It's funny how things work out sometimes.
A couple weeks back when I was researching Rich Duran's brief NPB career, I found what I thought was an interesting story about how the Kintetsu Buffaloes ended up with one of their best foreign players. After parting ways with Charlie Manuel after the 1980 season, the team had struggled for a few years to find foreign players with productive bats. Vic Harris, Ike Hamption, Larry Wolfe and Mike Edwards weren't really working out as hoped. In 1984, the team signed the previously mentioned Duran along with four time All Star Don Money, the 37 year old veteran third baseman who'd spent 16 years in MLB with the Phillies and Brewers.
Money was quickly disappointed with what he had gotten himself into in Japan. He was unhappy with the Buffaloes' facilities as well as his and his families experiences away from the ballpark. While promised a brand-new condo to live in, the family instead was put up in an older apartment that had a cockroach infestation. There were few English speaking residents nearby, causing his wife to feel very isolated and his daughter was having difficulty in the school she was going to in Kobe. After three months in Kansai (but only a month or so of the regular season), the entire family left to go back to the States, with Money announcing his retirement from baseball. He played in 29 games, hitting .260 with eight home runs. Duran soon followed the Moneys back to the US, leaving Kintetsu to scramble to find two new foreign hitters.
They soon signed them - Mark Corey and Dick Davis. The 28 year old Corey wasn't really an improvement over the other foreign players Kintetsu had had recently, hitting just .215 in 31 games, but the 30 year old Davis performed well. He hit .310 with 18 home runs in 78 games over the remainder of the season and went on to hit .343 with 40 home runs in 1985 and .337 with 37 home runs in 1986. His 1986 season was marred by his charging the mound after getting hit on the elbow by Osamu Higashio of the Lions. He was suspended for ten days and fined 100,000 yen for the incident.
His numbers tailed off some in 1987 - possibly due to injury as he only played in 91 games - although he still hit over .300. About halfway through the 1988 season, however, something off the field ended his career. Due to complaints about loud parties, the police raided his apartment in Kobe and found cannabis along with "drug paraphernalia". Davis claimed it was a treatment for a heal injury that a friend had given him and that he was unaware of what it was but Kintetsu released him (although they paid his full season's salary).
The Buffaloes had been doing a better job at signing foreign batters over the previous few years, with Bombo Rivera and Ben Oglivie having some good seasons, but the loss of Davis created a big hole. But his replacement was already in Japan.
Prior to the 1988 season, the Chunichi Dragons had signed a 27 year old Dodgers farm hand to contract, The rules at the time only allowed two foreign players on the top team's roster and Chunichi had Gary Rajsich and Taigen Kaku filling those slots, so Ralph Bryant was relegated the farm in Japan as well.
Scouts from the Buffaloes had liked what they had seen of Bryant in minor league games so the team ended up purchasing him from Chunichi to replace Davis. He immediately paid dividends, hitting .307 with 34 home runs in just 74 games after joining the team in late June. He followed that up with an amazing season in 1989, hitting 49 home runs with 121 RBIs and leading the Buffaloes to just their third Pacific League championship ever. They lost to the Giants in the Nippon Series but Bryant was named the Pacific League MVP. He'd spend six more seasons with Kintetsu and finished his eight year NPB career with 259 home runs. The Buffaloes replaced him after the 1995 season with Tuffy Rhodes, probably the only better foreign player in franchise history.
So, just to recap, Don Money's abandonment of Kintetsu in 1984 led to them signing Dick Davis, who's drug bust in 1988 led to them signing Ralph Byrant, one the team's best foreign players ever. Just like they planned it, I'm sure.
Here are cards of all three players:
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| 2013 BBM Deep Impact #13 |
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| 1988 Takara Buffaloes #15 (Davis) |
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| 1995 BBM #355 |
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