, was a Japanese American multi-sport athlete who played in the
All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and Japan's
Nippon Professional Baseball
or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''.
Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...
.
Early life
Kaname Yonamine, a
Nisei Japanese American, was born in
Olowalu,
Maui,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...
to parents Matsusai (September 1, 1890 – July 31, 1988) and Kikue (February 14, 1901 – February 26, 1999). Matsusai was an ''
uchinānchu'' immigrant and Kikue came from
Hiroshima.
Yonamine attended
Lahainaluna and Wallace Rider
Farrington High School.
The name of his high school was the origin of his nickname, originally Wallace, but quickly changed to Wally,
which would later become his legal name.
Professional football career
Yonamine signed a $14,000 contract, playing
running back
A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball,
and block. Ther ...
for the
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...
in their second season (1947). Doing so, he became the first
football player of
Japanese American ancestry to play professional football
(
Walter Achiu
Walter Tin Kit "Sneeze" Achiu ( Chinese: 徐天杰) (August 3, 1902March 21, 1989) was an American football player of Chinese descent. He was a graduate of The Kamehameha Schools and Saint Louis College (now Saint Louis School) in Honolulu, Hawai ...
was the first Asian-American). In his one season with the team, he had 19 carries for 74 yards and caught 3 passes for 40 yards. His football career ended during the off-season, when he broke his wrist playing in an amateur baseball league in Hawaii.
[
]
Professional baseball career
In baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
, Yonamine was the first American to play professional baseball in Japan Professional baseball in Japan first started in the 1920s, but it was not until the was established in 1934 that the modern professional game had continued success.
History
Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, and its first ...
after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. A multi-skilled outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...
, Yonamine was also noted for his flexible batting Batting may refer to:
* Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs
* Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...
style and aggressive baserunning during his career with the Yomiuri Giants
The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...
and Chunichi Dragons
The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...
. In Japan, Yonamine was a member of four Japan Series Championship teams, the Central League
The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consi ...
MVP in 1957, a consecutive seven-time Best Nine Award
The Best Nine Award is awarded annually to the best player at each position in both the Central League and Pacific League of Japanese professional baseball as determined by a pool of journalists.
History
While the Best Nine Award was first present ...
winner (1952–58), an eleven-time All-Star, a three-time batting champion, and the first foreigner to be a manager (Dragons, 1972–77).
Yonamine was the first American inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
The is a museum which includes a library, reference rooms and .
It first opened in 1959 next door to Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. In 1988, the museum moved to a new site within the Tokyo Dome.
The Hall of Fame and Museum was created as ...
, admitted in 1994 for his achievements during his 12-year career with the Giants and Dragons.[
]
Post-career
Yonamine operated a highly successful pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...
store, "Wally Yonamine Pearls", with his wife, Jane. The store is located in Roppongi, Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
. They also had a branch of their store in California run by their children. In 2008, Yonamine joined the Japanese Master League team Nagoya 80 D'sers as a coach/part-time player.
After an extended battle with prostate cancer, Yonamine died on February 28, 2011, aged 85, in Honolulu.2019 Major League Baseball draft
The 2019 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft was held from June 3 to 5, 2019. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2018 MLB season standings. In additi ...
.
See also
* American expatriate baseball players in Japan
References
Further reading
*
External links
*