Career
Born in Fort Gaines,Georgia,Bryant studied at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. He was drafted in the first round of the 1981 amateur draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers,having previously been drafted by the Dodgers and Minnesota Twins,but did not sign with either team that year.
Bryant was promoted to the major leagues for the first time in 1985,but was unable to establish himself as a regular outfielder,and spent the next three years traveling back and forth between the major and minor leagues. In 1988,the Chunichi Dragons of the Japanese Central League showed interest in Bryant,and he was shipped to Japan in May,1988.
On June 7,1988,Dick Davis,the cleanup batter of the Kintetsu Buffaloes,was arrested on drug charges,and the Buffaloes were forced to let go of one of their best hitters mid-season. Unable to fill the offensive void left by Davis,the Buffaloes found Bryant,who was playing on the Dragons minor league team. After seeing Bryant blast a home run in a minor league game,the Buffaloes offered to purchase his contract. The Dragons minor league staff was opposed to the trade,but regulations allowed for only two non-Japanese players per team,and the Dragons already had Taiwanese baseball star Genji Kaku and slugger Gary Rajsich on their roster,leaving no room for Bryant. The purchase was finalized on June 28,giving birth to one of the best left-handed power hitters in Japanese baseball history.
Bryant quickly established his presence with the Buffaloes,hitting 34 home runs in only 74 games to contribute to their huge comeback which put the team in a close second place to the Seibu Lions in 1988. Ironically,many Buffaloes home games that year were held in the Nagoya Baseball Stadium,the home field of the Chunichi Dragons.
Bryant played his best season in 1989,where his 49 home runs led the Buffaloes to their third Pacific League championship. That 49 home run season would be a Buffaloes franchise record until Tuffy Rhodes tied Sadaharu Oh's record of 55 in 2001. He won the season MVP award that year,and also tied Sadaharu Oh's career record for hitting 3 home runs in a game 5 times. His Buffaloes,however,would fall in a reverse sweep by the Yomiuri Giants and Central League MVP,fellow foreigner Warren Cromartie. He continued his success in subsequent seasons,and retired in 1995 after missing most of that year due to injuries. He was invited back to Japan in 2005 by manager Akira Ogi as a hitting coach for the Orix Buffaloes. He left this job after only one year,but blasted three home runs in an inter-league home run contest during the season.
Though he hit a large number of home runs throughout his career,he also struck out countless times,and holds the top four spots on the single-season strikeout records in Nippon Professional Baseball. Bryant was also the first player with MLB experience to strike out more than 200 times per season in both the Central League and Pacific League.
Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called Puro Yakyū (プロ野球), meaning simply Professional Baseball; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball".
Karl Derrick "Tuffy" Rhodes is a retired American professional baseball player. He played six years in Major League Baseball in the US, and thirteen years in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in Japan. Rhodes is the all-time NPB home run leader among foreign-born players, and he is 13th overall with 464 home runs in Japan. He hit 55 home runs in 2001, tying the NPB single-season mark set by Sadaharu Oh in 1964.
The Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes were a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team based in Osaka, Japan, which was in the Pacific League. In 2005 the team was merged with the Orix BlueWave to become the team now known as the Orix Buffaloes. The team played in Fujiidera Stadium, and later in Osaka Dome.
Víctor Israel Díaz is a Dominican former professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets and Texas Rangers, in the KBO League for the Hanwha Eagles and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Chunichi Dragons.
Warren Livingston Cromartie is an American former professional baseball player best remembered for his early career with the Montreal Expos. He and fellow young outfielders Ellis Valentine and Andre Dawson were the talk of Major League Baseball (MLB) when they came up together with the Expos in the late seventies. Nicknamed "Cro" and "the Black Samurai" in Japan, he was very popular with the fans in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He won the 1989 Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award during his career playing baseball in Japan for the Yomiuri Giants.
Charles Abraham Essegian is an American former professional baseball left fielder. He appeared in 404 games in Major League Baseball (MLB) over six seasons (1958–1963) for the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Athletics and Cleveland Indians. During the 1959 World Series, Essegian, then with the Dodgers, set a Series record with two pinch-hit home runs against the Chicago White Sox. The mark was matched by Bernie Carbo of the Boston Red Sox, who a hit pair of pinch-hit homers against the Cincinnati Reds in the 1975 World Series.
Norihiro Nakamura is a Japanese former professional baseball third baseman. Nakamura spent almost all of his professional career in Japan with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. Nakamura had a .266 career batting average, 404 home runs and 1348 RBI, and was an eight-time All-Star and four-time Golden Glove winner. Nakamura is one of only 16 players to have hit 400 or more home runs in NPB.
Kosuke Fukudome is a retired Japanese professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball from 2008 to 2012, primarily with the Chicago Cubs and had a long spanning career in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) with the Chunichi Dragons and Hanshin Tigers.
James Lawrence Lyttle Jr. is an American former professional baseball player from Logan, Indiana. He played as an outfielder for the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Montreal Expos, and Los Angeles Dodgers of the Major League Baseball (MLB). He also played seven seasons of baseball in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp and Nankai Hawks.
Phillip Benjamin Clark is an American former professional baseball outfielder and coach. He most recently served as the assistant hitting coach for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Detroit Tigers, San Diego Padres, and Boston Red Sox. He also played four seasons in Japan with the Kintetsu Buffaloes.
Nigel Edward Wilson is a Canadian former Major League Baseball player from Oshawa, Ontario. He played for the Florida Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Indians. He also spent six highly successful seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball with the Nippon Ham Fighters and Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. He now owns a sports training facility in Ajax, Ontario.
Richard Earl Davis is an American former professional baseball player. He played all or part of six seasons in Major League Baseball from 1977 until 1982, primarily as an outfielder. He also played five seasons in Japan with the Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1984 until 1988. His cousin was former infielder Enos Cabell.
Ronald Lawrence Woods is an American former professional baseball player who appeared in all or part of six seasons in Major League Baseball from 1969 to 1974, primarily as an outfielder, for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees and Montreal Expos. He also played two seasons in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons in 1975–1976. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Woods threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and weighed 168 pounds (76 kg).
Michael Krsnich was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Milwaukee Braves during the 1960 and 1962 seasons. Listed at 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m), 190 lb., he batted and threw right-handed. His older brother, Rocky Krsnich, also played in the majors from 1949 to 1953.
George Addison Hinshaw is an American former professional baseball player. Hinshaw appeared in 13 Major League Baseball games in 1982–1983 as a member of the San Diego Padres, and also spent the 1989 season playing in Nippon Professional Baseball. In the Major Leagues he primarily played right field and third base, and was exclusively an outfielder during his stay in Japan with the Chunichi Dragons. He threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and weighed 185 pounds (84 kg).
Zoilo Manuel Almonte is a Dominican professional baseball outfielder for the Sultanes de Monterrey of the Mexican League. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, the KBO League for the KT Wiz, and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Chunichi Dragons.
The 1988 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1988 season. It was the 39th Japan Series and featured the Central League champion Chunichi Dragons against the Pacific League champion Seibu Lions. Chunichi won the Central League pennant by a comfortable 12 games to advance to the championship. However, the representative from the Pacific League was undecided up until 3 days before Game 1 of the Japan Series. Seibu fought neck-and-neck for first place with the Kintetsu Buffaloes over most of the season and finished their regular-season schedule with a 0.5-game advantage over Kintetsu, with Kintetsu having 4 games left to play. On the last day of the season, Kintetsu had to win both games of an away double-header against the last-place Lotte Orions to claim the PL pennant. Kintetsu won the first game by one run, but Lotte forced a comeback tie in the second game, capping a dramatic finish to the season and giving Seibu the PL spot in the Japan Series for the fourth year in a row.
Masahiro Doi is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder in Nippon Professional Baseball. He played for the Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1962 to 1974 and the Taiheiyo Club / Crown Lighter / Seibu Lions from 1975 to 1981. Despite a stellar 20-year career as a slugger, Doi never made it to the postseason or got a chance to play in the Japan Series.
Yasunori Oshima was a Japanese professional baseball outfielder, first baseman and third baseman, and coach in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He played for the Chunichi Dragons and Nippon Ham Fighters from 1971 to 1994. He went on to manage the Fighters from 2000 to 2002, and served as the hitting coach for the Japan national baseball team during the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
American expatriate baseball players in Japan have been a feature of the Japanese professional leagues since 1934. American expatriate players began to steadily find spots on Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) rosters in the 1960s. More than 600 Americans have played NPB, although very few last more than a single season in Japan.
