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Asians In BaseballAuthor: Asians in Baseball
Asians in Baseball is a podcast aboutAsians in baseball. Each week, Naomi, Scott, and Kim break down whats notable with the Asian players in MLB and take a deeper dive into the Asians and Asian Americans who have shaped baseball as it is today. Language: en Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Episode 506: Player Profile: The Ballad of Hideki Irabu
Episode 6
Thursday, 30 April, 2026
Hideki Irabu was one of the first wave of pitchers from Japan to break into Major League Baseball. After chaotic negotiations between the Chiba Lotte Marines, San Diego Padres, and New York Yankees, he joined the Yankees in 1997 to great fanfare. But his time was marked by wild inconsistency. He could throw a shutout, or he could get hammered. After 6 seasons in the majors, he retired as a depressed alcoholic who could not recover from being abandoned by his White American birth father and his wife leaving him with their children. Irabu died in 2011 after taking his own life, leaving the baseball world saddened as it finally learned of his personal struggles. We remember Hideki Irabu for being a pioneer for Asian players and for enduring the harsh spotlight in New York.
