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OTHER INSTANCE OF CONSPIRACIES TO PROTECT CHERISHED RECORDS

Daryl Spencer is a former Major League Baseball infielder who played with the Giants, the Cardinals, the Dodgers, and the Reds from 1952 to 1963. One of the few National League teams he did not play for was the Braves. But after he was released in 1963 by the Reds (they had a rookie infielder named Pete Rose in their plans), Spencer found himself employed by the Hankyu Braves—a second-division team in the Japanese League.

Spencer learned a lot in 1964, his first year overseas. He hit thirty-six home runs and drove in ninety-five runs that year, but that was just the beginning. He had a truly special season in 1965. Few expected the thirty-seven-year-old Spencer to challenge the Nankai’s catcher, the great home run hitter Katsuya Nomura, for supremacy in Japan’s Pacific League (Sadaharu Oh played in the Central League). But Spencer did just that, and more. By the middle of July, Spencer was batting close to .350, with twenty-five home runs. About a month later, Spencer (with a league-leading thirty-three HR) was still hot, and was approached by his interpreter and the batting coach.

According to Robert K. Fitts’ 2005 book Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game, Spencer was a victim of a racially-motivated conspiracy. Here is what Spencer told Fitts:

The batting coach said, “Spencer, you must concentrate on keeping Nomura from winning the Triple Crown.” They didn’t think Nomura was worthy of the Triple Crown after so many great players had failed to clinch it. I said, “Well, don’t worry. I’m going to win the home-run title.” Then [the coach] said, “No, no, no. That has already been decided. You will not win the home-run title.”

Try to put yourself in Spencer’s shoes. You’re playing in a foreign land, and you’re told to concentrate on winning the batting title, but told in no uncertain terms that you must lose the home run title—despite being ahead at the time by six homers. Spencer was then walked at a rate that would make Barry Bonds blush. When his team went to Tokyo to play the Orions (and Koyama) they walked Spencer eight straight times! Only a frustrated Spencer throwing his bat at the ball prevented even more consecutive bases on balls. Japanese players went on record saying, “Why should we let an American win the home run title?”

Although it appeared that the Nankai Hawks and Tokyo Orions wouldn’t give Spencer anything worthy to hit, other teams would pitch carefully but over the plate. After a month-long homer-less drought, Spencer got hot late in the season, hitting three homers in five days and pulling to within three home runs of the slumping Nomura.

The Braves had a doubleheader with the Hawks. In the first game, Spencer walked on four pitches in his first at-bat. In his second at-bat, he went up to the plate with his bat upside down, and they still walked him! It was ridiculous. In the second game, he hit a home run off American Joe Stanka, pulling within two homers of Nomura.

The next day was an off day, and Spencer was taking a one mile trip to the train station on his motorcycle. About a block and a half from his house, a little delivery truck pulled out of a side street and hit him. Spencer suffered a broken leg, and lost any chance at the home run title. Nomura wound up with forty-two homers, and Spencer finished with thirty-eight.

Bob Rives, a member of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) interviewed Spencer in December of 2005 and January of 2006. He asked Spencer, “Did Nomura or his backers arrange the accident?” “Who knows?” Daryl replied. “I laughed about it later.”

Leron Lee had a similar story. He played in the Major Leagues from 1969-1976, with the Cardinals, the Padres, the Indians, and the Dodgers. Like Spencer, he then went to Japan, where he became one of the most successful foreign players in Japanese baseball history. He played eleven seasons there, and set career records for foreigners in Japan