Sayonara Slam (20 page)

“
Konnichiwa
,” Uno-
san
said to him.

How did he know that Mas could speak Japanese?

Mas saw a canister of some kind of cleanser next to Uno-
san
on the bench. He was rubbing his mitt with a rag, and Mas noticed that his cleats were also on the bench.

“
Osoji
,” Uno-
san
said. Cleaning.

Mas was tongue-tied. His legs were frozen in place. He couldn't escape even if he wanted to.

“You like playing in America?” Mas asked in Japanese. A
bakatare
comment, but it was the first thing to come to his lips.

“Sah, the stadiums are all a little different. Not all the same like in Japan.” Uno-
san
then put his mitt down and admired the field. “Beauty of America,
ne
. Real, natural grass.”

THE END

Acknowledgments

First of all, thanks to Kimiko Ego, who was the first one to tell me of the Japanese-style garden at Dodger Stadium.
Domo arigato.
If it weren't for you,
Sayonara Slam
probably never would have come to be.

This book is one of my most heavily researched mysteries. The scholarship of Japanese and Japanese Americans in baseball has been taken up by a number of academicians and experts. Robert Whiting is likely the most well-known in terms of baseball in Japan. His
You Gotta Have Wa
and
The Meaning of Ichiro: The New Wave from Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime
both proved helpful. To get into the head of a Japanese baseball superstar, in particular Ichiro, I was assisted by the DVD produced by Bandai,
Ichiro x Takeshi Kyatchiboru Seisaku,
and by the book
Ichiro on Ichiro: Conversations with Narumi Komatsu
. Robert K. Fitts's
Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game
provided firsthand perspectives of Japanese Americans playing professional ball in Japan.

I've been a fan of the lifelong work of Kerry Yo Nakagawa ever since I worked at
The Rafu Shimpo
newspaper. His
Japanese American Baseball in California: A History
was a notable reference for this book. Also beneficial was Samuel O. Regalado's
Nikkei Baseball: Japanese American Players from Immigration and Internment to the Major Leagues
.

Dodger Stadium is a character in itself. Thanks to the Dodger docents; I highly recommend that history and sports lovers take a tour of the stadium. Kimiko Ego kindly lent me
history books written by Dodger historian Mark Langill, as well as her personal collection of clippings of the
ishi doro
(stone lantern) that was donated by Japanese sportwriter Sotaro Suzuki in 1965 and rededicated in 2003. (Langill also clarified where the greenskeepers' equipment storage would be located.) And Cultural Clash's “Chavez Ravine: A Revival” presented the darker side of the stadiuim's establishment.

Two exhibitions—the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library's “Baseball! The Exhibition” and the Japanese American National Museum's “Dodgers: Brotherhood of the Game”—were filled with historic photographs and memorabilia that aided in envisioning the Dodgers' past.

For the international aspects of the book, I referred to “‘Koreans, Go Home!' Internet Nationalism in Contemporary Japan as a Digitally Meditated Subculture” in
The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus
; Karen Colligan-Taylor's translation of Tomoko Yamazaki's
Sandakan Brothel No. 8: An Episode in the History of Lower-Class Japanese Women
; Caroline Elkins's
Settler Colonialism in the Twentieth Century: Projects, Practices, Legacies
; Monica Kim's article, “Empire's Babel: US Military Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War”; Jan Jarboe Russell's
The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II
; and Atsushi “Archie” Miyamoto's manuscript, “The
Gripsholm
Exchanges: A Short Concise Report on the Exchange of Hostages during World War II Between the United States and Japan as it Relates to Japanese Americans.” (Appreciation goes out to Thomas Philo of the Cal State Dominguez Hills Archives.)

For anyone who wants to know the mysterious ways of
a knuckleball pitcher, I heartily recommend the Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg documentary
Knuckleball!
R.A. Dickey's memoir,
Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity, and the Perfect Knuckleball
, is a great read, too.

Answering a call for various bits of information were Mark Schreiber, Coleen Nakamura, Komo Gauvreau, Todd Leighley, Bobby Okinaka, Richard Kondo, Kenji Nakano, J.K. Yamamoto, Lauren Xerxes, and Kay Hadashi.

For a more personal perspective, I learned much from La Vida de Izumi's YouTube videos, as well as meeting Grandma Lee in Los Angeles, compliments of Kathy Masaoka of Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress.

Thanks to the support of Judd and Leslie Matsunaga for the Yonsei Basketball Association and their purchase of the naming rights to two characters, Smitty Takaya and April Sue. Of course, the real people bear little resemblance to the fictional characters in
Sayonara Slam
.

Mary Cannon and Sherry Kanzer lent their eagle eyes to identify some minor corrections. My thanks to both women for their support of Mas and my writing career.

And finally, again, kudos to my agent, Allison Cohen, and to Colleen Dunn Bates, publisher of Prospect Park Books, for her commitment to books set in Los Angeles. She, book designer Amy Inouye, marketing associate Caitlin Ek, and proofreader Margery Schwartz make the whole crazy and ever-changing business of publishing a true joy.

Acknowledgments, as always, end with my husband, Wes, who helped me parse out the details involving knuckleballs, baseball strategy, and sports stadiums. The love of the game continues.

About the Author

Naomi Hirahara is the Edgar Award–winning author of the Mas Arai mystery series. Also nominated for the Macavity and Anthony awards, the series includes
Strawberry Yellow, Blood Hina, Snakeskin Shamisen, Gasa-Gasa Girl,
and
Summer of the Big Bachi.
She is also the author of the Ellie Rush mystery series, as well as
1001 Cranes
, a novel for children. A graduate of Stanford University, Hirahara has also written many nonfiction books about gardening and Japanese American history and culture. Learn more at
naomihirahara.com
.