Giants’ Masanori Murakami, 50 years later

Masanori Murakami did not think of himself as a pioneer, saying, “I just wanted to play baseball.”

A pioneer he was, however. Whenever Ichiro Suzuki, Hideo Nomo, Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka and other Japanese players spend their millions, they should remember that Murakami cleared a trail for them 50 years ago when he joined the Giants.

Murakami was in San Francisco on Thursday for Japanese Heritage Night. The Giants celebrated the half-century anniversary of the right-handed pitcher’s debut with the Class A Fresno Giants in 1964. On Sept. 1, at Shea Stadium, the 20-year-old pitched the ninth inning of a 4-1 Giants loss to the Mets and became the first Japanese player in the major leagues.

“I was used to playing for 500, 2,000 people in Fresno,” Murakami said. “At Shea Stadium, there were 40,000. I was afraid.”

To calm his nerves, Murakami hummed the tune “Sukiyaki” as he walked to the mound from the bullpen.

Murakami felt very welcome in Fresno, even if tolerance for Japanese people was not universal.

Murakami said that before his arrival, manager Bill Werle gathered the other Fresno Giants in a meeting and told them not to use the derogatory shortcut for the word “Japanese,” a fine sentiment had Werle stopped there. But he then told his players he was afraid Murakami would commit hara-kiri if he heard the slur. As Murakami told this story, he put an imaginary knife to his midsection to simulate the act.

A Japanese TV reporter who was with Murakami last week said the Japanese American community in Fresno was very protective of the young pitcher, but he said the fans treated him well.

He was an excellent reliever who struck out 100 in 89 1/3 major-league innings in 1964 and 1965 before his original Japanese team, now called the Softbank Hawks, demanded his return.

via Giants’ Masanori Murakami, 50 years later – SFGate.