Masanori Murakami was first Japanese player in the Major Leagues | San Francisco Giants

If it were up to his father, Masanori Murakami wouldn’t have played baseball at all — much less broken new ground by becoming the first Japanese player to reach the Major Leagues. “When I was still young, I already fell in love with baseball,” Murakami said in a recent Zoom interview. “I would cut a bamboo stick and find a softball and try to play baseball to some extent.” But his father, Kiyoshi, didn’t want him to be an athlete. He wanted Murakami to be a doctor. As the young pitcher got older, his father wanted him to quit the sport and devote himself entirely to his studies. But Murakami was gifted, his left arm blessed with too much natural ability, and his love of the game was too deep. He simply couldn’t quit, and his mother even helped keep his playing a secret. When Murakami was in his second year of middle school, though, his father found out. He headed to the school to have a conversation with his son’s coach. Though we’ll never know what was said in that meeting, the tone was anything but cordial. “I thought your father was going to punch me in the face,”…
Read More