It has been 60 years since Masanori Murakami walked to the mound at Shea Stadium in New York ¡ª humming the hit song ¡°Sukiyaki¡± to calm his nerves ¡ª to make his MLB debut for the San Francisco Giants on Sept. 1, 1964, at age 20.
The results from the night hardly matter ¡ª though Murakami performed well, striking out two in a scoreless eighth inning. A report from The New York Times the next day noted Murakami received a ¡°brisk round of applause when he left.¡±
The night was important because it was the first time a Japanese player had appeared in an MLB game, cracking open a door many would walk through decades later.
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