Ex-UCI Star Grows in Japan’s Minor Leagues

Barely two months into his rookie season in the Japanese minor leagues, second baseman Joe Furukawa learned one of the most important rules of the game.

Always, always remember to bring your uniform to the ballpark.

“I left my uniform at home for a three-game trip,” said Furukawa, the starter for the Hiroshima Carp’s minor league team. “Our equipment man was pretty mad when I told him. He told me he wanted to send me back to California.”

Actually, the punishment wasn’t quite that harsh. The team fined Furukawa $100, and he borrowed a pitcher’s jersey for the rest of the trip.

“It was embarrassing,” he said. “After the game, this little kid asked for an autograph and said, ‘Are you the guy who forgot his uniform?’ Everyone in the league is going to think I’m stupid.”

Hardly. Furukawa, a former Canyon High and UC Irvine standout, has made the adjustment to the Japanese game much easier than many other players who started their careers in the United States.

In fact, it’s a homecoming for him. He was born in Yokohama and lived there six years until moving to Anaheim, when his father, Takashi, landed a job.

Those six years, including two in Japanese schools, have come in handy since he signed with the Carp in December.

He has become fluent in speaking Japanese again and is working on his writing and reading skills. And he loves Japanese cuisine, which many American players turn up their noses at.

Still, life in the minor leagues here can be tough.

Dealing with 12-hour workdays, afternoon games and long practices on game days hasn’t been easy. And that’s not nearly as tough as hitting a Japanese pitcher’s curveball, one that always takes strange detours over the corner of the plate.

Japan has only one minor league level, so players of varying ages and skills are clumped together on a 28-player roster. They play a 100-game schedule, usually in small parks, outside of town from the huge major league stadiums.

Furukawa said game days, even home games, challenge a player’s conditioning.

He leaves his dormitory room at 8 a.m. to catch an hour bus ride to the ballpark. A 90-minute practice awaits.

“It’s not a relaxed practice,” he said. “You get dirty here. You play the games tired.”

Games usually begin about 12:30 p.m. and are done by 3:30 p.m. at the latest. A three-hour time limit creates ties on teams’ records.

After the bus ride back to the dorm, Furukawa and his teammates take more batting practice, then do their laundry.

“My parents and friends wonder why I don’t call or write,” Furukawa said. “I’m a zombie by 8 p.m.”

The long days have taken a toll on him. His weight has dropped from 175 pounds when he arrived to 156.

“I haven’t played a game at 100% yet this season and I haven’t had a day off since April,” he said.

“But I think all the conditioning has helped me. I had some tendinitis in my right shoulder when I got here, but it hasn’t hurt at all. I’ve gotten stronger and I can run faster because I weigh less.”

Furukawa can’t complain about the long days. He’s glad to still be playing baseball--and getting a paycheck for it.

After his senior year at Irvine in 1992, the school’s final year for baseball, Furukawa figured he would be taken in the June amateur free-agent draft.

Since transferring from Cal in 1990, Furukawa recovered from a poor junior year at Irvine (.279 batting average) to hit .341 with 38 runs and 28 runs batted in, including four game-winners, as a senior. He and his father had spoken to several major league scouts, who convinced him he would be drafted.

But the call never came.

“I still don’t understand why I wasn’t drafted,” he said.

At that point, his father took over. He helped his son assemble a resume, organize his college statistics and clip newspaper articles. Then they sent them to Japanese teams.

The Carp and the Seibu Lions contacted Furukawa in November. He flew over for a two-day tryout with the Carp. On Dec. 19, he signed a one-year deal for the minor league minimum of $36,000. The amount of the salary could change depending on the exchange value of the yen to U.S. dollars.

Furukawa started working out in January, and led the team in batting during spring ball with a .370 average.

When the season started, Furukawa was on the bench. The starting second base position went to a 32-year-old veteran.

“Over here, the younger players sit and wait,” said Furukawa, who turned 23 in June. “They like to keep the veterans in shape.”

Reduced to a pinch-hitting role, Furukawa was hitless in his first 20 at-bats. His role didn’t suit him, and he was having trouble picking up the timing on many off-speed pitches.

“No one was overpowering me,” Furukawa said. “But the pitchers have great accuracy on their breaking ball, and they’ll throw it on any count.”

Furukawa, whose average still is just under .200, isn’t the first player to struggle with Japanese pitching. He said Jesse Barfield, a former Toronto Blue Jay now with the Tokyo Giants, is batting .193 and former Angel Max Venable, now with the Chiba Lotte Marines, is hitting .219 in the majors.

“Jesse’s a great example of what I’ve been going through,” Furukawa said. “The Japanese pitchers just own him with breaking pitches.”

By the end of May, Furukawa rediscovered his hitting stroke and began playing regularly after a string of two- and three-hit games.

Even more encouraging has been his error-free play in the field. He’s planning to sign another one-year contract with the club, and believes his fielding skills can boost him to the majors next year.

“I love playing over here,” he said. “I have a better chance to make it in the major leagues here than over there (United States).

“Players here play for several years. It’s more like a family, where they take you in and bring you along slowly.”