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But Murakami pitched extraordinarily well in the Minors and was needed by the Giants in a September call-up. On September 1, 1964, he became the first Japanese player to play in the Major Leagues. And this guy wasn’t just a curious footnote. He was a real pitcher. Murakami pitched fifteen innings that September, and gave up only two earned runs. The Giants moved quickly to send him a 1965 contract, and Murakami was happy to sign it.

Murakami changed his mind, however, and signed a contract to remain in Japan for the 1965 season. The Giants’ owner, Horace Stoneham, complained to the commissioner of baseball, Ford Frick. Stoneham, and every other Major League Baseball owner, believed in the reserve clause. Every player that had a contract for one season was “property” of that team for the next season. How dare a player have a choice in what team to play (even if one team was in Japan and another in San Francisco)?

Frick wrote a letter to Japanese Commissioner Yushi Uchimura demanding the Hawks send Murakami back to San Francisco for the 1965 season. The next step in the controversy was the reply of Uchimora. Ford said that in the best interests of U.S.-Japanese baseball relations, the Hawks should live up to their agreement and send Murakami back to the Giants.

Nankai saw it differently. They explained that they had rented Murakami to San Francisco for the year. That’s how on February 17, 1965, Frick suspended baseball relations between the Japan and the United States. He told the Pirates to suspend their off-season goodwill tour. On March 17, Uchimura came up with a counterproposal—a compromise with Frick whereby Murakami would return to San Francisco for 1965, but would come home to stay for good in 1966. Frick declined the offer, averring that Murakami’s return to Japan in 1966 would still constitute a violation of the reserve clause.

On April 28, the Giants caved in. It was reported that Giants vice-president Chub Feeney had an iron-clad agreement with Nankai showing that the Hawks had released Murakami to San Francisco. But Feeney capitulated slightly, allowing Murakami to choose for himself where he wanted to play in 1966. This was followed by an international crisis of sorts, which was settled by the baseball commissioners of both nations. Frick ruled that Murakami still had to play with San Francisco in 1965, but could return to Japan in 1966 if he wished. The Hawks returned the $10,000 to the Giants, and Murakami flew to San Francisco to play the remainder of the 1965 season.

There would be unconfirmed reports that the U.S. State Department had intervened at the behest of the Japanese government and asked MLB to back off, supposedly because it needed the support of the Japanese government on the Vietnam War.

Murakami pitched very well (4-1, six saves), and the Giants offered him a contract for 1966. He was their top left-handed reliever. In the end, he decided to stay home, signing a deal with the Hawks for less money. He was not, however, treated like a conquering hero in 1966, back in his native country. Whenever he failed to do well, fans taunted him with cries of “Go back to America!” The Hawks converted him into a starting pitcher and discouraged him from intimidating hitters with his brush-back pitch, which had been so effective in the States. The sports pages of Japan wrote that the players wondered how he was ever good enough to pitch for the San Francisco Giants.

Obviously, by the mid-1960s, Murakami wasn’t the only Japanese professional player capable of gracing Major League rosters. Why, then, were there no Japanese players in the Major Leagues after 1965? Surely everyone knew that the talent gap was closing.

After the 1965 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers made a trip to Japan and won only nine of their seventeen games. It was estimated at the time that there were maybe twenty-five players in the NPB that could play in the U.S. Majors, mostly pitchers.

One of the players who would have surely been a star in the U.S. was pitcher