There is not a single Russian-born player in the American Baseball Hall of Fame. Yet, if the tide of history had flowed just a bit differently, Victor Starffin might well have ended up in Cooperstown alongside Ruth, Gehrig, Killebrew and Mays. Instead, history washed Starffin up on the shores of Japan, eventually leading to a career as one of that country’s greatest players ever.
Victor Starffin was born April 21, 1916 in Nizhny Tagil, Russia, into a world of wealth and privilege. His parents, Constantine and Yevdokia, owned a large estate that employed many servants. Constantine was also a Colonel in the Russian army and was stationed at Verkhotursk, about a hundred miles away.
Yevdokia bore the couple three sons between 1909 and 1913, all of whom died in infancy. Victor, however, was born strong and healthy. The Starffins were sure that this time God had blessed them with a special child.
The October 1917 revolution, however, brought the Starffins’ world crashing down around them. The army was dissolved and the family’s land was expropriated. Eager to fight back, Constantine decided to join the White forces. But first he had to provide a secure refuge for Yevdokia and Victor. Siberia was at the time seen to be a relatively safe haven, so Constantine sent his family to Krasnoyarsk, to be taken care of by a close friend.
Disguised as peasants, mother and son left Verkhotursk in a four-wheeled, horse-drawn cart. They had ample food and Yevdokia sewed money and jewels into her undergarments. Constantine instructed his wife to drive their cart south through the Urals to Tyumen. From there, they were to board the Trans-Siberian Railway to Krasnoyarsk.
Yevdokia and Victor set out on their journey in July 1918. About three days short of Tyumen, thieves stole their cart and horse and Yevdokia and her two-year-old son had to walk the remaining 120 miles.
The Tyumen train station was packed with people trying to escape to the East. Whenever trains arrived, they were already full of refugees. Yevdokia feared Victor would be suffocated in the crush of humanity if they somehow managed to board a train. So, after agonizing for a day about what to do, Yevdokia decided they should set off for Omsk on foot (a distance of 400 miles).
The journey to Omsk was horrific. The Starffins ran out of food and Victor nearly starved. They witnessed the horrors of war and were often swept up in it. Once, along with a group of other refugees, they were rounded up by White Army soldiers. In an ironic twist of fate, Yevdokia and Victor were then liberated by a Red Army attack. In October 1918, the pair finally reached Omsk, where they spent the winter.
The following summer, in June 1919, Yevdokia and Victor finally completed their journey, catching a train to Krasnoyarsk. Constantine’s friend took them in. Then, later that summer, there was a knock on the door. Yevdokia and Victor cowered in the corner, fearing soldiers or thieves. Yet to their relief it turned out to be Constantine, returning from the war.
Constantine had been wounded in battle and hospitalized. Upon his release, he decided to give up the fight and rejoin his family, whom he prayed were still alive. Constantine also came with news. The Red Army was advancing east and they would have to leave.
The Starffins were in Irkutsk in December when Krasnoyarsk fell to the Reds, and in fact they slipped out of Irkutsk in February 1920, just days after the Bolsheviks took that city.
The family finally settled in Chita, soon to become the capital of the quasi-independent Far Eastern Republic.[1] Over the next two years, as the White Army continued to lose ground, Constantine saw the writing on the wall. In the spring of 1922, the Starffins boarded a train bound for Harbin, China. A few months later, on October 25, 1922, Vladivostok fell to the Bolsheviks and the Civil War was over.
there were 155,000 White Russian refugees in Harbin in 1922, most living in deplorable conditions. The Starffins had some money, so they did a little better than most. Still, Harbin was a terrible place. Yevdokia had to cut her hair short and wear men’s clothing in order to disguise her gender.
Constantine knew that for Victor to have a future, the family would need to move far away. The United States was not an option. Just one year prior, in 1921, Congress had passed the Emergency Quota Act, for the first time setting numerical limits and quotas on immigration, giving preference to émigrés from Northern European countries that already had sizeable populations in the U.S., and effectively shutting out Eastern and Southern Europeans. So Constantine turned his gaze toward Japan.
In his first attempt to obtain Japanese visas, Constantine was refused. Then, in 1923, Tokyo was decimated by the most powerful earthquake in its recorded history (only recently eclipsed by the 2011 quake). Over 100,000 people died and international aid poured in to help Japan rebuild.
The League of Nations convinced Japan to repay this assistance by itself helping out with the Far Eastern refugee crisis. The Japanese made a token effort, allowing in a tightly restricted class of refugees. In 1925, the Starffins were notified that their earlier visa request had been revisited and was now approved. There was, however, a catch. The “cost” of the visa would be 4500 yen.[2] They did not have to pay this price, just prove that they had this much wealth – the approximate amount the Japanese felt that a family of three would need to buy housing and live for a year with no other means of support. Japan apparently did not want any destitute refugees.
Fortunately, the Starffins still had most of the family jewels that Yevdokia had sewn into her underwear in 1918. Constantine was able to sell the jewels and other possessions and raise the needed 4500 yen.
On September 25, 1925, the Starffins arrived in Shimonoseki, in southern Japan. At that time, some 25,000 Russians were living in Japan, mostly in Kobe, Tokyo, and Yokohama. Yet the government did not want the Russians to become concentrated in any single city, as they might gain a measure of local control. So the Starffins and 19 other refugee families were sent to Asahikawa, on the northern island of Hokkaido. Asahikawa suited the Starffins. With its nearby mountains and a river running through the city, it reminded them of Nizhny Tagil.
Constantine found work in the garment industry, selling European fabrics, while Yevdokia baked Russian bread that she sold to a restaurant. Nine-year-old Victor entered school for the first time, quickly adapting to his new language and culture. One day on the playground a group of boys were tossing around a baseball. Victor joined in and was so enthralled that the boys gave Victor the ball to keep. It was the start of his lifelong love for Japan’s (and America’s) national pastime.
Victor enjoyed a happy childhood in northern Japan. He was a good student, enjoyed painting and was his school’s 400-meter track champion three years in a row. When he got older, Victor enjoyed going to the movies and flirting with girls. Yet it was baseball where he made his mark. By the time he was in high school, he was 6' 2" and had a blistering fastball and sharply breaking curve. As a pitcher, he was nearly unbeatable, and his legend spread across the baseball-mad country.
The Starffins’ happy life in Japan came to an end in February 1933. By this time, Constantine was running a Russian teahouse and having an affair with a young waitress named Maria. The couple had a volatile relationship and argued frequently about politics – Maria did not share her lover’s passionate hatred for the Soviet Union. One day Maria failed to show for work. Constantine, sure that Maria was seeing someone else, stormed to her apartment. An argument ensued and, in a fit of rage, Constantine grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Maria to death. He was quickly arrested and confessed, insisting he had to kill Maria because she was a “Soviet spy.” Whether he was paranoid or not, Constantine was convicted and sentenced to eight years.
professional baseball did not exist in Japan in 1925. But Matsutaro Shoriki, a businessman and publishing magnate, aimed to change that. In November 1931, he sponsored a tour of Japan by American major leaguers. Most played winter league baseball anyway, so many of the top players were eager to sign on for a trip to exotic Japan. The Americans played against Japanese college squads and the tour was well received by Japanese fans, even though the Japanese collegians did not win a single game.
One of the American players on the 1931 tour was the hard-hitting outfielder Francis “Lefty” O’Doul. O’Doul had hit for an astounding .615 average during the tour. More importantly, however, he fell in love with Japan. He became a good friend and advisor to Shoriki, and over the next two decades the two men created professional baseball in Japan. O’Doul’s career major league average of .349 was not good enough to get him into Cooperstown, but he is in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1932, O’Doul returned to Japan in the off-season with two other players (Moe Berg and Ted Lyons) to teach baseball seminars at Japanese universities. He and Shoriki began planning another tour. Shoriki wanted it to include Babe Ruth, the game’s greatest star. He also wanted to form one team, a professional team, made up of Japan’s finest, to take on the Americans.
On October 5, 1934, Shoriki’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper announced the selection of the “First All-Japan Baseball Team.” These were the players, the paper claimed, who would challenge the Americans. Fourteen players were chosen, including 18-year-old Victor Starffin. While most of the players quickly signed on, Victor did not. He wanted to finish school and play one more high school season with his friends. Then he was going to move on to Waseda University. When the Americans arrived in late October, Victor was still at home in Asahikawa.
The Americans arrived in Japan to great fanfare because Babe Ruth was among them. In Japan, stories of the Babe’s tape measure home runs and called shots had been retold and embellished so much that he was more like a figure out of Greek mythology than a flesh and blood ballplayer. Along with Ruth, manager Connie Mack had assembled a dream team that included five other future Hall of Famers: Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Fox, Charlie Gehringer, Earl Averill and Lefty Gomez.[3] A million people lined the Ginza to watch the American motorcade pass, and the first game played at Meiji Stadium was attended by more than 100,000 fans.
The Americans won every game in the series, but Shoriki’s All-Nippon team was at times competitive. In one game, 17-year-old Japanese pitcher Eiji Sawamura almost shut out the Americans, but for a seventh-inning Gehrig homer that gave the U.S. a 1-0 win. Babe Ruth, meanwhile, far outshone all other players, hitting .408 with 13 home runs in 18 games.
Throughout the tour, Shoriki continued trying to sign Victor, through his agent in Asahikawa. The decision had been made to form a professional league and Shoriki wanted to build his team around Starffin and Sawamura. Shoriki’s scout began making veiled promises that if Victor signed he would get citizenship and his father would be released early from prison. Those were two things Victor wanted badly, so on November 24, he finally relented. He and Yevdokia packed suitcases and slipped out of town with Shoriki’s scout on the midnight train to Hakodate.
Victor Starffin donned his All-Nippon uniform for the next to last tour game, played in Kyoto. Victor was called into the game to pitch the eighth inning, causing a sensation, and no small amount of culture shock. The Americans were suddenly being pitched at by a tall Caucasian. And Victor, who was used to pitching to far shorter Japanese teenagers who choked up three or four inches on the bat, was pitching to big Americans swinging big bats. Starffin walked Ruth and Gehrig, but retired the other three Americans he faced, one by strikeout. Victor’s contribution to All-Nippon was over: one inning, with a 0.00 ERA. After the tour, All-Nippon was renamed the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. The Giants moniker and the uniform design were courtesy of Lefty O’Doul, a former New York Giant (before the team’s move to San Francisco). A league season could not be organized for 1935, so O’Doul suggested a California tour. In March 1935, the Giants arrived for three months of California baseball. A few of the games were against Pacific Coast League teams, including the San Francisco Seals, who featured Joe DiMaggio, his brothers Dom and Vince, and player-manager Lefty O’Doul. Most of the contests, however, were played against semi-pro teams, chiefly Japanese-American ones. The Giants went 93-9 on their California tour.
Upon returning to Japan, Victor applied for citizenship. He had Japanese sponsors and met all the legal criteria, yet his application was denied. No reason was given, just that he could try again. Victor did just that, several times, but was never granted Japanese citizenship. On the other hand, soon after Victor signed with the All-Nippon team, Constantine was called into the warden’s office at prison and informed that his sentence had been reduced from eight to four-and-a-half years. He was released from prison in 1937 and died in Tokyo in 1943.
The Japanese Professional Baseball League finally got underway in 1936, for a short season, and in 1937 in earnest. Just as Shoriki had envisioned, Sawamura and Starffin were a formidable duo: both pitched no-hitters in 1937. The Giants did not steamroll their competition, however. The Osaka Tigers had also built a fine team. In fact, both teams had enthusiastic supporters and their close competition helped build interest in the Japanese league.
Sawamura was injured in 1938 and later drafted into the Army. Victor took over as the Giants’ number one pitcher and in 1939 won a record 42 games (15 losses) with 282 strikeouts and a 1.72 ERA. That year he was selected the Japan League’s Most Valuable Player.
Following the 1939 season, Victor married his girlfriend, Lena, a fellow Russian whom he met at the Nikolai Russian Orthodox Church. It was the pinnacle of Victor’s personal and professional life, but changes were on the horizon.
the reality was that the Japanese government was extremely uncomfortable with a Russian living in their midst as a celebrity and a hero to many. The government wanted to bar Victor from baseball. Shoriki, who had a lot of political clout, brokered a clever compromise. Victor would remain on the Giants’ roster as a pitcher, but he had to take a Japanese name. Victor Starffin was now Hiroshi Suda.
The pitcher known as Suda had a great year in 1940. He won 18 consecutive games to close the season and led the Giants to a runaway pennant. His ERA was an almost unbelievable 0.97. Starffin/Suda was once again named Japan’s MVP.
In 1941, the U.S.S.R. and Japan signed a five-year non-aggression treaty. That bought Victor and the rest of the local White Russian community some time. But of course the world changed irretrievably on December 7, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Nonetheless, in both countries, baseball continued to be played, even while most players entered military service. Seasons continued with whomever was available.
Victor’s life changed dramatically during the war. He had to carry identity papers at all times and was only permitted to be in the district of Tokyo. When the Giants went on a road trip, Victor had to get special permission. As a result of his Caucasian appearance, he also began to experience harassment from the police and the public more generally. He was arrested several times without cause. Once, when he and some teammates were having dinner in a restaurant, a waitress became fixated with Starffin. He finally asked her if something was wrong. She said no. But before the men had finished their meal, two policemen burst into the restaurant and arrested Victor on suspicion of espionage.
As the war dragged on and the tide turned against Japan, the government decided it could no longer stomach a Caucasian baseball player. It forced the Giants to release Victor, and in 1944, Victor, Lena, and their three-year-old son George were sent to Karuizawa, a small city some distance from Tokyo. There, a residential section had been cleared to create a European ghetto, which also housed the families of Axis allies Germany and Italy. Apparently it was no longer wise for Caucasians, regardless of nationality, to be out in Japanese society. And while the Germans or Italians were not treated as prisoners at Karuizawa, everyone else was. Victor was part of a work crew that was regularly taken to the mountainside to cut timber. Lena took care of George and did some hairdressing on the side for German and Italian women. Like everyone else, the Starffins tried to survive the war. When the end finally came in August 1945, the Starffins moved back to Tokyo.
in the closing days of the war, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. That made it official: the U.S.S.R. was Japan’s enemy, therefore the local White Russian community was Japan’s enemy. With immigration to the U.S. and other Western countries relaxed, most of Japan’s Russians left. But not the Starffins.
The baseball league resumed play in 1946. Victor went to the Giants to get his job back, but was rebuffed. Even Shoriki turned his back on Starffin. And none of the other teams would hire the Russian either. Japan’s most accomplished player was on the sidelines.
Fortunately, Victor did have one person in his corner: his former Giants manager, Sadayoshi Fujimoto. When Fujimoto got a managerial job with the struggling Pacific team late in 1946, he brought Victor on board. Fujimoto changed jobs three times in three years and each time Victor moved with him. Without Fujimoto, it is likely that Victor Starffin would not have had a post war baseball career.
In 1947, Lena found her ticket out of Japan by leaving Victor for an American G.I. Baseball helped Victor recover from that blow and soon he met his second wife, Kunie Takahashi, who was half-Russian.
By 1949, Victor was once again the top pitcher in Japanese baseball. He won a league best 27 games and led his team, the Daiei Stars, to a third place finish. After the season, Lefty O’Doul brought his San Francisco Seals to Japan for a goodwill tour. It was the first American baseball tour of Japan since 1934 and helped to normalize relations between the two countries. The first game matched the Tokyo Giants against the Seals. Prior to the game, Allied Occupation Commander General MacArthur permitted the Japanese national anthem to be played. Many in the crowd broke down and wept upon hearing the first notes, as they witnessed their flag being raised in centerfield. Victor Starffin pitched two fine games against the Seals but got no run support, losing 4-0 and 1-0.[4]
In the 1950’s, Victor’s pitching skills gradually declined. He lost the zip on his fastball and had to rely more on his change up and control to get batters out. Yet he was still an effective pitcher into his late thirties.
Victor’s career goal was to win 300 games. That number had long been considered the standard for greatness in the American majors. Starffin finally achieved his 300th career win during the 1955 season, while playing for a lowly expansion team, the Tombo Unions. At the end of the season, the Unions released Victor, deciding to try their luck with some younger pitchers. Victor tried to get picked up by other teams, but there were no takers. He then tried to get a coaching or scouting job, but again had no luck. After 21 years in the Japanese majors, it was time for Starffin to create a life outside baseball.
Victor found work in the entertainment industry, but it was unsatisfying. He became depressed and his moods seemed to take a dark, paranoid turn. He slept with a baseball bat next to his bed and obsessed endlessly about escape routes. At restaurants and theaters he always had to sit near an exit. At home, he installed folding ladders on all the second floor windows, checking them often to ensure they were in working order.
In the early evening of January 12, 1957, Victor left home for an appointment. He never showed up. About four hours later, he was alone in his car, many miles from where he should have been. He was weaving in and out of traffic at high speed when his car slammed into a Tokyo streetcar. Starffin was pulled from the wreck but died at the scene. Investigators soon determined that he had been drinking. Whether his death was an accident, a suicide, or if he was trying to flee an imaginary pursuer, we will ever know.
In 1960, Starffin became the first foreigner (and only the 10th player ever) elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. His widow, Kunie, attended the ceremony and proudly held the plaque with Victor’s likeness.
In 1983, the Hokkaido city of Asahikawa, where the Starffins were originally settled in 1925, opened a new, modern baseball facility. They named it Victor Starffin Stadium in honor of the local boy who made his mark on the national sport. Today, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, normally based in Sapporo, plays a few of its home games each year in the stadium named for the great Russian pitcher that history washed up on Japanese shores. RL
1. From April 1920 to November 1922, a nominally independent buffer state between the young Soviet Russia and territories seized by Japan in the Far East.
2. $2250 in 1925 dollars, or the equivalent of at least $30,000 in 2012 dollars.
3. Also along for the tour (which also visited the Phillipines) was the polyglot (and future spy) Moe Berg, who during the trip surreptitiously filmed the Japanese skyline – an artifact that later may have been crucial to U.S. intelligence after Pearl Harbor.
4. For a fascinating new history of the 1934 tour, see Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan, by Robert K. Fitts.
Much of this story is based on a two-volume out of print biography of Victor Starffin by his daughter Natasha, as well as Japanese published histories of the sport. John Berry has self-published a book on Starffin’s life, The Gaijin Pitcher: The Life and Times of Victor Starffin, available on Amazon.
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