Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu Stadium pulsed with excitement in 2015 during a defining moment in Japanese baseball. The Tokyo Yakult Swallows had just defeated the rival Yomiuri Giants in a postseason series. For decades, the teams shared Tokyo, but little else. The Giants were the class of Japanese baseball, drawing comparisons to the New York Yankees, while the Swallows languished below .500. Now comes revenge, as the Swallows advance to the Japan Series, the championship round of Nippon Professional Baseball. Among the celebrators was the Swallows’ next American, Tony Barnette. Following the team’s postgame ritual, the reliever performed a series of acrobatic jumps that went viral on Japanese social media.
Barnette had additional reasons to be happy. Frustrated with his progress through the Arizona Diamondbacks minor league system, he accepted an offer to play in Japan. The money was better than Triple A, but he didn’t speak Japanese and the chances of returning to the US to play in the MLB were slim – especially considering he had never played in the previous championships. In his first season with the Swallows in 2010, he was relegated to the minors and was initially not offered a new contract. Then came another chance, and he made the most of it, going from struggling starter to reliever while finding success in the postseason — and, after six seasons in Japan, finally realized his MLB dream with the Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs. His story is told in a new book by sports journalist Aaron Fischman – A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back.
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“People who aren’t necessarily baseball fans will find this inspiring,” says Fischman. “They’ll want to hear about someone who overcame such insurmountable odds to achieve their life’s dream, even what it’s like to be a foreigner in a country they’re unfamiliar with… I’m biased, but I love the story.”
The narrative of Japanese players coming to the US and MLB is well known, including through stars like Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu, Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki and reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani. However, the American players’ trip to Japan received much less publicity, according to Fischman.
“It was really a draw to write the story,” he says. “There’s not as much attention paid to American or foreign players in Japan and what they’re doing there.”
A key figure in both worlds wrote the foreword: Barnette’s agent, Don Nomura, who is the son of a Jewish-American father and Japanese mother, and stepson of a renowned former Japanese player and coach, Katsuya Nomura.
“I found [Don Nomura’s] knowledge and insight are invaluable,” says Fischman. “He’s such a pioneering, trailblazing figure… He played a huge role in bringing Japanese players to the US. Of course, he was instrumental to Tony in both directions, helping Tony get to Japan and helping him get back.”
“Gaijin” means “foreigner” in Japanese, and there is a long and complex history of gaijin gamers in the island nation. The list of American major leaguers who went to Japan includes familiar names like Cecil Fielder, who parlayed a stint with the Hanshin Tigers into a rejuvenated MLB career. However, the country has a rich baseball history and is proud of its home-grown talent, including the legendary Sadaharu Oh. Now 84, Oh holds the world record for all-time home runs, 868, and has set the Japanese mark 55 home runs in a single season. (In 2001, American Tuffy Rhodes tied the mark, a feat repeated by Alex Cabrera in 2002; in 2013, Barnette’s Curaçaoan-Dutch Swallows teammate Wladimir Balentien set a new record with 60.) The number of gaijin on each NPB team is limited to four. This actually worked to Barnette’s benefit after he was released. Not only were the Swallows reconsidering him, but they now had a spot open, having released another gaijin player who failed a physical.
Upon his return to the Swallows, Barnette was more willing to consult with team interpreter Go Fujisawa.
“The first year, Go wasn’t used by Tony… as much as it should have been,” says Fischman. “[Tony] he wanted to sort things out on his own… Tony didn’t want to be a nuisance, to impose himself on Go’s free time. Go said, ‘Tony should have just bothered me.’ His professional obligations should be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even while sleeping.”
Barnette’s second season in Japan was rocked by the devastating Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in March 2011. That day, Barnette was in the shower of Yokohama’s training room when fellow reliever Kenichi Matsuoka tried to alert him to a warning of earthquake. Neither player understood the other, but then came an unmistakable communication: the room shook. Eventually, Barnette and most of the Swallows’ gaijin were evacuated from Yokohama. His then-girlfriend Hillary, who joined him in Japan, temporarily left for the US. Barnette remained with his team despite the worsening situation.
“Many people had personal connections to the tragedy,” Fischman says, including Swallows pitcher Yoshinori Sato, who lost his former high school catcher, Izumi Saito, in the tsunami.
Fischman notes that in Japanese society there were concerns about whether the sports calendar was being resumed too quickly and about the way the government and media were providing information about the public health crisis.
“I wanted to get more macro,” says Fischman. “This kind of thing is more important than a game that people play for fun.” However, he adds that in times of disaster, sport “could be very inspiring, serve a significant purpose, allow the Japanese people to heal” – not just through baseball, but also through women’s football, with Japan winning the USA at the Women’s World Cup. end that year.
It was a bittersweet season for Barnette, whose brother Randy died that spring; their mother, Jackie, was also rushed to an ICU after a heart attack.
On the mound, Tony Barnette set aside his dream of being a starting pitcher and transitioned into a relief role under the tutelage of his bullpen coach, Tomohito Ito.
“Success bred more success,” says Fischman. “It was a domino effect. He became more and more confident. He continued to perform better and better the rest of the season.”
Although the season ended with a playoff loss to the Chunichi Dragons, Tony and Hillary later got married. (He and Hillary would have two daughters together; the marriage eventually resulted in a separation.) His professional future in Japan looked bright in 2012, when he secured the job at the closest, dazzled, and received a two-year contract worth US$3.2 million. .
By now, Barnette was acclimated enough to go on nighttime bike rides around Tokyo with Hillary, cycling past historic sites like the Imperial Palace and Aoyama Cemetery. The team’s fanbase supported him after it became clear that, unlike many gaijin, he wasn’t in it for the short term.
“Starting in Tony’s second year – really balanced, especially in his third season, 2012, when he became a dominant closer – he started to get recognized in Tokyo,” says Fischman.
As it turned out, a Rangers scout at a Swallows game noticed it too. After some negotiations, Barnette finally joined an MLB team. His Rangers debut came in 2016. In a highlight of that season, Barnette closed out a stacked Boston Red Sox lineup. He also accidentally hit Los Angeles Angels star Albert Pujols in the head, apologizing extensively. He finished the year with a 2.09 ERA out of the bullpen with a valiant serve in the ALDS loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
“He didn’t want to be a major leaguer — he wanted to be a successful major leaguer,” Fischman says. “He wanted to be remembered as a good major league player. I think he achieved that.”
After struggling the following season with the Rangers and seeing his time with the Cubs derailed due to injury, Barnette found himself once again working for the Swallows after retirement. (It was a good stretch for the Swallows, who won the Japan Series in 2021.) Today, he is a U.S.-based scouting consultant for the same team that once took a chance on him.
“He’s just exploring the next stage of gaijin, going to Tokyo to perform for the Swallows, trying to follow in Tony’s footsteps,” says Fischman. “Not many people are capable of doing exactly what he did, achieving that level of success.”
