Masahiro Doi was one of Japan’s great sluggers. In a career spanning 1962 to 1981, he clobbered 465 home runs, which places him 12th all-time, between Koichi Tabuchi and Tuffy Rhodes. The bulk of Doi’s career was spent with the Kintetsu Buffaloes; in 1975 he joined the Lions, for whom he spent the balance of his baseball-playing days. Doi’s best season was probably 1971, a year in which he hit 40 home runs, drove in 113 (topping 100 RBIs for the only time in his career), and putting up a 309/395/603 slash line. In addition to ranking well in career home runs, Doi is 10th all-time in hits (2452, and the player with the highest figure who has not been elected to the hall of fame), and 12th in RBIs.
Over the course of his 20 year career, Doi was selected to 15 all-star teams. As you might expect for a big slugger, he played LF-1B. (Going over MLB all-time HR leaders, guys who weren’t corner outfielders, DH, or 1B: Alex Rodriguez (3B, #4), Ken Griffey Jr (CF, #7), Mike Schmidt (3B #16), Mickey Mantle (CF #18); that’s it for the top 20.) Despite being one of the top home run hitters in Japanese history, Doi led the league in homers only once, in his first season with the Lions. He never won an MVP award. In the US the MVP awards are biased towards players from good teams, in Japan, even more so. The Buffalos are traditionally cellar-dwellers, and Doi never did play in the Japan Series. Let’s see if that’s what made the difference. Below I’ve got his best seasons, and I've compared them to the eventual winners:
1967
Doi: 28 HR, 93 RBI, 323/386/567
Mitsuhiro Adachi: 1.75 ERA, 20-10 record for the 1st place Braves
1971
Doi: 40 HR, 113 RBI, 309/395/603
Atsushi Nagaike: 40 HR, 114 RBI, 317/404/618
1972
Doi: 30 HR, 84 RBI, 300/393/554
Yutaka Fukumoto: 106 SB
1973
Doi: 29 HR, 76 RBI, 316/417/563
Katsyua Nomura: 28 HR, 96 RBI, 309/373/524 (played catcher)
1975
Doi: 34 HR, 84 RBI, 260/352/491
Hideji Kato: 32 HR, 97 RBI, 309/388/572
So, not really. Maybe he got robbed in 1967, but Adachi pitched really well, so it’s hard to say that this was a terrible injustice or anything. The league had an ERA of 3.05, so his 1.75 ERA isn’t quite as impressive as it looks, but that’s still some damn fine pitching. Every other season Doi just got out-played by the eventual winner.
Doi did lose one month of his career to the Black Mist Scandal. This was a big gambling scandal in Japanese baseball that ran from 1969 to 1971. Doi had a small part in it, and got a short suspension as a result. The central figures were members of the Lions who were throwing games (this is while Doi was still with Kintetsu). He doesn’t seem to have been accused of doing that; he was prosecuted and suspended for ‘illegal gambling’, but I don’t have details beyond that. Anyways, he got a rather light punishment, so I’m guessing that whatever he was up to was comparatively innocuous.
The transfer from Kintetsu to the Lions was a trade for Yutaka Yanagita and
Hiroaki Shibaike. The former was a still fairly young pitcher (22 at the time of the trade) who would have a good couple seasons, but who I would characterize as an “innings eater”. The latter was a 28 year old relief pitcher who… eh. He was a relief pitcher with a short career. The Lions got the better player, but Yanagita was a productive pitcher for a long time.
It’s a mystery to me why Doi isn’t in the hall of fame yet. He’s clearly qualified. For comparable American players I’d look to someone like Eddie Murray or Rafeal Palmeiro. Guys who hit a fair number of home runs, and played forever (thus finishing high on all-time lists), but who weren’t A-list stars. Doi was probably better than them at his best, but the Americans who are better versions of this kind of player were better than he was. I was tempted to compare him to Carl Yestrzemksi, and while that’s not absurd, Doi didn’t have any triple crown seasons. Maybe Manny Ramirez is a good comp. Consistently one of the better players in the league, but never the best, and a long enough career to be among the all-time leaders in various slugging categories. I’m going to go with that: Masahiro Doi is the Japanese Manny Ramirez. I know why Manny isn’t in the hall yet. But unless Doi’s involvement in the Black Mist Scandal was much more serious than it appears, I don’t know why he’s not in yet.
Meikyukai:
Yes – Hall of Fame:
No
This card is from the massive 1976 Calbee set. Thanks to Sean for this one. I’ve still got a stack of cards that he sent me that I need to post something about.