Victor Starffin - Japanese Baseball's Tragic Hero | NPB Player Profiles 

The story of Victor Starffin is unbelievably somber and tragic beyond belief. A man so gifted but permanently saddled with demons and bad luck with regards to things outside of his control to the point it caused his ultimate demise. Excellent video on the Blue Eyed Japanese, Gaijin Baseball.

Theres some funny quotes from Starffin when he went to the states, 2 are "Senpai, theres lots of Gaikokujin (foreigners) in America." And "Gaikokujin dont speak Japanese at all," and left his roommate Shigeru Mizuhara speechless. He truly was the blue eyed Japanese.

What do you know? An ethnic Russian playing Baseball in Imperial Japan. Something that you only hear in an alternate timeline

letting yall guys there is a 90 minutes documentary about Vistor's life with his and teammates daughters interviews by russian production team called "Tokyo Giant: The Legend of Victor Starffin", or "Голубоглазый японец". It was shown on Moscow film festival in autumn 2022. Unfortunatly I can't find digital version since. Reply with comment if some day u got it.

Victor Starffin life is enough to make 4 episode of Netflix Docuseries.. Even that probably not enough to encapsulate his tragic life

Don't know too much about the NPB, but I'd seen Starffin's name before. Amazing video that really presented his life and career in a super interesting manner

What an amazing but also sad story. You could really make a whole movie or series out of this story

Excellent video! I'd heard of Starffin for years but didnt know his backstory. His tribulations remind me of what Jackie Robinson and Hank Greenberg had to endure. Also, I'd never heard of the Battle of Khalkin Gol before, but brief research shows me that this was a key battle in the years leading up to Japan's entry into WW2. Thanx for posting!

An indispensable baseball story, great job!

Victor Starffin was the first player to be inducted into the Japanese Hall of Fame. He was also first all-time in percentage of votes received. No full-vote Hall of Famer has ever been inducted in Japan. Ranking by percentage of votes received. 1st: Victor Starffin 97.3%. 2nd: Osamu Mihara 96.2%. 3rd: Kazuhisa Inao 94.8%.

great stuff - had never heard of this guy before

Hope you do a player profile on Bobby Rose.

Man that's sad

do you have a video about NPB deadball era?

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1st 3 Americans in their HOF = O'Doul, Yonamine, Wakabayashi next up you should do these Hawaiian Japanese Baseball Hall of Famers that helped start Nippon League in 1936, and also after WWII... not many Americans in their HOF... >Wally Yonamine (from Maui) is known as 'Japan's Jackie Robinson' because of how he changed their game with aggressive base running bunting etc. He also played running back with the SF 49ers....way before Bo Jackson was born... >Henry Bozo Wakabayashi (from Oahu) along with Kaizer Tanaka helped start the Nippon Pro League in 1936, and after WWII helped fellow American, Lefty O'Doul with his SF Seals c1949 tours... ps. I have videos w/ c1950 Era menko/bromide cards aloha