A baseball gaijin: an American pitcher’s journey to Japan and back again

Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo pulsated with excitement in 2015, during a watershed moment in Japanese baseball. The Tokyo Yakult Swallows had just knocked off the rival Yomiuri Giants in a postseason series. For decades, the teams shared Tokyo but little else. The Giants were the class of Japanese baseball, drawing comparisons to the New York Yankees, while the Swallows languished below .500. Now came payback, as the Swallows moved on to the Japan Series, the championship round of Nippon Professional Baseball. Those celebrating included the Swallows’ American closer, Tony Barnette. Riffing on a team postgame ritual, the reliever made a series of acrobatic leaps that went viral on Japanese social media.

Barnette had additional reasons to rejoice. Frustrated with his progress in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ minor-league system, he had accepted an offer to play in Japan. The money was better than Triple A, but he didn’t speak Japanese, and the odds of returning to the US to play in MLB were slim – especially given that he had not previously played in the majors. In his first season with the Swallows in 2010, he endured demotion to the minors and was not initially offered a new contract. Then came another shot, and he made the most of it, going from struggling starter to lights-out reliever, while finding postseason success – and, after six seasons in Japan, finally realizing his MLB dream with the Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs. His story is chronicled in a new book by sports journalist Aaron Fischman – A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back.

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“People who are not necessarily baseball fans will find it inspiring,” Fischman says. “They’ll want to hear about someone who overcame such insurmountable odds to achieve their lifelong dream, even what it’s like being a foreigner in a country they’re completely unfamiliar with … I’m biased, but I love the story.”

The narrative of Japanese players coming to the US and MLB is well-known, including through such stars as Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu, Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki and the reigning AL MVP, Shohei Ohtani. Yet the journey of American players heading to Japan has gotten far less publicity, according to Fischman.

“It really was a draw for writing the story,” he says. “There is not nearly as much attention to American or other foreign players in Japan and what they’re doing over there.”

A key figure in both worlds wrote the foreword: Barnette’s agent Don Nomura, who is the son of an American Jewish father and a Japanese mother, and the stepson of a renowned Japanese former player and manager, Katsuya Nomura.

“I found [Don Nomura’s] knowledge and insight invaluable,” Fischman says. “He’s such a pioneer, trailblazing figure … He played an important role in Japanese players coming to the US. Of course, he was instrumental for Tony in both directions, helping Tony get to Japan and helping him get back.”

“Gaijin” is Japanese for “foreigner”, and there is a long and complex history of gaijin ballplayers in the island nation. The list of American major leaguers who have gone to Japan includes well-known names such as Cecil Fielder, who parlayed a stint with the Hanshin Tigers into a rejuvenated MLB career. Yet the country has a rich baseball history, and is proud of its homegrown talent, including the legendary Sadaharu Oh. Now 84 years old, Oh holds the world all-time home run mark at 868 and set a single-season Japanese home run mark of 55. (In 2001, American-born Tuffy Rhodes tied the mark, a feat repeated by Alex Cabrera in 2002; in 2013, Barnette’s Curaçaoan-Dutch Swallows teammate Wladimir Balentien set a new record, with 60.) The number of gaijin on each NPB team is capped at four. This actually worked out to Barnette’s benefit after he was released. Not only were the Swallows reconsidering him, but now they had an open spot, having released another gaijin player who failed a physical.

On his return to the Swallows, Barnette was more willing to consult team interpreter Go Fujisawa.

“The first year, Go was not utilized by Tony … as much as he should have been,” Fischman says. “[Tony] wanted to figure things out on his own … Tony did not want to be a nuisance, impose on Go’s free time. Go said, ‘Tony should have just bothered me.’ His job duties were to be available around the clock, 24-7, even if sleeping.”

Barnette’s second season in Japan was rocked by the devastating Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster of March 2011. That day, Barnette was in a Yokohama training-room shower when fellow reliever Kenichi Matsuoka tried to alert him to an earthquake warning. Neither player understood the other, but then came an unmistakable communication: The room shook. Eventually, Barnette and most of the Swallows’ gaijin were evacuated from Yokohama. His then-girlfriend Hillary, who had joined him in Japan, temporarily left for the US. Barnette stayed with his team despite the worsening situation.

“A lot of people did have personal connections to the tragedy,” Fischman says, including Swallows pitcher Yoshinori Sato, who lost his former high school catcher, Izumi Saito, in the tsunami.

Fischman notes that within Japanese society, there were concerns over whether the sports schedule was being resumed too quickly, and over how well the government and media were providing information about the public health crisis.

“I wanted to get more macro,” Fischman says. “That type of stuff is more important than a game people play for fun.” Yet he adds that in times of disaster, sports “could be very inspiring, serve a significant purpose, allow the Japanese people to heal” – not only through baseball, but also women’s soccer, with Japan winning over the US in the Women’s World Cup final that year.

It was a bittersweet season for Barnette, whose brother Randy died later that spring; their mother, Jackie, was also rushed to an ICU after a heart attack.

On the mound, Tony Barnette put aside his dream of being a starting pitcher and transitioned to a relief role under the tutelage of his bullpen coach, Tomohito Ito.

“Success begat more success,” Fischman says. “It was a domino effect. He became more and more confident. He kept performing better and better the rest of the season.”

Although the season ended with a playoff loss to the Chunichi Dragons, afterward Tony and Hillary were married. (He and Hillary would have two daughters together; the marriage eventually resulted in a separation.) His professional future in Japan looked bright in 2012, when he secured the closer’s job, dazzled on the mound and received a two-year contract worth $3.2m.

By this point, Barnette had grown acclimated enough to take night-time bike rides through Tokyo with Hillary, pedaling past historic sights such as the Imperial Palace and Aoyama Cemetery. The team’s fanbase took to him after it became clear that unlike many gaijin, he wasn’t in it for the short-term.

“Starting in Tony’s second year – really even, especially, in his third season, 2012, when he became a dominant closer – he started to become recognized around Tokyo,” Fischman says.

Ultimately, a Rangers scout at a Swallows game also took notice. After some negotiations, Barnette finally joined an MLB team. His Rangers debut came in 2016. In a highlight of that season, Barnette shut down a stacked Boston Red Sox lineup. He also accidentally beaned Los Angeles Angels star Albert Pujols in the head, apologizing extensively. He finished the year with a 2.09 ERA out of the bullpen with valiant service in an ALDS loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

“He did not want to be a major-leaguer – he wanted to be a successful major-leaguer,” Fischman says. “He wanted to be remembered as a good major-league player. I think he achieved that.”

After struggling the next season with the Rangers, and seeing his time with the Cubs derailed due to injury, Barnette found himself once again working for the Swallows post-retirement. (It was a good stretch for the Swallows, who won the Japan Series in 2021.) Today, he is a US-based scouting consultant for the same team that once took a chance on him.

“He’s just scouting the next stage of gaijin going to Tokyo to perform for the Swallows, trying to follow in Tony’s footsteps,” Fischman says. “Not a lot of people are able to do exactly what he did, achieve that level of success.”