150 Years of US-Japan Baseball Diplomacy

Full interviews with different United States and Japanese Baseball players will be uploaded here and on our YouTube Channel as the project continues. Follow us on YouTube at US-Japan Baseball Diplomacy Project or by this link.

Part 1 of an interview with Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese Major League pitcher who played for the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and 1965.

The second part to our interview with Masanori Murakami.

Interview with Ryan Kurosaki, the first American of Japanese descent to play at the major league as a relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1975.

Interview with Jack Bloomfield, who played in Japan for the Kintetsu Buffaloes (1960-64) and Nankai Hawks (1965-66) won the battling title in 1962 and 1963.

Interview with Gosuke Katoh of the Nippon Ham Fighters. Born in California, Katoh was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2013 and played for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2022. He was drafted by the Fighters the following year.

Born in Alabama in 1953, Greg “Boomer” Wells played for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Minnesota Twins before joining the Hankyu Braves in 1983. As its first baseman, Wells became the first Triple Crown winner as a foreign player in 1984, and has also won the Gold Glove and league MVP.

Also check out our YouTube Short on our channel and on this webpage.