T-Ray (TR): Today we are honored to talk to the first mainland American in team history: Mike Solomko. Tell us, how did you end up playing for the Hanshin Tigers?

Mike Solomko (MS): I was playing baseball in America, but I got out of it when I got hurt. I decided to give it up and go home and take care of my mother, who had cancer. I asked for my unconditional release from professional baseball because I didn’t want anybody to own me. And then when my mother died and I was free to do what I wanted to do, I went back into professional baseball, but I got out of it again because I injured my arm, and I volunteered for the draft because I wanted to get it over with.

TR: To be drafted for the Vietnam War?

MS: No, no, it was just for eligible citizens of the United States to be drafted for the military, it was a law. At that time there was a law for that, but they stopped that. They don’t have it anymore.

TR: So was coming to Japan a choice of yours, or did the military send you here because that was where they needed you?

MS: No, the military gave me six months of training in the United States. Then after that they were sending people around the world, and I was to be sent to Korea. We were going by Destroyer, out of Seattle, Washington. Well, when I was going through processing to be shipped to Korea, the sergeant in charge of the line that I was in, he was looking at my 201 file, which is the history of my life up until then. In there, it talked about my experience playing professional baseball in the United States, and it just so happened that the sergeant was from North Carolina, where I had played one or two years. We started talking about different places in North Carolina, and we had a very close conversation, because I was familiar with where he was from and the places he talked about. Then when I was finished with him, he said, “I need to keep moving on, but by the way, where do you want to go?” And I said, “What do you mean? I’m supposed to go to Korea.” But he said, “Yeah but it just so happens that they’re sending 32 people back from Japan on two different destroyers…” and they were taking 16 people off of the ship that I was supposed to be on, and 16 people off the next ship that was going after us. They had to replace those 32 people. And they didn’t have anybody picked. They were just picking people at random. And he said, “You have the same MOS that they’re looking for. So where do you want to go to, Korea or Japan?” I said, “Well I have no idea which is the better place.” He said, “I think Japan is a better place. Do you want to go?” And I said, “If I can.” So he put the right stamp on my papers, and I came to Japan. It was just a matter of dumb luck.

TR: I suppose if you didn’t have knowledge of either country, then it was kind of a random choice.

MS: He looked at my 201 file and if I didn’t have anything on there about where he was from, we would never have started that conversation.

TR: Well that’s a pretty good stroke of fortune there. So you got to Japan, and you served in the military was it just a year-and-a-half that you had left or?

MS: Yes, it was about a year-and-a-half, and I was supposed to get transferred back to the United States, and then get discharged there. But I got hooked up with the Hanshin Tigers in a different way. I contacted them to get a tryout, because a lot of people in military where I was in Zama, Japan, they asked me, “Why don’t you try out for professional baseball in Japan?” And I said, “Are you crazy, I can’t even say hello in Japanese, and I don’t know where to start.” But I asked around and I got some information about who to talk to, and I got in touch with the Hanshin Tigers. They sent a scout to Camp Zama, and I had to try out during the winter months. It was a very short tryout because it was very cold, and I had just come off having my left shoulder in a cast after dislocating it playing football. The scout liked what he saw and asked me if I could come down for a tryout. So I got down to Kansai, and I had to try out for 5 or 6 days, and I did very well against their pitchers. They had been in spring training since the beginning of January. The era that I played in, they started spring training on January 10th. They had hardly any offseason. They pay you 12 months out of the year, so I guess they figured they could use you all 12 months if they wanted to.

TR: You’re kind of owned by them in some respects, then.

MS: Oh yeah. I don’t know if it’s like that now, but that’s how it was when I was playing. But that was a lifetime ago. So that’s how I got hooked up with them. I was doing very well, but I really wasn’t in baseball shape yet as far as running, throwing or anything like that. I was doing a lot of hitting and fielding, and they liked my movement and reflexes. You know, they’re professional people, they know what they’re doing. The pitchers at that time were Masaaki Koyama and Minoru Murayama, the two aces of the Hanshin Tigers. Both ended up in the Hall of Fame, that’s how good both of them were. It’s not easy to say this about myself, but I thought I did extremely well. I figured I couldn’t keep doing this well. I was bound to start doing worse. All I had to do was have a bad day or two, and they would take that into consideration more than they did the other days, you know what I mean? I don’t know how much they wanted to sign anybody, because there were no other Caucasians in the Central League yet. I was the first. So anyways, I just played a bit of poker with them. I said, “Hey, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go back. Because I’m on leave, and if I don’t go back soon, I may end up in jail.” And that started a big ruckus, and everyone was like holy Christ, we wanted to see more. You know what I mean? But I said, “Sorry, I don’t think I can do any more than this.”

And at the time they didn’t have interpreters. It was really hard to communicate. We only had one guy there that could help. His name was George Fujishige, and he was from Hawaii. And he was with the Nankai Hawks before, but he was with the Hanshin Tigers when I got there. So he did some interpreting for me, but it wasn’t much. It was really difficult, in fact, for the first four years, there were no interpreters. And he (Fujishige) was only there for one year of my time there. So that’s how I hooked up with the Hanshin Tigers. I hooked up with someone who was affiliated with them, and he’s the one who got me that tryout. His name was Cappy Harada. He was talking at the time with Joe Stanka, so he was busy with that deal. So I got in touch with somebody else after that: Kaiser Tanaka, who was at one time a catcher with the Hanshin Tigers, and he was also the manager for one or two years. But he was also a bit of a scout for them for awhile – more so to get Japanese players than American players. Well, Tanaka working for the military at that time, in special services. He was at Camp Zama. That’s how I made the connection. And I went down there and I signed a contract with them. And so I went back to Zama and I got discharged, and then I went back to play baseball and I’ve been here in Japan for 58 years now. It’s gone by really fast.

TR: You sound like you’re doing really well. Thanks for your time today, Mr. Solomko!

The conversation continued on from there, but was mostly about lifestyle, aging, staying healthy, and life in Ibaraki Prefecture, where he lives.