The Complicated Life and Death of Hideki Irabu

August 8, 2017 7:18 AM

Fourteen Julys after he had debuted on the mound at Yankee Stadium in front of 52,000 fans, and nine years after he’d thrown the last pitch of a major league career that had tailspinned from promising to punch line, Hideki Irabu, 42 years old, had died desperately alone.
posted by Literaryhero (15 comments total)

Thanks for the post. Yet another unfortunate loss to depression and substance abuse. May he be in true peace now.
posted by strelitzia at 8:16 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wow, I had no idea about this story. Thank you. What strelitzia said.

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posted by Melismata at 8:27 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I always liked Hideki Irabu. My favorite memory of him was from his Yankee tenure, in the early days of interleague play. He started a game in an NL park, which meant he would have to bat. Most leagues at all levels of baseball are DH-only, so it's possible for someone to make it all the way to the majors without ever handling a bat. Irabu was clearly one of those people. When it was time for his at-bat, he did what you or I would do under the circumstances: He held the bat very carefully, clearly indicating that he was in no way ever going to swing the bat, and stood as far back and as far away from the plate as the rules would let him. I can still see it in my mind.

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posted by Ampersand692 at 9:14 AM on August 8, 2017 [6 favorites]

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posted by SonInLawOfSam at 9:32 AM on August 8, 2017

My BiL and I drove down from Rhode Island to see him in like June of '97, when he pitched for the Yankees' minor league team in Norwich, CT, the Norwich Navigators. I don't recall having my world rocked, but it was a fun road trip. (I still have the ticket stub and that year's miniature folding schedule in a frame in the basement.)

And yeah, he didn't last long in the majors, did he? Especially in light of the white-hot New York sports-media-machine hype around him when he was signed. Five years is more than the average NFL player's career, but apparently it's pretty typical for MLB players.

Thanks for a good show in a nice little park, on a nice summer night with my new wife's brother, all those years ago, Mister Irabu.

⚾
posted by wenestvedt at 10:00 AM on August 8, 2017

(BTW, he died in 2011. I didn't know, either.)
posted by wenestvedt at 10:03 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I didn't know either -- how'd I miss that?
posted by JanetLand at 10:43 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

He was in the majors long enough to get insulted during the last episode of Seinfeld (which gets a mention in the article).
posted by Ampersand692 at 10:59 AM on August 8, 2017

I learned about him in this thread, third comment in. Thnaks for this link to this fascinating piece of journalism.
posted by mwhybark at 11:01 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

As a baseball fan, it's so easy to revel in these athletes' failures. It's a part of baseball fandom practically as old as the game itself. It is much harder to remember that they are human beings with rich inner lives and are just as capable of suffering as anyone else.

I am sorry for jeering, Hideki-san. I hope you find peace.
posted by bluejayway at 1:47 PM on August 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

(BTW, he died in 2011. I didn't know, either.)

In my opinion, this is the saddest part. Honestly, I'm glad you guys liked this post. Right after posting I almost sent the mods a mail to ask them to remove it because I thought the subject was too depressing and that it would just make people feel crummy.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:24 PM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

About year after that earlier thread, the Mariners current (well, until this season) NPB mainstay Hisashi Iwakuma came over, more or less as a walk on, and then the year after that Tanaka came over to the Yankees. Darvish came over to Texas the same year as Kuma came here, and none of these guys would have had the same opportunities they have had if not for Hideki.

I had missed the info about his mixed heritage - Darvish's dad is an Iranian physician who settled in Japan, and he was hassled to varying degrees over the course of his career in Japan as well. Of course, Sadaharu Oh, the canonical greatest Japanese ballplayer, is also of partial non-Japanese descent, mainland Chinese in his case (although he holds Taiwanese citizenship). Japanese ballplayers of mixed ethnicity have a real load to carry.

The story about his reunion with his birth father has new meaning for me as well due to my own reunion with my birth mother and family and ongoing participation in an adult-adoptee support group. Reunions have all sorts of outcomes, not always happy.
posted by mwhybark at 3:47 PM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

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posted by Joey Michaels at 4:01 PM on August 8, 2017

Terry Francona. He made it to the Big Show last year, and he's still in the mix this year with a motley crew in Cleveland he keeps together with enthusiasm and emotional and baseball smarts.

Dice K! With his mythical unhittable pitch that turned out to be actually mythical. Terry defended him and eased him back from the spotlight, which in Boston can be brutal. Boston Media then crucified both him and Theo, and ran them out of town on a rail. Theo won the World Series with the Cubs, a perfectly overpowered team he put together with masterful trades and signings. They were up against a team of bits and pieces held together by one hell of a manager, hungry underdogs. Francona's team.

Give Terry this man's talent, give Theo this man's arm to build around...

Instead I will recognize greatness unrealized and mourned.

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posted by Slap*Happy at 9:12 PM on August 8, 2017

The article mentions it briefly -- Irabu's return to Japanese baseball with the Hanshin Tigers during their almost-dream season of 2003 (think Cubs or Red Sox before their respective championships) was a heck of a career achievement after his experience in MLB and was lot of fun to watch (I was living in the area at the time). I didn't know anything about his personal life or that he had died. Very sorry to hear it.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 12:32 PM on August 9, 2017