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.
Reading this made me curious if there might have been any Baltimore Orioles "Hall of Very Gooders" who played in Japan too. Closest I can come up with is Glenn Davis, but he probably didn't play for the Orioles long enough to count.
ReplyDeleteDavis didn't play very long with the Orioles and didn't play very well with them either. That trade's still a bit of a sore subject here in Charm City.
DeleteI can think of a couple former Orioles who did pretty well in Japan but maybe not so much with the Birds, like Leo Gomez and Dennis Sarfate. Maybe the most likely guy to end up in the Orioles Hall Of Fame would be Jim Traber, who went to high school in the area. He played for Kintetsu for a few years.
I've got a soft spot for the late Mike Young, who played for Baltimore in the 80's and spent 1990 with the Carp. I was at a game in 1987 that he hit extra inning home runs in, including a walk off.
I have to say that I feel shame as a Dragons fan that I didn't even think of Leo Gomez.
ReplyDeleteCool about Mike Young!
He might have been before your time in Nagoya. Alex Ochoa came up in the Orioles system - I remember seeing him in Frederick - and had some decent years with the Dragons too. (I had to reenter this comment as the first time I left it anonymously)
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