A baseball gaijin: an American pitcher’s journey to Japan and back again

MTokyo’s eiji Jingu Stadium pulsed with excitement in 2015, during a watershed moment in Japanese baseball. The Tokyo Yakult Swallows had just defeated the rival Yomiuri Giants in a postseason series. For decades, the teams had shared Tokyo, but little else. The Giants were the class of Japanese baseball, drawing comparisons with the New York Yankees, while the Swallows hovered below .500. Now came payback, as the Swallows advanced to the Japan Series, Nippon Professional Baseball’s championship round. Among the revelers was the Swallows’ American closer, Tony Barnette. The reliever, performing the team’s postgame ritual, performed a series of acrobatic leaps that went viral on Japanese social media.

Barnette had other reasons to be excited. Frustrated with his progress in the minor league system of the Arizona Diamondbacks, he had accepted an offer to play in Japan. The money was better than Triple A, but he didn’t speak Japanese and the chances of him returning to the U.S. to play in the MLB were slim—especially since he had never played in the majors before. In his first season with the Swallows in 2010, he was demoted to the minors and initially wasn’t offered a new contract. Then he got another chance and made the most of it, going from struggling starter to great reliever, finding success in the postseason—and, after six seasons in Japan, finally realizing his MLB dream with the Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs. His story is chronicled in a new book by sportswriter Aaron Fischman, A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back.

“People who aren’t necessarily baseball fans will find it inspiring,” Fischman says. “They want to hear about someone who overcame such insurmountable obstacles to achieve their lifelong dream, even what it’s like to be a foreigner in a country they don’t know at all. … I’m biased, but I think the story is great.”

The story of Japanese players coming to the U.S. and the MLB is well known, including stars like Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu, Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki and reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani. Yet the journey of American players to Japan has received far less publicity, Fischman said.

“It was a real draw to write the story,” he says. “There’s not nearly as much attention to American or other foreign players in Japan and what they’re doing.”

A key figure from both worlds wrote the foreword: Barnette’s agent Don Nomura, the son of an American-Jewish father and a Japanese mother, and the stepson of a well-known Japanese former player and manager, Katsuya Nomura.

“I found [Don Nomura’s] “He was such a pioneer, such a groundbreaking figure … He was instrumental in bringing Japanese players to the U.S. Of course, he was instrumental in Tony in both directions, helping Tony get to Japan and helping him get back.”

“Gaijin” is Japanese for “foreigner,” and there is a long and complex history of gaijin baseball players on the island. The list of American major leaguers who have gone to Japan includes household names such as Cecil Fielder, who parlayed a stint with the Hanshin Tigers into a rejuvenated MLB career. Still, the country has a rich baseball history and prides itself on its homegrown talent, including the legendary Sadaharu Oh. Now 84, Oh holds the all-time world record for home runs at 868 and a Japanese record for single-season home runs at 55. (In 2001, American-born Tuffy Rhodes tied the record, 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 capped at four. This actually worked out in Barnette’s favor after he was released. Not only did the Swallows reconsider him, but they now had an open spot after releasing another gaijin player who failed a medical.

Upon his return to the Swallows, Barnette was more willing to consult team interpreter Go Fujisawa.

“The first year, Go wasn’t used by Tony…as much as he should have been,” Fischman says.[Tony] wanted to figure things out for himself… Tony didn’t want to be a nuisance, didn’t want to intrude on Go’s free time. Go said, ‘Tony should have just bothered me.’ His job was to be available 24/7, even when he was asleep.”

Barnette’s second season in Japan was disrupted by the devastating Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in March 2011. That day, Barnette was in a shower in the Yokohama training room when fellow reliever Kenichi Matsuoka tried to warn him of an earthquake warning. Neither player understood the other, but then came an unmistakable message: the room shook. Eventually, Barnette and most of the Swallows’ gaijin were evacuated from Yokohama. His then-girlfriend Hillary, who had joined him in Japan, temporarily left for the United States. Barnette remained with his team despite the deteriorating situation.

“A lot of people had a personal connection to the tragedy,” Fischman said, including Swallows pitcher Yoshinori Sato, who lost his former high school catcher, Izumi Saito, in the tsunami.

Fischman notes that there were concerns in Japanese society about whether sports programming was resuming too quickly and about the extent to which the government and media were providing information about the public health crisis.

“I wanted to be more macro,” Fischman says. “Those kinds of things are more important than a game that people play for fun.” Still, he adds that in times of disaster, sports “can be very inspiring, can serve an important purpose, can help the Japanese people heal” — not just through baseball, but also through women’s soccer, with Japan beating the U.S. in the Women’s World Cup final that year.

It was a mixed feeling for Barnette, whose brother Randy died later that spring. Their mother, Jackie, was also rushed to intensive care after suffering a heart attack.

On the mound, Tony Barnette put aside his dream of becoming a starting pitcher and transitioned into a role as a reliever under the guidance of his bullpen coach, Tomohito Ito.

“Success begat more success,” Fischman said. “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 in a playoff loss to the Chunichi Dragons, Tony and Hillary were married afterward. (He and Hillary had two daughters; the marriage eventually ended in divorce.) His professional future in Japan looked bright in 2012, when he secured the closer’s job, excelled on the mound, and was signed to a two-year, $3.2 million contract.

By this point, Barnette was well enough accustomed to taking nighttime bike rides around Tokyo with Hillary, past historic landmarks like the Imperial Palace and Aoyama Cemetery. The team’s fans went wild for him when it became clear that, unlike many gaijin, he wasn’t here for the short term.

“From Tony’s sophomore year onwards – and really especially in his third season, 2012, when he became a dominant closer – he started to be recognized all over Tokyo,” Fischman said.

Eventually, a Rangers scout at a Swallows game noticed him, too. After some negotiations, Barnette eventually signed with an MLB team. His Rangers debut came in 2016. In a highlight of that season, Barnette shut down a heavily drafted Boston Red Sox lineup. He also accidentally hit Los Angeles Angels star Albert Pujols in the head and apologized profusely. He finished the year with a 2.09 ERA out of the bullpen with some gutsy service in an ALDS loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

“He didn’t want to be a major-league player — he wanted to be a successful major-league player,” Fischman says. “He wanted to be remembered as a good major-league player. I think he accomplished that.”

After struggling with the Rangers the following season and having his time with the Cubs cut short by injury, Barnette returned to work for the Swallows out of retirement. (It was a good run for the Swallows, who won the 2021 Japan Series.) Today, he’s a scouting consultant in the U.S. for the same team that once gave him a chance.

“He’s just looking for the next stage of gaijin going to Tokyo to perform for the Swallows, to follow in Tony’s footsteps,” Fischman says. “Not many people can do exactly what he did, achieve that level of success.”