent nineteen-year-old Masanori Murakami to the Class A Fresno Giants to improve his skills. To nearly everyone’s surprise, Murakami, known as Mashi, dominated the American hitters. With the San Francisco Giants caught in a close pennant race and desperate for a left-handed reliever, Masanori was called up to join the big league club, becoming the first Japanese player in the Major Leagues. Featuring pinpoint control, a devastating curveball, and a friendly smile, Mashi became the Giants’ top lefty reliever and one of the team’s most popular players—as well as a national hero in Japan. Not surprisingly, the Giants offered him a contract for the 1965 season. Murakami signed, announcing that he would be thrilled to stay in San Francisco. There was just one problem: the Nankai Hawks still owned his contract. The dispute over Murakami’s contract would ignite an international incident that ultimately prevented other Japanese players from joining the Majors for thirty years. Mashi is the story of an unlikely hero who gets caught up in an American and Japanese baseball dispute and is forced to choose between his dreams in the United States and his duty in Japan.

Genres: Baseball, Japan, Sports

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2015

Reviews

[Jun Ogawa · Rating 5 out of 5]

今まで読んだ野球のノンフィクションの中で1,2を争う面白さでした。

筆者の緻密な取材と筆力で、日本人初のメジャーリーガーとなった、村上雅則投手が丁寧に掘り下げられ、また試合のシーンでは当時の活躍が目に浮かんでくるようです。
一方、サンフランシスコ ジャイアンツと南海ホークスとの２重契約問題では日米摩擦ともいえるような騒動の中で、米国でプレーを続けたい思いを胸に秘めながら帰国を決意する終盤は、心が痛むと同時に、個人の思いより組織論理が極端に優先される当時の日本の風潮が伝わってきます。

村上投手の活躍に熱狂する日系２世の方達の文化や、村上投手の考え方や判断の背景となる当時の日本文化も、丁寧に解説しながら書かれているので、一昔前の日米文化も味わえます。

比較的、易しい英語ですので、なかなか日本では取り上げられることがない真の開拓者の活躍と苦悩を野球ファンならぜひ。

[Jason Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched and informative biography of the first Japanese-born player to make the MLB. It was a fascinating story. Robert Fitts did his homework for the book. I had never heard of Masanori Murakami before reading this book. I enjoyed reading about him.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book on the first Japanese player in the majors. Great research and writing. Full review is posted here:

http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable look back at the career of Masanori Murakami, who pitched for the San Francisco Giants in 1964-65. I'm old enough to remember those seasons, and the attention Mashi received from the media and fans. Then he disappeared -- or rather, honored his commitment to his original team in Japan. Fitts really went to town on his research for this book, and his knowledge of, and appreciation for, Japanese culture and baseball is evident. Numerous Japanese players now play in Major League Baseball, but Mashi, with his talent and engaging personality, was perhaps the ideal pioneer. Too bad his timing was off by a few decades.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the subtitle is a bit overblown here--Masanori Murakami was actually quite accomplished in his brief stint in the US Major Leagues, and he pitched for many years in Japan. He sustained a shoulder injury that limited his effectiveness for much of his career.

This book does have plenty of insight into cultural tensions between Japan and the USA during the early 1960s--leftover WWII anxiety, straight-up racism (the sportswriters of the day were particular offenders here who wrote awful articles filled with outrageous cultural stereotypes), and the language barrier.

[juicyD · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unassuming book about an unassuming man written in unassuming prose. Shows how some stories are quaint enough to be told based on that merit alone

[Quentin Fernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read for those who love baseball history!

[Brianna LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would’ve been awesome to see what Mashi could’ve done if he had been able to stay in San Francisco but things were different back then, with baseball politics

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging and well-researched account of the first Japanese baseball player to make the major leagues. Mashi played parts of two successful seasons with the San Francisco Giants in 1964-65, but was compelled by cultural forces and internal conflicts to make a fateful decision to return home to Japan at 22 years old and forego his dream of pitching in America. His experiences on both sides of the divide are well documented and you'll begin to understand why Mashi both regrets and is proud of the decision he made. The always thoughtful Rob Fitts deftly interprets the sensitive cultural and political issues that made Mashi's role as a baseball pioneer possible and what also stopped him from becoming the Japanese Jackie Robinson. Along the way, you'll also enjoy Mashi's interesting stories about life as a minor leaguer in remote Fresno, California, and a major leaguer with the Giants of Willie Mays and Juan Marichal ... plus his later battles with the powerhouse Yomiuri Giants of Sadaharu Oh in the NPB. For those who are new to Japanese baseball culture, this will be an eye-opening look at one player's journey from the high-pressure Koshien high school tournament to the intense training regimens demanded by authoritarian managers, all of which influenced Mashi to take advantage of his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pitch in the U.S. and also kept him from staying in San Francisco for the rest of his career.

[Rory Costello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good baseball books are about a lot more than baseball. Here, Robert Fitts uses the sport as a mirror of society in the mid-1960s: Japanese, American, and their zone of intersection. There was a lot I didn't know.

What also comes through here is Murakami's jolly personality. I did not know before how much attention he attracted when he played in the U.S., and his character had a lot to do with that.

The business of baseball, and how it came to be conducted between Japan and the U.S., is another interesting theme that Fitts explores.

It's all delivered in a crisp and succinct way.

[Bryan Verdegaal · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best baseball books I have read yet. The book is impeccably researched by author Robert Fitts. The beauty of this book is that it not only tells the story of the first Japanese player in the major leagues but gives great insight to the baseball culture found in Japan. The story of Masanori Murkami is something every baseball fan should know.

[Eric Kabakoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. A great illustration of the differences between Japanese and American baseball cultures.