Study Abroad - The Swallows and Hawks in Salinas

During the 1987-88 offseason, the California League team in Fresno had a problem.  Two problems, actually, but one of them was the direct cause of the other one.  The city had condemned the grandstand of Euless Park, the home of the team for 46 years.  "Condemned" is probably not a strong enough word - the grandstand was a wooden structure and had suffered termite damage.  The city ended up bulldozing the grandstand in the spring of 1988.  The condemnation of the grandstand caused the San Francisco Giants to terminate their working agreement with the team - an agreement that had begun 30 years earlier when the Giants had moved to the West Coast.  Fresno was forced to operate as an independent team for 1988, being loaned players from various organizations (including the Hanshin Tigers).  The team had to rent temporary bleachers along with trailers to serve as the locker rooms, team offices and concession stands.  Only 34,734 fans attended games in Fresno that season, the lowest total in the league.

With no prospect for a new ballpark for 1989, the owner of the team sold it to long time minor league operator Joe Buzas who moved the team to Salinas, putting an end to professional baseball in Fresno after 42 years.  It would be 10 years before Fresno would get another team - the Giants would move their Triple-A team to the city after they were displaced from Phoenix by the expansion Arizona Diamonbacks.

Salinas had hosted a minor league team off and on since 1954.  The most recent incarnation of the team, the Spurs, had entered the league as an expansion team in 1982 and was a farm team for the Cubs.  The Mariners took over the affiliation in 1984.  The team moved to Riverside to become the Riverside Red Wave after the 1987 season, leaving Salinas without baseball in 1988.

Buzas was not the sole owner of the new Salinas team (again dubbed the Spurs).  He had a partner, a 38 year old real estate investor named Don Nomura.  Nomura was born Don Engel to a Japanese mother and American father.  His mother left the family when he was very young and eventually married Nankai Hawks slugger Katsuya Nomura who adopted him.  He changed his name to Don Nomura and spend four seasons playing on the Yakult Swallows farm team.  He moved to Los Angeles after being released by Yakult in 1981 and eventually made a lot of money in real estate, enough to buy a 50% stake in the Salinas team.

While Buzas and Nomura had a ballpark they could play in in Salinas, they still had the other problem that the team had had in Fresno - no major league affiliate.  They had a partial working agreement with the San Francisco Giants which over the course of the entire season provided them with around half of the 40 players who eventually suited up for the Spurs that year.  They filled in the remainder of the roster in the same manner that other independent teams were forced to - getting the occasional player on loan from an major league team's organization and signing players that were no longer part of an organization.  And - as a number of independent teams had done in the late 1980's - they got players from Japan.

I don't know if Nomura took advantage of his Japanese baseball background and contacts but the two teams who provided players for the Spurs in 1989 were the Swallows (who Nomura had played for) and the Hawks (who his step-father had played for and managed).  The Hawks were in their first season under new ownership - after 50 years of being owned by Nankai and playing in Osaka they were now owned by Daiei and playing in Fukuoka.  The two teams provided a total of seven players - four from the Hawks and three from the Swallows.  In addition, the Swallows provided a coach, Kenichi "Ken" Kajima.

Buzas and Nomura hired Tim Ireland as the team's manager.  I don't know if they felt it was important to get someone with some experience with Japanese baseball for that role but Ireland had spent two seasons with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the mid-1980's so he certainly qualified.

The team was not good.  They finished the season in last place in the North Division with a record of 51-91, the worst in the league.  They were 38 games behind first place Stockton (although only five games behind fourth place Modesto).  Their .218 team batting average and 3.23 runs per game was the league's worst as was the pitching staffs combined 4.07 ERA.  Attendance grew to 47,609 which was almost 13,000 more than in the previous year in Fresno although it was still by far the lowest total in the league.

Things changed a bit in 1990.  The team lost its partial working agreement with San Francisco and were forced to scramble to fill the entire roster*.  The Hawks and Swallows stepped up and provided the team with 11 players - 9 from the Hawks and 2 from the Swallows.  (It's kind of odd that they Swallows only sent two players since Don Nomura's step-father Katsuya had become Yakult's manager prior to that season - the younger Nomura had actually negotiated his step-father's contract with the team.)

*I seem to recall that Daiei had also bought into the team as well although I haven't found anything to back that memory up and I may be conflating it with Suntory Brewery's purchase of the Birmingham Barons.

They also ended up signing a handful of former major league players who were looking for an opportunity to get back to the big leagues including Andy Allanson, Rodney Craig, Leon "Bull" Durham and Steve Howe - only Howe and Allanson would ultimately be successful.  Howe had previous experience with an independent team with Japanese players, having played on the San Jose Bees in 1985.  The rest of the roster was filled out by the usual assortment of players lent from MLB organizations and unaffiliated players.  One notable player was Corey Paul who joined the team after being released by the Mariners.  Paul would go on to play a number of years in the independent Western League in the mid-90's and parlayed his success there into a four year stint playing in Taiwan (Taipei Suns of the Taiwan Major League), Japan (Seibu Lions) and Korea (Hyundai Unicorns) between 1999 and 2002.

The Hawks also provided the team with its manager.  Hidehiko "Hide" Koga would become the first (and to my knowledge only) Japanese manager of a professional baseball team in North America (although arguments can be made in favor of Don Wakamatsu and Dave Roberts who are both of Japanese descent).  The Hawks also provided a coach (Takayuki Kohno) as well as the team's trainer and operations manager.

The team didn't improve much on the field.  They again finished dead last in the North Division with the worst record in the league - 47-93.  The team improved its batting average to .243 and their runs scored per game to 4.04 but these were still last in the league.  Their ERA swelled to 4.63 although this was better than one other team - the California League's other independent team, the Reno Silver Sox (who had a partial agreement with the Cleveland Indians).  Of particular concern though was the fact that attendance plummeted to 33,465, over 14,000 less than the previous season and less even then their final season in Fresno!

On a personal note, I actually went to a game in Salinas that year.  I had gone to a conference for work in San Jose in May and spent a couple extra days both before and after it visiting my sister who was attending Stanford at the time.  One day I drove down to Monterey to go to the aquarium and spend the afternoon at Point Lobos State Park.  That evening I went to Salinas and saw the Spurs lose to Reno 4-0.  I took a couple pictures (but only a couple - this obviously was back in the days when you had to use real film!).  This first one is of the ballpark itself:

The other shows Steve Howe coaching at first.  He was recovering from an injury and didn't play in the game.  I was told the umpire behind him was the brother of Lenny Dykstra although I have no idea if that's true.

The scorecard at the top of this post is from the game.  I saw three of the Japanese players - Shikato Yamagita, Kenichi Yamanochi and Seiichi Murakami - all from the Hawks organization.

Not much changed in 1991.  The Spurs were still fully independent and were supplied with 11 players from Japan - six from the Hawks and five from the Swallows.  They were again supplemented by a handful of former MLB players trying to work their way back - Todd Cruz, Gordon Dillard, Jim Eppard, John Rabb and Angel Salazar.  None of them succeeded.

Koga was back as manager and Kohno also returned as a coach.  They were joined by Shuzo Arita who like the other two was from the Hawks organization.

The team's performance improved somewhat in 1991.  They still finished last in the North Division but their 55-81 record was one game better than San Bernardino's so for the first time they didn't have the worst record in the league.  Their .252 batting average was eighth in the league (although just slightly better than ninth place Palm Springs) and their 4.32 runs scored per game was good enough for ninth (although again just slightly ahead of Palm Springs).  The team's ERA continued to rise, however, although the 4.87 value was better than Reno's 5.13.

The team's improvement on the field was reflected in the attendance.  Salinas drew 66,079 fans in 1991.  For once it was not the lowest amount in the league - this was yet another category in which they finished slightly better than Palm Springs (who drew 64,871).

Off the field, 1992 was more of the same.  The Hawks and Swallows sent seven players to Salinas - at least three from each team (there's one player I haven't been able to track down).  They only signed one former MLB player - Freddie Toliver - who did make it back to the majors for 12 games with Pittsburgh in 1993.  Two other players on their roster on loan from other organizations eventually made the majors - Duane Singleton and Kevin Tolar.

There were two interesting additions to the roster that year, both Japanese players who weren't from the Hawks or Swallows.  Motoi Okoshi had gotten everyone's attention with a pretty good performance during the 1989 Koshien Tournament with Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School and he went on to Waseda University after graduation.  He was disappointed in how little he was playing for Waseda and eventually quit the team and dropped out of school in the spring of 1992.  He contacted Nomura about playing for Salinas and ended up getting into 11 games that year, going 1-1 with a 3.42 ERA.

The other player was a 17 year old who had been expelled from high school and was given a job as the clubhouse boy as a favor from Nomura to the boy's parents.  He ended up pitching in the team's final game of the season (and final game in Salinas but I'm getting ahead of myself) and pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.  This, of course, was Makoto "Mac" Suzuki who would go on to become the third Japanese player in MLB and the first ever in the American League.

Once again Koga and Kohno were back as manager and coach although Arita did not return.  The Swallows sent Keisi Asano to be the pitching coach.

On the field the team's performance fell apart.  They finished with a record of 36-99 which was by far the worst in the league.  They finished an astonishing 46 1/2 games behind first place Stockton (managed by Ireland) and 28 1/2 games out of fourth.  The team's batting average dropped to .248 and their runs per game dropped to 3.9 - both the worst in the league.  Their ERA rose for the fourth straight season to 5.25 which was ninth in the league, just slightly better than Reno's 5.29.  Attendance dropped to 54,256, worst in the league again.

The demographics of the California League had changed over the four years that Buzas and Nomura had run the team in Salinas.  In 1989 only three of the ten teams in the league drew over 100,000.  In 1992 only three of the ten teams in the league drew UNDER 100,000.  The two owners sold the team to new owners who moved it to San Bernardino to replace the team that was moving to Rancho Cucamunga to become the Quakes.  This was the last team in affiliated baseball to call Salinas home although the city would host the Salinas Peppers of the independent Western League from 1995-97.

After selling the team, Don Nomura became a agent.  Mac Suzuki was his first client and he would eventually negotiate a deal between Suzuki and the Mariners in 1993.  Nomura would make his biggest splash by representing Hideo Nomo and taking advantage of a loophole in the standard NPB contract to have Nomo "retire" from NPB and sign with the Dodgers in 1995.

The Hawks and Swallows sent a total of 34 players during the four years the team was in Salinas (if you're wondering why the math doesn't add up it's because two players spent multiple seasons with the Spurs).  Here's the list of 34 plus Okoshi and Mac Suzuki:

Player	Year	Draft	Career	Notes
Kiyoshi Arai	1992	1990 Swallows 4th	Yakult Swallows 1991-96, Yokohama Baystars 1997-2000, Orix BlueWave 2001-02
Toyotoshi Chikada	1989	1987 Hawks Outside Draft	Nankai/Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1988-90, Hanshin Tigers 1991
Koichi Emoto	1990	1984 Dragons 4th	Chunichi Dragons 1985-89, Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1989-91
Hidefumi Hara	1992	1990 Swallows 5th	Yakult Swallows 1991-94
Kazutaka Ikesue	1991	1987 Swallows 4th	Yakult Swallows 1988-93
Hiroyuki Ito	1992	?	?
Yuki Kaseda	1989	1987 Swallows 2nd	Yakult Swallows 1988-92
Hideki Kato	1992	1990 Hawks Outside Draft	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1991-?
Ryo Kawano	1991	1990 Swallows Outside Draft	Yakult Swallows 1990-95, Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1996-99, Chunichi Dragons 1999, Orix BlueWave 2000-01
Masahiro Kuoda	1989	1988 Swallows 4th	Yakult Swallows 1989-97
Hideyuki Mifune	1991	1988 Hawks 2nd	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1989-93, Hiroshima Toyo Carp 1994-96, Kintetsu Buffaloes 1997-98
Seiichi Murakami	1990	1988 Hawks 4th	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1989-93, Hanshin Tigers 1995-99
Arihito Muramatsu	1991	1990 Hawks 6th	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1991-2003, Orix BlueWave/Buffaloes 2004-08, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 2009-10	All Star 1996, 2003-04, Best 9 1996, Golden Glove 2003-04, Led PL in steals in 1996.  Played on 2004 Olympic team.
Takayuki Nishijima	1990, 1992	1989 Hawks Outside Draft	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1990-2000
Tsuyoshi Nishioka	1991	1986 Swallows 1st	Yakult Swallows 1987-92, Orix BlueWave 1993-94	Not THAT Tsuyoshi Nishioka
Katsumasa Ohta	1991	1988 Hawks 6th	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1989-95
Yukio Ohtsubo	1991	1979 Hawks Outside Draft	Nankai/Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1980-89	Baseball Reference has two pages for him - here's the one with his NPB stats.
Yukitoshi Oka	1991	1988 Swallows 2nd	Yakult Swallows 1989-95
Motoi Okoshi	1992	1992 Hawks 1st	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1993-2003	Drafted as a pitcher but injuries forced him to switch to the outfield in 1996.
Kenichi Oshio	1991	1989 Swallows 4th	Yakult Swallows 1990-99
Kenichi Otsuka	1990	1986 Hawks 4th	Nankai/Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1987-91, Hiroshima Toyo Carp 1992, Seibu Lions 1993
Yoshiki Otsuka	1990	1984 Hawks 3rd	Nankai/Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1985-91, Yokohama Taiyo Whales/Baystars 1992-96
Shigeki Sasaki	1990	1986 Swallows 5th	Yakult Swallows 1987-92, Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1993-97
Makoto "Mac" Suzuki	1992	2002 Orix 2nd	Seatle Mariners 1993-99, Kansas City Royals 1999-2001, Colorado Rockies 2001, Milwaukee Brewers 2001, Kansas City Royals 2002, Orix BlueWave/Buffaloes 2003-05, Chicago Cubs 2006
Yasu Suzuki	1989	1986 Swallows 6th	Yakult Swallows 1987-93
Ryuji "Dragon" Taguchi	1989	1984 Hawks 1st	Nankai/Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1985-90, 1994	Baseball Reference lists his Salinas stats with Shigeki Taguchi who had spent 1989 with Salt Lake City.
Keisaburo Tanoue	1990	1989 Hawks Outside Draft	Fukuoka Daiei/Softbank Hawks 1990-07	Led PL in Winning Percentage in 2001.
Hiroyuki Tashiro	1990	1989 Hawks 6th	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1989-90
Takashi Uchinokura	1992	1990 Hawks 2nd	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1991-2002
Kenichi Uchiyama	1990	1985 Swallows 3rd	Yakult Swallows 1986-93
Tsutomu Yamada	1992	1985 Swallows 5th	Yakult Swallows 1986-97, Hiroshima Toyo Carp 1998, Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1999-2000
Yuji Yamaguchi	1989	1983 Hawks 2nd	Nankai/Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1984-98
Kenichi Yamanochi	1990, 1991	1988 Hawks 5th	Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1989-94
Shikato Yanagita	1990	1987 Hawks 3rd	Nankai/Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1988-93, Yakult Swallows 1994-95, Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1996-2001	All Star 1998.
Hideyuki Yasuda	1991	1985 Hawks 6th	Nankai/Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1986-95, Nippon-Ham Fighters 1996-97, Chunichi Dragons 1998-2000
Koichiro "Yoshi" Yoshinaga	1989	1987 Hawks 5th	Nankai/Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 1988-00, Yomiuri Giants 2001-03	Baseball Reference has two pages for him - this one has his NPB stats.  All Star 1992-94, 1996, 1997, 1999.  Best 9 1994, 1996.

There were two team sets issued each of the four teams the Spurs were in Salinas.  ProCards issued team sets in all four years with the 1992 set issued under the "Fleer/ProCards" label.  Cal League issued team sets in 1989 and 1990 while Classic Best put out sets in 1991 and 1992.  Cal League also issued league All Star sets in all four seasons and a couple of the Japanese players also appear in those sets.

30 of the 34 Japanese players sent by the Hawks and Swallows appear in the Salinas team sets.  Hiroyuki Itoh, Kenichi Oishi, Keisaburo Tanoue, Hiroyuki Tashiro don't have cards in any Salinas team set.  Takayuki Nishijima played for Salinas in both 1990 and 1992 but only has cards in the 1992 sets.  Neither Okoshi or Mac Suzuki appear in team sets although Okoshi appears on a 1993 Tomy card in a Salinas uniform.  Only half of the Hawks and Swallows players have cards in Japan although both Okoshi and Mac Suzuki do.  In many cases the minor league cards are the first cards and possibly only cards these players had.

There's a number of misspelling of the player's names on the cards along with just some general confusion on a couple of them.

I've swiped images from TradingCardDB, COMC and Ebay of all the minor league cards to include in this post.  I'm also including images of a Japanese card for all the players who have one.  I'm including the Salinas card of Okoshi as well.

Kiyoshi Arai

1992 Classic-Best Salinas Spurs #1

1992 Fleer ProCards #3761

1995 BBM #419

Toyotoshi Chikada

1989 Cal League #131

1989 ProCards #1812

Koichi Emoto

1988 Takara Dragons #58

1990 Cal League #121

1990 ProCards #2715

Hidefumi Hara

1992 Classic-Best Salinas Spurs #18

1992 Fleer ProCards #3768

Kazutaka Ikesue

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #21

1991 ProCards #2236

Yuki Kaseda

1989 Cal League #130

1989 ProCards #1808

Hideki Kato

1992 Classic-Best Salinas Spurs #10

1992 Fleer ProCards #3764

Ryo Kawano

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #11

1991 ProCards #2256

1999 BBM #465

Masahiro Kouda

1989 Cal League #134

1989 ProCards #1804

Hideyuki Mifune

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #4

1991 Cal League California League All Stars #32

1991 ProCards #2252

1992 BBM #360

Seiichi Murakami

1990 Cal League #119

1990 ProCards #2717

Arihito Muramatsu

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #10

1991 ProCards #2257

1997 BBM #B8

Takayuki Nishijima

1992 Classic-Best Salinas Spurs #7

1992 Fleer ProCards #3771

1998 BBM Hawks #FD62

Tsuyoshi Nishioka

1989 Takara Swallows #21

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #18

1991 ProCards #2241

Katsumasa Ohta

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #14

1991 ProCards #2242

Yukio Ohstubo

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #16

1991 ProCards #2243

Yukitoshi Oka

1990 Takara Swallows #19

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #15

1991 ProCards #2244

Motoi Okoshi

1993 Tomy #401

1993 BBM #409

Kenichi Otsuka

1990 Cal League #120

1990 ProCards #2716

Yoshiki Otsuka

1990 Cal League #141

1990 ProCards #2722

1991 Takara Hawks #35

Shigeki Sasaki

1990 Cal League #118

1990 ProCards #2719

Makoto Suzuki

2003 Calbee #082

Yasu Suzuki

1989 Cal League #135

1989 ProCards #1814

Ryuji Taguchi

1989 Cal League #132

1989 ProCards #1809

Keisaburo Tanoue

2001 Upper Deck #150

Takashi Uchinokura

1991 BBM #124

1992 Classic-Best Salinas Spurs #24

1992 Fleer ProCards #3765

Kenichi Uchiyama

1990 Cal League #122

1990 ProCards #2713

Tsutomu Yamada

1992 Classic-Best Salinas Spurs #19

1992 Cal League California League All Stars #13

1992 Fleer ProCards #3757

1994 BBM Late Series #579

Yuji Yamaguchi

1989 Cal League #133

1989 ProCards #1813

1996 BBM #430

Kenichi Yamanochi

1990 Cal League #140

1990 ProCards #2724

1991 Takara Hawks #60

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #7

1991 ProCards #2254

Shikato Yanagida

1990 Cal League #139

1990 Cal League California League All Stars #44

1990 ProCards #2723

1999 BBM Nippon Series #S16

Hideyuki Yasuda

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #3

1991 Cal League California League All Stars #40

1991 ProCards #2248

1993 Tomy #186

Koichiro Yoshinaga

1989 Cal League #136

1989 ProCards #1810

1999 Calbee #270 (Gold Signature Parallel)

I wanted to add some comments about the manager and coaches.  Hidehiko Koga had a very strange playing career.  He was a pitcher for Kinki University but when the Yomiuri Giants signed him in 1962, he switched to the outfield.  He was released by Yomiuri after the 1964 season and was invited to come to North America by Cappy Harada who was working as the San Francisco Giants' Far Eastern scout.  Koga ended up back on the mound for the Giants' Arizona instructional league team in the fall of 1965 and then spent 1966 with the Decatur Commodores of the Class A Midwest League.  He was injured in a car accident and missed the entire 1967 season (San Francisco released him that spring) but 1968 saw him pitching for the Lodi Crushers, the Chicago Cubs' team in the California League.  In 1969 he was a member of Toru Mori's Tokyo Dragons of the ill-fated Global League.  He spent a couple offseasons in the early 1970's playing for Maracaibo in the Venezuelan Winter League before finally hanging up his spikes in 1973.  He eventually ended up in the Hawks organization in time to run the Spurs.  He also coached for the Hawks (1996-2000) and Marines (2004-08) as well as for the Sonoma County Crushers of the independent Western League in 2001.

1990 Cal League #142

1990 ProCards #2735

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #24

1991 ProCards #2260

1992 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #25

1992 ProCards #3773

1998 BBM Hawks #FD5

Kenichi Kajima was a coach for the 1989 Spurs.  Kajima had been the Swallows second round pick in the 1976 draft and pitched for them for 12 years.  His best season was probably 1980 when he went 15-8 with a 2.76 ERA.  He was a five time All Star (1977, 1979-80, 1983-84) and made three appearance in the 1978 Nippon Series, giving up just one hit and one run in 5 2/3 innings while striking out five (although walking four).  He coached for Yakult for 11 years after he retired after the 1988 season - Salinas was his first experience as a coach.  He has a card in the 1989 Cal League team set but not in the ProCards set.

1979 Yamakatsu JY8 #92

1989 Cal League #148

Like Kajima, Takayuki Kohno's first coaching experience came with Salinas.  He was the third round pick of the Nankai Hawks in the 1973 draft and spent his entire 16 year career with them.  He was Nankai's regular second baseman in the late 70's/early 80's before moving to the outfield to make room for Jeff Doyle.  He had a streak of 15 games in which he scored a run in 1982.  He made the All Star team four times (1979, 1981-82, 1984).  His older brother Kazumasa played for the Yomiuri Giants from 1970 to 1986.  He had three separate stints coaching for the Hawks before coaching for independent teams in Japan (Nagasaki Saints, Kishu Rangers) and Korea (Goyang Wonders).  He's been working with the Kanaflex corporate league team for the last few years.

While he officially retired as a player at the end of the 1989 season, he made some appearances with Salinas during his three seasons coaching for the Spurs.  He made a couple plate appearances in 1990 and 1992 but actually filled in the field some in 1991, getting into 16 games including 13 at second base.  Baseball Reference has his Salinas stats listed on a separate page (under "Takayuki Kohno") than his NPB stats (under "Takayuki Kono").

1990 Cal League #143

1990 ProCards #2736

1991 Class Best Salinas Spurs #26

1991 ProCards #2262

1992 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #26

1992 ProCards #3775

2018 BBM Hawks 80th Anniversary #15

Shuzo Arita had not officially retired as a player when he coached for Salinas in 1991.  He'd drafted by the Kintetsu Buffaloes in the second round of the 1972 draft.  He and Masataka Nashida split the catching duties for the Buffaloes for much of the 1970's and the first half of the 1980's.  He was pretty much Hall Of Famer Keishi Suzuki's personal catcher for the last years of the pitcher's career.  Once Suzuki retired Kintetsu traded Arita to the Giants where he was the backup catcher for a couple years.  He moved to the Hawks for the 1990 season and was a player-coach that season.  He made two All Star teams (1976, 1978) and won Diamond Glove awards in 1975 and 1976.  He also won the Comeback Player award in 1988.  He hit two home runs in the 1979 Nippon Series including a two run shot off Yutaka Enatsu in Game Two.  His older brother Tetsuzo spent five years pitching for the Carp from 1969 to 1973.  He officially retired at the end of the 1991 season and later coached for Hanshin and Kintetsu.

1990 Takara Hawks #22

1991 Classic Best Salinas Spurs #27

1991 ProCards #2261

Keishi Asano was in his third season of coaching for the Swallows when they sent him to Salinas.   Asano was a ninth(!) round pick of the Sankei Atoms in the 1966 draft (first phase).  Despite being such a low pick he made his debut with the ichi-gun Atoms early in the 1967 season and ended up getting into 50 games.  The Atoms used him in middle relief for his first couple seasons before converting him to a starter in 1971.  He had a couple decent seasons for some not very good Yakult teams before he was dealt to the Yomiuri Giants for Makoto Kurata after the 1976 season.  He won the Comeback Player award in his first season with Yomiuri.  He retired after the 1984 season.  He made the All Star team once (1974).  He was a TV commentator during the late 1980's before becoming a coach for Yakult.  He also coached for the Fighters and Baystars as well as the Chinatrust Whales of the CPBL and a couple colleges.

1992 Classic Best #29

1992 ProCards #3774

2008 BBM Back To The 70's #007