Last summer, the Baltimore Orioles (my local MLB team) inducted Adam Jones into their Hall of Fame. Jones had finished his career in Japan, spending two seasons in Osaka with the Orix Buffaloes in 2020-21. It made me wonder at the time how many members of the Orioles Hall of Fame had played in NPB.
I finally took a look at the list and I think the answer is four. In addition to Jones, there's Don Buford (Taiheiyo Club Lions 1973-75, Nankai Hawks 1976), Davey Johnson (Yomiuri Giants 1975-76) and Doug Decinces (Yakult Swallows 1988). Here are Japanese cards of all four of them:
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| 2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #76 |
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| 1975/76/77 Calbee #1222 (Johnson) |
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| 1988 Takara Swallows #15 (Decinces) |
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| 2021 Topps NPB #76 |
There's an additional Orioles Hall of Fame member who played in the Far East. Melvin Mora spent a portion of the 1998 season in Taiwan, playing for the CPBL's Mercuries Tigers. I used to have his CPBL card but I traded it to Ryan years ago when I purged my collection of all my Taiwanese cards. I was kind of surprised to discover I'd never put it in a post here on the blog but luckily, TCDB has it.
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