Ramblings From the Son of a Paper Son: MLB and the Asian Connection

By Bill Yee

Recently Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. At the ceremony he made a heartwarming and humorous speech. It was in English … no translator needed. He is the first Asian ballplayer to be enshrined at Cooperstown.

One of the former Japanese MLB players he paid tribute to in his speech was the former Dodger Hideo Nomo.

Of all the major professional sports, Asians and Asian Americans have had the greatest impact in baseball!

As a Giants fan growing up, my heroes were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Masanori Murakami. Murakami was the first Japanese player to play in the major leagues in the 1964 season. It fueled my ambition at 11 years old to aspire to become a left-handed relief pitcher for the Giants. Unfortunatel