MovieChat Forums > Mr. Baseball (1992) Discussion > Parallels to the Randy Bass fiasco in th...

Parallels to the Randy Bass fiasco in the Japan Leagues.

posted 20 years ago by GayWeezy
11 replies | jump to latest

There was a first baseman for the Hanshin Tigers by the name of Randy Bass that was about to break the single season homerun record set by Sadaharu Oh (which only has legitimacy in Japan, due to the smaller outfield, but I digress). Going into the last week of the season, pitchers on all teams walked him in order for him not to break the record because they didn't want a foreigner to hold the record. So, in reality, Mr. Baseball the story *did* happen...but the ending was less than honorable.

[–] JwadeG 20 years ago

True. But, to be fair, you overstate things a bit.

The record there is 55. Of course it "only has legitimacy in Japan." It is Japan's record. Fifty five wouldn't be a record in the majors, so the disrespectful comparative comment is completely illogical?

Of course, Oh's record of 868 career home runs is another story...

While I personally don't discount it as heavily as others, one could definitely say that Oh's career record "only has legitimacy in Japan," and that "smaller outfields" are part of the reason why.

[–] gwilliams-10 19 years ago

It sounds like this movie parallels the experience of a couple of foreign players in Japan. I just started reading "You Gotta Have WA" by Robert Whiting. He profiles the experience of Bob Horner, the former Atlanta Brave who was signed by the Yakult Swallows to great fanfare, and had a reasonably successful start followed by a spectacular fall characterized by a slump, nagging injuries and eventually a desire to go back home to the US. He had an American teammate named Leon Lee on the Swallows, who was a veteran who had made his peace with the fustrations of the Japanese game(Paralels the Max "Hammer" Dubois character), and kept Horner sane during his season with Yakult. So, it appears that the Jack Elliot character is a composite of a couple of real players.

And, another interesting bit from the Whiting book regarding Sadaharu Oh's record. He used "compressed" bats during his career, which caused the ball to sail much farther. Such bats have always been banned in MLB, and have since been banned in Japanese baseball since OH's retirement.

[–] Tom_Veil 18 years ago

It sounds like this movie parallels the experience of a couple of foreign players in Japan. I just started reading "You Gotta Have WA" by Robert Whiting. He profiles the experience of Bob Horner, the former Atlanta Brave who was signed by the Yakult Swallows to great fanfare, and had a reasonably successful start followed by a spectacular fall characterized by a slump, nagging injuries and eventually a desire to go back home to the US. He had an American teammate named Leon Lee on the Swallows, who was a veteran who had made his peace with the fustrations of the Japanese game(Paralels the Max "Hammer" Dubois character), and kept Horner sane during his season with Yakult. So, it appears that the Jack Elliot character is a composite of a couple of real players.

Also former Yankee Joe Pepitone, who kept forgetting to duck when going through doors.

[–] planetboom99 15 years ago

When Bob Horner was signed by the Swallows, he was issued jersey #50... because he was expected to hit 50 homeruns for the season.

[–] eternalhennessy 11 years ago

Leon Lee was listed in the cast credits for "Mr. Baseball". Thanks to all who posted interesting facts here that I was unaware of.

[–] ahrenbej 18 years ago

Just goes to show you how friggin' racist other countries, esp Japan can be, and get away with it. "Its just their culture". Can you imagine the press in the US if an MLB pitcher purposly didn't pitch to Ichiro because he was Japanese??

Good ol' Coney Island College. Go WhiteFish! -- Fry

[–] Spyder130 18 years ago

There are actually many examples of such a thing happening in American baseball. Hank Greenberg had 58 home runs with a week left to go in the season and then the opposing pitchers started walking him left and right, largely because they didn't want to see a Jew break The Great Bambino's record.

And then, obviously, there's the fact that blacks and dark-skinned Hispanics and American Indians were at various times not allowed to play by the American powers-that-be in major league baseaball.

My examples aren't quite as recent as the Randy Bass issue (which in itself was a huge controversy, although it didn't get much press here simply because Japanese baseball isn't a big deal in America, and was even less of a big deal at that pro-Hideo Nomo time), but that same thing has gone on here many times before, so your tone of nationalistic moral superiority is more than a little ridiculous.

[–] davepu92 17 years ago

Props for pointing out Greenberg. I'd forgotten about that one.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] mbrowne81 16 years ago

We went nuts for Ichiro when he set the hits record. I think we are far beyond the days of caring who (or what...) sets certain records.

[–] photobento 16 years ago

in the past 6 or 7 years , there have been two 'gaijin' hitters (Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera) that tied Oh's single season homerun record of 55 and were constantly pitched around by the Japanese pitchers the last few games of the season because they didn't want a foreigner breaking the record. Crap like that will always keep the Japanese Pro leagues from reaching the same level as MLB.