A Baseball Gaijin
Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
A Baseball Gaijin
Buy for $29.63
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Brian Nishii
About this listen
Like many American boys, Tony Barnette yearned to one day make it to “The Show,” playing baseball professionally. The Arizona State pitcher was drafted in 2006 by the in-state Diamondbacks. Gradually ascending the minor-league ladder, it looked like this was the beginning of a blessed life, where he could play the game he loved on the grandest of stages in front of family and friends.
But things don’t always work out the way we want.
On the verge of achieving his lifelong dream after notching a league-high 14 wins in Triple A, Tony looked ahead to 2010 with optimism. That’s when Japan came calling, offering a significant salary hike in exchange for forgoing a likely forthcoming big-league debut.
The Diamondbacks agreed to release Tony so he could play for Tokyo’s Yakult Swallows, the renowned Yomiuri Giants’ intra-city rivals.
At the time, the only thing he had in common with the country was a love for baseball. He did not know the language and was unfamiliar with Nippon Professional Baseball and essentially everything else. On his own in a strange land, the burning desire to one day make the major leagues never subsided. He knew the odds were against him, as less than one quarter of gaijin (Japanese for “foreigner”) ballplayers who go to Japan appear in the majors at any point thereafter.
First-year struggles led to multiple demotions and his end-of-year release. But when you’re chasing a dream, you expect to encounter several obstacles. Tony refused to be deterred. Over six seasons in Japan, the starter became a reliever and then a closer. After a strong 2015 season, in which he guided his long-suffering Swallows to the Japan Series, he finally got the call he had been waiting for. Signing with the Texas Rangers in December, Tony would make his first major-league appearance on April 5, 2016, at age thirty-two. He’d go on to pitch four seasons with the Rangers and Chicago Cubs, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
Through extensive research and reporting, Aaron Fischman worked directly with Tony to tell his story of perseverance, determination, and never giving up on your dream.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2024 Aaron Fischman (P)2024 Oasis AudioWhether one reads the book or listens to Brian Nishii’s very good narration (I did the latter), Barnette’s adventures in Japan are quite interesting. When Barnette struggled as a starting pitcher - enough to be released by the Yakult Swallows, a team in Tokyo. He still didn’t let that deter him. In a move that isn’t common in Japanese baseball, the Swallows took him back and he responded by posting some incredible seasons out of the Swallows bullpen. It was enough to catch the attention of the Rangers, who signed him and immediately put him in the bullpen, becoming a 32 year old rookie pitcher.
The book, while an excellent recap of Barnette’s career in Japan and Texas, is a very good biography of Barnette and a good introduction to Japanese baseball for those who are not not familiar with their customs and traditions as there are differences between Japanese baseball and their American counterparts. The chapters on Barnette’s life off the field, especially when his daughters were born, are also good. I particularly enjoyed the stories on the adjustments to life in Japan that his wife Hillary made as the life of a baseball wife in Japan can be even more challenging than it is in the US.
Lastly, I enjoyed the information Fischman provided about other baseball gaijins from the US on how they adjusted to playing in Japan. The most interesting stories of these was whenever the home run record for one season by Sadaharu Oh was threatened by a foreign player, Japanese pitchers refused to throw strikes to those batters, ensuring that Oh’s record would be safe. This happened to Randy Bass, Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera. Oh’s record was finally broken by a Swallows teammate of Barnette’s, Wladimir Balentine, in 2013.
If a reader wants an inspiring story about a pitcher who never gave up on his dream and went to a foreign country to keep it alive, then they will want to pick this one up.
Inspiring baseball biography
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.