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twinsfan -> RE: Baseball Trivia (12/28/2022 11:38:14 AM)
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In an era long before pro ballplayers ached to move to Japan to boost their careers back home, Greg "Boomer" Wells went from exile to icon, as the nation's baseball community adopted him and made him a member of its close-knit family.
Sold by the Minnesota Twins to the Hankyu Braves of Japan's Pacific League in 1983, Wells set out to prove himself. In 1984, he became the first imported player to win a batting triple crown in Japan, leading the Braves, the predecessors of today's Orix Buffaloes, to the Pacific League pennant.
In a recent online Kyodo News interview from his home in Georgia, Wells said that MVP season created a demand for his services. Japanese teams, he said, began asking him to advise new imports on how to adapt, while major league teams wanted to sign him.
However, Wells said the best offer he got that winter, from the Milwaukee Brewers, represented more of the same condescension he had faced as an undrafted player in the minors.
"They said they didn't want to get into a bidding war with the Japanese. If they wouldn't have said that, I might have gone back. But when they said that, it brought everything to the front," he said.
"I was like, 'Look. I would love to come back to the States and play in front of my family and friends, but you guys sent me over 3,000 miles away to play baseball against my will. I got over here and I succeeded. I enjoyed the game over here. I enjoyed the people. I enjoyed the country. If you want me to come back to the States, then you're not going to bring me back to the States and pay me like a rookie.'"
So Wells stayed with the Braves, playing at Hyogo Prefecture's Nishinomiya Stadium, and became one of the faces of Japan's game.
Wells finished his Japanese career in 1992 with the Daiei Hawks in Fukuoka. Over 10 seasons, Wells hit 277 home runs and drove in 901 runs, while walking more than he struck out with Nippon Professional Baseball's fifth-highest career batting average: .317.
[image]https://img.kyodonews.net/english/public/images/posts/d46ce6b1a1959025acfcd2c6a9ca1417/photo_l.jpg[/image]
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