Masanori Murakami, the overlooked trailblazer

The problems didn’t end there. When Murakami arrived at Shea Stadium, general manager Chub Feeney asked him to sign a new contract and officially join the team. Since he was already contracted to the organization, Murakami was wary of signing something new.

“My family and people in Japan told me to be careful with contracts because I didn’t know how Japanese contracts worked—and even worse how English contracts worked,” Murakami said. “I was very reluctant to sign on the dotted line.”

With the clock ticking and time running out, Feeney rushed to find a solution. After some frantic searching, the team found a Japanese speaker in the crowd who helped explain that Murakami needed to sign this new contract to officially join the Giants and be eligible to play. With about 15 minutes to go before first pitch, Murakami signed.

“I still believe that I am the first—and maybe the last person—to ever hesitate or deny signing a contract when Major League Baseball was just at my fingertips,” Murakami said with a laugh.

Really terrific read, I don’t think I’ve ever read this much about his story.