If you didn’t know, the 2019 season kicks off Wednesday morning at 2:30 am Pacific when the Mariners and A’s meet in Japan’s Tokyo Dome. Yusei Kikuchi will start the second game of the two-game series for the Mariners, but more importantly, 45-year old Ichiro will be in the lineup for them. Most importantly, former Giant Masanori Murakami — who in 1964 became the first Japanese player to play in Major League Baseball — threw out the first pitch in yesterday’s exhibition between the A’s and the Nippon-Ham Fighters.
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Murakami claims he brought his own uniform to participate in the ceremony:
He pitched only two seasons in the majors, 1964 and 1965, but not because he wasn’t talented.