Hard on the heels of the bad news about Duke Snider, more about a world-class athlete in two sports (via SFGate):
Remembering Wally Yonamine, Pioneer In Two Sports, Who Died At Age 85 This Week
Wally Yonamine, who was the first American-born player to play Japanese baseball after World War II and the first Asian-American to play in the NFL, died Monday at the age of 85.
Wally Kaname Yonamine, the first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War II, died Monday after a bout with prostate cancer. He was 85.
--snip--
The outfielder was known as the "Nisei Jackie Robinson" for breaking into Japanese baseball and building ties between the countries in a highly sensitive period after World War II.
Right. Impressive. But more impressive when you find out what he went through in his first season, and more impressive still when you find out he was a pioneer in two sports.
Yonamine was born in Hawaii but his parents were born in Japan. After World War II, there were concerns about bringing American players to Japan, but Yonamine figured to have an easier path.
Hardly.
Yonamine:
I went through hell that first year. I couldn't count the number of times I heard the phrase "Yankee Go Home." The Japanese didn't like me because I was a Nisei and because they thought I was a dirty player. But I knew I had to make them change their minds -- for the others after me as well.
Yonamine was reportedly the first player in Japan to actually run to first base after laying down a sacrifice bunt; previously, batters just stood at the plate and waited to be called out. Yonamine was reportedly the first player in Japan to slide hard into second base to break up the double play. In The Chrysanthemum and the Bat (1977), Robert Whiting reports that after one particularly violent slide, "several fans actually dashed on the field and chased him into the dugout."
Eventually, Yonamine helped the Yomiuri Giants win eight pennants in 10 seasons, and was for many years regarded as the greatest leadoff man in Japanese history. In the 1970s, Yonamine busted down another barrier, becoming the first foreigner to manage a Japanese team.
And here's the kicker ... Just four years before he shattered that first barrier in Japan, Yonamine had been the first Asian-American player in NFL history, playing in a dozen games with the San Francisco 49ers in 1947.
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