A Baseball Gaijin

Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back

Aaron Fischman

• Publisher: Sports Publishing
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN:
  9781683584780
• Edition: 0

2024 Casey Award Finalist for Best Baseball Book of the Year!

Like many American boys, Tony Barnette yearned to one day make it to “The Show,” playing baseball professionally. The Arizona State pitcher was drafted in 2006 by the in-state Diamondbacks. Gradually ascending the minor-league ladder, it looked like this was the beginning of a blessed life, where he could play the game he loved on the grandest of stages in front of family and friends.

But things don’t always work out the way we want.

On the verge of achieving his lifelong dream after notching a league-high 14 wins in Triple A, Tony looked ahead to 2010 with optimism. That’s when Japan came calling, offering a significant salary hike in exchange for forgoing a likely forthcoming big-league debut.

The Diamondbacks agreed to release Tony so he could play for Tokyo’s Yakult Swallows, the renowned Yomiuri Giants’ intra-city rivals.

At the time, the only thing he had in common with the country was a love for baseball. He did not know the language and was unfamiliar with Nippon Professional Baseball and essentially everything else. On his own in a strange land, the burning desire to one day make the major leagues never subsided. He knew the odds were against him, as less than one quarter of gaijin (Japanese for “foreigner”) ballplayers who go to Japan appear in the majors at any point thereafter.

First-year struggles led to multiple demotions and his end-of-year release. But when you’re chasing a dream, you expect to encounter several obstacles. Tony refused to be deterred. Over six seasons in Japan, the starter became a reliever and then a closer. After a strong 2015 season, in which he guided his long-suffering Swallows to the Japan Series, he finally got the call he had been waiting for. Signing with the Texas Rangers in December, Tony would make his first major-league appearance on April 5, 2016, at age thirty-two. He’d go on to pitch four seasons with the Rangers and Chicago Cubs, fulfilling a lifelong dream.

Additionally, the broader culture-heavy story shines a light on the various redemptive journeys of fellow gaijin, including agent Don Nomura, Tony's teammates, those he plays against, a British Swallows superfan-blogger and a Canadian sportswriter friend, among others. Trusty interpreter-turned-brother Go Fujisawa is featured heavily as well, as is a detailed look at the 2011 Tōhoku disaster that struck on March 11, changing a nation and its people forever. 

Through extensive research and reporting, Aaron Fischman worked directly with Tony and his inner circle to tell his story and interrelated stories of perseverance, determination, and never giving up on your dream.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by Don Nomura
• Prologue: (Tom Cruise + Keanu Reeves) / 2
• Chapter 1 Why Japan?
• Chapter 2 Welcome to NPB, Rookie
• Chapter 3 Friendship and Isolation
• Chapter 4 Tony Loves Hillary Jones
• Chapter 5 Toiling in Toda
• Chapter 6 Goodbye, Japan?
• Chapter 7 March 11, 2011
• Chapter 8 Ganbare, Nippon—Beginning to Heal
• Chapter 9 A Reliever Is Born
• Chapter 10 Let’s Get Married
• Chapter 11 Dominance and Discovery
• Chapter 12 Show Me the Yen
• Chapter 13 We Japanese Language School
• Chapter 14 Baby Girl and Balentien Bombs
• Chapter 15 Madelyn Meets Tokyo
• Chapter 16 The 2015 Yakult Swallows
• Chapter 17 Big-League Dreams
• Chapter 18 The Thirty-Two-Year-Old Rookie
• Chapter 19 Why’d You Bean Pujols?
• Epilogue: Full Circle
• Acknowledgments
• Works Cited
• Index
• Plates