Tony Barnette was stumbling around the minor leagues until a spell with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows transformed his life
Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo pulsated with excitement in 2015, during a watershed moment in Japanese baseball. The Tokyo Yakult Swallows had just knocked off the rival Yomiuri Giants in a postseason series. For decades, the teams shared Tokyo but little else. The Giants were the class of Japanese baseball, drawing comparisons to the New York Yankees, while the Swallows languished below .500. Now came payback, as the Swallows moved on to the Japan Series, the championship round of Nippon Professional Baseball. Those celebrating included the Swallows’ American closer, Tony Barnette. Riffing on a team postgame ritual, the reliever made a series of acrobatic leaps that went viral on Japanese social media.
Barnette had additional reasons to rejoice. Frustrated with his progress in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ minor-league system, he had accepted an offer to play in Japan. The money was better than Triple A, but he didn’t speak Japanese, and the odds of returning to the US to play in MLB were slim – especially given that he had not previously played in the majors. In his first season with the Swallows in 2010, he endured demotion to the minors and was not initially offered a new contract. Then came another shot, and he made the most of it, going from struggling starter to lights-out reliever, while finding postseason success – 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 sports journalist Aaron Fischman – A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back.
