From our Daily Sports Online monthly column / デイリースポーツオンラインの連載コラムから
This is the story of a Canadian living in Japan interviewing a Taiwanese baseball star who plays indy-league ball in America. Japanese is not the native tongue of either participant, but was the lingua franca in their conversation and even in the minds of both the interviewer (yours truly) and the interviewee (Daikan Yoh).
You might recognize the latter name, as he had spent the previous five years playing for the Yomiuri Giants, and 11 years prior to that with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. A three-time all-star, four-time Golden Glove winner (in center field), Japan Series champ (2016) and two-time Central League pennant winner, Yoh is no stranger to success. And with his celebrity-like status in his native Taiwan, he is definitely accustomed to being in the spotlight and being surrounded by adoring fans.
Just how, and why, did he get to where he is today? Rewind to the year 2002, when 15-year-old Chonso Yang (Yoh’s original Taiwanese name) arrived in Japan to play and learn baseball at Fukuoka Daiichi High School. Not knowing a lick of Japanese, he quickly picked up the language through his schooling and baseball club. Even more impressive was his baseball ability, which was good enough to draw the interest of the Fighters and the local Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Round 1 of the 2005 draft. The Fighters ended up getting his negotiation rights, and before anyone knew it (yes, I’m simplifying here – Yoh worked hard and went through a lot of ups and downs), he was an everyday player for the Fighters, defending center for the likes of Yu Darvish, Shohei Ohtani and Kohei Arihara, all future major leaguers.
Long story short, after his time with the Fighters, he used his free agency rights to sign with the team that all Hanshin Tigers fans (including yours truly) love to hate, the Yomiuri Giants. His five years there did not go as he had hoped, not by any means, and when his contract expired at the end of the 2021 season (in which he played just 7 top-squad games) and the team did not sign him back, Yoh felt he still had something left in the tank. At age 35, he decided to sign with an expansion team in the American Association, the Lake Country DockHounds, who play in the small town of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (population 16,000 and some change).
That still does not explain our encounter, though. Well, as a Winnipegger who was anxious to get back home from Japan for the first time since 2018, I had a flight booked for summertime and was looking for things to do while back in my hometown. But as I was procrastinating to make those plans, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, and came across this:
See the #LCvsWPG (Lake Country vs. Winnipeg) in there? So, now I knew that Yoh played in a league against my local Goldeyes club. The question was: would the DockHounds happen to be on a road trip in Winnipeg while I was there? A quick look at the Goldeyes’ schedule had me circling July 31 on my calendar and putting something on my “must do” list for my return home: introduce myself to Daikan Yoh, someway, somehow.
My original immature plan was to wear Hanshin Tigers gear and heckle him from my seat at the game, perhaps with a sign in Japanese to draw his attention from the dugout, even. Get under his skin a little, stick it in the face of the Giants (retrospectively?). Then something called human decency (or maturity?) kicked in, and I decided instead, at the very last-minute I might add, to contact the team on the outside chance that they would let me meet the man and interview him. All in the name of Daily Sports and Japanese journalism, of course. The team was cool with it, and the rest is history!
You will eventually be able to read the transcript (and translation) of the interview I did, but here’s a real quick summary of the cool parts:
- He has absolutely loved his experience in America, where baseball (which is NOT the same as yakyu, his words) is FUN.
- He thinks in Japanese and not in his native Taiwanese.
- He stays in touch with a lot of his old teammates and friends in Japan, plus the major leaguers he played with (had dinner with Ohtani, called Darvish for pitching advice when he had the chance to pitch!).
- One of those friends is current Hanshin Tigers outfielder Yoshio Itoi (they were mates in Hokkaido), and when he saw Itoi’s Under Armor bats on Instagram, he contacted him. Itoi got a bunch of the bats from his Tigers mates, and sent them to Yoh. Yoh’s teammates snatched them up instantly, and that night, the team hit 5 home runs (one for Yoh).
- He would love to play in the WBC next spring if he can produce well this year and ultimately be chosen to represent Chinese Taipei.
- After his playing days are over, he wants to give back to the game in some way, perhaps as a coach, where he wants to use his experience in Japan and also what he learns in America to give players the best possible guidance as he can.
- He’s a super nice guy.
Sidenote and coolnote: the man who arranged the whole encounter was the DockHounds’ broadcaster, Sam Matheny, who kindly hooked me and Yoh up before the game, then even invited me to join him in the broadcasting booth for a couple of innings as well! I have yet to hear what I sounded like, and while I wasn’t doing actual play-by-play or game commentary, I was offering as much knowledge as I could to Sam and the game streamers about Japanese baseball and Daikan Yoh’s glorious past. On the whole, it was an incredible experience, and I can’t wait for a chance to share more about it with you another time!
