When Hideo Nomo took the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants on May 2, 1995, few fans in North America expected much success from the Japanese pitcher. He quickly proved the doubters wrong, winning six consecutive games to go along with more than 100 strikeouts — and that was in just the first two months of his rookie season. 

By the end of his inaugural campaign, Nomo compiled a 16-6 record with an ERA of 2.54, and led the National League with 236 strikeouts. And while he wasn’t the first Japanese-born player to don a big-league uniform (pitcher Masanori Murakami had a brief, experimental stint with the San Francisco Giants in the 1960s), Nomo was his country’s first permanent major-leaguer. 

Yet, despite his high-profile accomplishments on the mound, Nomo remained a mystery to his teammates, the media, and the fans. Only a handful of confidants ever really knew what made the taciturn hurler tick. Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa, shares his insider’s understanding of the tremendous risks Nomo took for a shot at the big leagues; how he blazed a trail for players like Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Masahiro Tanaka and Yu Darvish who followed him; and why he never, ever looked back.

Ichiro…Nomo…Hasegawa…Hideki Matsui…one by one they have come to America and made their mark as incredibly gifted and popular ballplayers. But this new wave of athlete-led by the sensational Ichiro Suzuki, whom many refer to as the best all-around player-is just the tip of a fascinating iceberg. Illuminating a deep and very different tradition of baseball, Whiting shows why more Japanese players will be coming to America…and how they will forever transform the way our game is played. 

Grandly entertaining and deeply revealing, The Samurai Way of Baseball is a classic book about sports, business, and stardom-in a world that is changing before our eyes.

Through the eyes of Nick Zappetti, a former GI, former black marketer, failed professional wrestler, bungling diamond thief who turned himself into “the Mafia boss of Tokyo and the king of Rappongi,” we meet the players and the losers in the high-stakes game of postwar finance, politics, and criminal corruption in which he thrived. Here’s the story of the Imperial Hotel diamond robbers, who attempted (and may have accomplished) the biggest heist in Tokyo’s history. Here is Rikidozan, the professional wrestler who almost single-handedly revived Japanese pride, but whose own ethnicity had to be kept secret. And here is the story of the intimate relationships shared by Japan’s ruling party, its financial combines, its ruthless criminal gangs, the CIA, American big business, and perhaps at least one presidential relative. Here is the underside of postwar Japan, which is only now coming to light.

Black, headstrong, and opinionated, Warren Cromartie hardly seemed the likely choice to play baseball in Japan. He was a loner. He was also a slugger. During his fifth year with the Tokyo Giants he was named most valuable player, and his teammates voted unanimously that he not retire. This is the triumphant story of Cro’s sometimes angry, sometimes humorous, introduction to the Japanese way of doing things; the values and idiosyncrasies which are a part of the Japan of today.

.