Randy Bass

I just read a short piece about Randy Bass and his home run quest in Japan in the '80s. Does anyone know if there's a more complete story on this? I'd like to learn more about the guy.

 

there's some other stuff -- check out robert whiting's 'you gotta have wa' and warren cromartie's 'slugging it out in japan' (with robert whiting)

 

Check out <a href="http://www.baseballindex.org/tbi.asp?a=srch&src=ppl&txtsrch=Randy^Bass&do=1">this bibliography</a> of Randy Bass articles/books from The Baseball Index (www.baseballindex.org).

 

Fascinating, fascinating book. Very informative and eye-opening, especially about that high school baseball tournament that takes over the country.

 

I lived in Japan for almost a decade. I loved the baseball. When I first got there, this guy Randy Bass was tearing up the league. In 85 he took the Hanshin Tigers to a championship, almost like the Cubs winning. Rich Gale was on the team too and won the clinching game. Bass's numbers in 85 were staggering, Ruthian if you will: .394 (a record), 54 dingers (tied a record) and about 135 RBI's in a 130 game sked. He was a guy who probably couldn't catch up to a MLB fastball but feasted in Japan, his best attribute was that he was a lethal curve ball hitter in a curve ball league with small parks. He could wait and take the curve ball up the middle or over the 380 cf fences. He carried himself well over there. There was a huge contract snafu a few years later and he held out, as a result the Hanshin Tiger's GM jumped out of a hotel window. WOW. Yes, they take their ball serious over there. Bass's gaijin (forgiener) spot (each team got two on the big team, one for the minors) was taken by a large lad by way of the Toronto Blue Jays, Cecil Fielder. Fielder cranked 50+ for two years and moved onto the real Tigers, Detroit. I used to hang with Cecil in some of the western bars when the Hanshin Tigers came to Tokyo. Good guy.

 

the big drama around Bass was when he sat on 54 hr's (to tie OH) and the last series of the year was in Kamakura Stadium (Giants) and their manager Oh.
Oh's pitchers walked him three straight games to protect the record. At one point he was lunging at pitches 3 feet outside the strike zone.

 

I urge you to read Whiting's book. Well written. Met him many times in Tokyo. A great cast of characters came through Japan whilst I was there: The Lee brothers, Leron and ?, a guy named Rhodes who looked like Eddie Murphy and aslo hit 50+, Orestes Destrade played about 6 years on some great Seibu Lions teams, the Giant's main gaijin was Warren Cromartie. He loved it over there. A big rh pitcher played with him on the giants, former expo, name escapes me, had diabetes, also joined the Detroits, Bill?

Each team was allowed 2 gaijin per team. In Tokyo city area, there were 5 -6 teams out of a 12 (6/6) team league. You could catch a game any day of the week while living in Tokyo.

My favorite team was the Yakult Swallows (Yakult was a yougurt company) who's owner was such a big Giants fan that he urged his team not to try too hard vs. the Giants.

The Giants were the Celtics/Yankees/Canadeans all rolled into one in fan support.

 

Bill Gullickson.

 

Bob Horner

 

The High School baseball tourney is March Madness on steriods. Occurs every August. There are 49 prefectures in Japan and Tokyo proper gets a second bid to make it 50 HS's that win their region and descend on Osaka for the knockouts. The Hanshin Tigers go on the road for two weeks and they play in a grand old stadium, the Wrigley of Japan, called Koshien. It's two weeks of non-stop baseball, games start at 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and are nationally broadcast all day on the state network, NHK. Heroes are made, legends born, as the drama moves foward over the two weeks. Like NCAA's, cinderella stories are gloried - northern farm prefecture vs. big bad Tokyo. I went to one of the games. World Cup like in it's fever. Work shuts down for the two weeks. It coincides with a vacation period in which the Japanese leave the cities and return to their famalies' roots. It's unbearablily hot, ace pitchers go out and throw 150 pitches into extra innings for national glory. And come back and pitch again a day or two later. It has to be seen to be believed.

 

Horner joined the Yakult Swallows into the season and hit like 6 hr's in his first 3 games. He was the first real all star to come over in his prime. It was a crazy. Every sports TV show was devoted to "how we must stop horner, how to pitch to him, etc"

 

SABR member Jim Albright (www.baseballguru.com) has done a ton of research on Japanese baseball.

Here's some links to articles on Randy Bass: http://baseballguru.com/jalbright/InfoLinks.html#Randy_Bass