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Victor Starffin

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Victor Starffin
Pitcher
Born: (1916-05-01)1 May 1916
Nizhny Tagil, Verkhotursky Uyezd, Perm Governorate, Russian Empire
Died: 12 January 1957(1957-01-12) (aged 40)
Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
JBL debut
1936, for the Tokyo Kyojingun
Last NPB appearance
July 12, 1955, for the Takahashi Unions
JBL/NPB statistics
Win–loss303–176
Earned run average2.09
Shutouts83
Innings pitched4,175.1
Strikeouts1,960
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Japanese record

  • 83 career shutouts
Member of the Japanese
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction1960

Viktor Starukhin (Russian: Виктор Константинович Старухин, romanized: Viktor Konstantinovich Starukhin,[1] 1 May 1916 – 12 January 1957), nicknamed "the blue-eyed Japanese" (青い目の日本人, aoi-me no Nihonjin), or more commonly known as Victor Starffin (ヴィクトル・スタルヒン), was a Japanese baseball player. While playing in Japan, he became the first professional pitcher in Japan to win 300 games.[2][3] With 83 career shutouts, he ranks number one all-time in Japanese professional baseball.[4]

Biography

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Early years

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Viktor Starukhin (also known as Victor Starffin) was born in 1916 in Nizhny Tagil, in the Urals region of what was then the Russian Empire, but after the Russian Revolution he moved with his family initially to Harbin, Manchuria, then eventually settling in Asahikawa, Hokkaidō, where he attended Asahikawa Higashi High School.[5] Initially bullied due to him not being Japanese, Starukhin eventually studied the language well, and was also very athletic, so much so that he would still win a 100-meter dash, even if his classmates got a 20 meter head start. This had been partly due to his size. Specifically, he stood at 6 feet (180cm) by the age of 11. He was also good at baseball, having discovered the sport after moving to Japan. His tall height mixed well with baseball, as his skill allowed him to use it as a way to connect and make friends with his classmates, and it also allowed him to distance himself from the issue of his family issues of his father, Konstantine Starukhin, resorting to heavy alcohol drinking.

Initially, Starukhin was scouted by Koyo Gakuin High School in Nishinomiya, but other schools complained about it, as they weren't on the idea of a foreigner pitching for them, so he joined Asahikawa Higashi's baseball team, helping them to 2 consecutive finals of the Hokkaido tournament of the Japanese High School Baseball Championship, failing both times to qualify for Summer Koshien.

Starukhin wanted to get into Waseda University, but he was scouted by Matsutaro Shoriki in the autumn of 1934 as a member of the national baseball team for an exhibition game against the United States. At that time, the Ministry of Education had a regulation stating that high school baseball players who played professionally forfeited their eligibility to enter higher education, so Starukhin was reluctant to turn pro. However, he and his family had entered Japan on transit visas, and his father, Konstantin Starukhin, was in jail awaiting trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, as he had murdered a co-worker of his wife due to political indifferences between both parties, and because of that, he was able to claim he killed her due to him thinking she was a spy sent by the Soviet government to monitor Russian refugees in Hokkaido. Shoriki effectively blackmailed Starukhin, stating that if Starukhin refused to play professionally, Shoriki would use his connections with the Yomiuri Shimbun to publicise the details of Konstantin Starukhin's case, therefore deporting him and his mother back to Russia, and likely to be arrested by the NKVD due to his father's political alignment.[3]

Tōkyō Kyojingun/Yomiuri Giants

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Starukhin was signed by the Tōkyō Kyojingun (now the Yomiuri Giants), outside the draft, in 1936, and played for them until 1944. He was one of the premier pitchers in the Japanese baseball "dead-ball era" (pre-1945), when many of Japan's best players were serving in the Imperial Japanese Army.[3] He won two MVP awards and a Best Nine award, and won at least 26 games in six different years, winning a league record 42 games in 1939. He followed his record-setting 1939 performance with another 38 wins in 1940. He also became the first foreign player in NPB history to throw a no-hitter, doing so against the Korakuen Eagles on July 3, 1937.

World War II

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In 1940, as xenophobia increased in Japan, Starukhin was forced to change his name to Suda Hiroshi. Later, during World War II, wartime paranoia resulted in Starukhin being placed in a detention camp[6] at Karuizawa with diplomats and other foreign residents.

Post-war career

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Starffin was the first pitcher to win 300 games in Japanese baseball

After a brief period working as an interpreter for the U.S. Occupation authorities (SCAP), Starukhin returned to professional baseball in 1946, but chose not to return to the Giants, instead signing a contract with a new team, the Pacific Baseball Club, owned by Komajiro Tamura. Pacific's contracts with several famous players, including Starukhin, led to a serious conflict, and Pacific was forced to forfeit four games. However, this decision ultimately resulted in Starukhin's old team the Giants losing the first Japanese championship after World War II, as one of Pacific's forfeited games had been a loss to Great Ring (now the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks): the change from a loss to a win gave Great Ring the title over the Giants.

Starukhin stayed with Pacific in 1947, which became known as the Taiyo Robins. In 1948 he moved to Tamura's other team, the Kinsei/Daiei Stars, staying with that franchise through 1953 (although Tamura sold the team to Daiei Film after the 1948 season). Starukhin finally signed with the Takahashi/Tombow Unions (a forerunner of the Chiba Lotte Marines) in 1954–55. In 1955, his last season, he became the first career 300-game winner in Japanese professional baseball. Originally, it was thought that Starukhin recorded his 300th win against the Kintetsu Pearls at Kawasaki Stadium on July 28, 1955. However, due to NPB rules on pitcher wins pre-war, it was only considered his 298th. He would get his actual 300th win on the 9th of September against his former Daiei Stars team at Nishinokyogoku Stadium in Kyoto City. When asked what he wanted to do next, Starukhin stated he wanted to get 2,000 career strikeouts and 100 shutouts before ending his baseball career. He never got to do so, due to him being forced to retire as after a 7-21 record in 1955, he was cut from the Unions and no other team wanted to sign him, despite him stating he was willing to also pitch for free.[7] He retired in 1955 with a career record of 303 wins and 176 losses.[3]

Retirement

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After retirement, he became an actor and presenter of radio programs.

Death

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In 1957, Starukhin was killed in a traffic accident when the car he was driving was hit by a tram[6] on the Tōkyū Tamagawa Line (now replaced by the Tōkyū Den-en-toshi Line) in Setagaya, Tokyo on his way to a high school reunion with his classmates from Asahikawa Higashi High School. The exact circumstances of the incident are debated to this day,[by whom?] with speculation ranging from a simple accident to suicide or drunk driving.[citation needed]

Starukhin is buried in Tama Cemetery in Tokyo.[8] He was the first player to be honored in a funeral where former teammates of his shared stories of his time playing with them.

Tributes

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In 1960, he became the first foreigner elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

Asahikawa City has nicknamed its municipal baseball stadium, as Asahikawa Starffin Stadium, since 1984.[3]

Personal life

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Starukhin spoke fluent Japanese and was said to be "more Japanese than Japanese" with respect for his in-laws, but he was worried that his friends would never cross the line with the labels "foreigner" and "exile". It was said to be the case. Therefore, he went to the Orthodox church "Nikolai-do" in Ochanomizu (neighborhood in Tokyo) where other Russians emigrants gathered. He searched for friends and even found a bride.[9]

Family

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In 1939 Starukhin married a Russian emigrant, Elena. In 1941, their first-born son was born.[10] After staying in the Karuizawa camp, Elena filed for divorce and left with Bolovyov for the United States, leaving her seven-year-old son Starukhina.[clarification needed]

The second wife was a Japanese woman Kunie[10] in 1950, whom they met on Christmas at the Russian Club in Tokyo in 1948. She took care of his son, and they had two daughters.[11] After the death of her husband, Kunie worked several jobs to support her family.[citation needed]

Professional Statistics

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Year Team G W L IP K BB HR ERA
1936 Summer Kyojin 1 0 0 3.0 4 1 0 0.00
1936 Autumn 3 1 2 21.0 19 7 0 3.00
1937 Summer 25 13 4 147.1 92 58 1 1.53
1937 Autumn 26 15 7 164.2 95 51 0 1.86
1938 Summer 24 14 3 158.2 76 57 5 2.04
1938 Autumn 24 19 2 197.2 146 59 0 1.05
1939 68 42 15 458.1 282 156 4 1.73
1940 55 38 12 436.0 245 145 3 0.97
1941 20 15 3 150.0 58 45 3 1.20
1942 40 26 8 306.1 110 119 3 1.12
1943 18 10 5 136.0 71 57 2 1.19
1944 7 6 0 66.0 27 23 0 0.68
1946 Pacific 5 1 1 31.2 11 16 1 1.99
1947 Taiyo 20 8 10 162.1 77 48 3 2.05
1948 Kinsei 37 17 13 298.1 138 80 6 2.17
1949 Daiei 52 27 17 376.0 163 69 24 2.61
1950 35 11 15 234.1 86 48 21 3.96
1951 14 6 6 100.2 47 22 5 2.68
1952 24 8 10 150.1 44 43 9 3.05
1953 26 11 9 201.2 61 42 11 2.68
1954 Takahashi 29 8 13 178.1 52 45 12 3.73
1955 Tombow 33 7 21 196.2 56 30 9 3.89
Total ― 586 303 176 4175.1 1960 1221 122 2.09

*Bold = lead league

Awards
Preceded by
Haruyasu Nakajima (fall)
N.A. (self)
 Japanese Baseball League MVP
1939
1940 		Succeeded by

See also

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References

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  1. ^ http://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/insignificance/204537.html (in Russian)
  2. ^ "Victor Starffin". Japan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
  3. ^ a b c d e Reaves, Joseph A. (2002). Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN 0-8032-3943-2.
  4. ^ Wilbert, Warren N. The Shutout in Major League Baseball: A History (McFarland, 2013), p. 108.
  5. ^ "Writer takes memorable trip to Victor Starfin Stadium in Asahikawa | The Japan Times Online". search.japantimes.co.jp. Archived from the original on 2010-05-04.
  6. ^ a b Whiting, Robert. You Gotta Have Wa (Vintage Departures, 1989), p. 47.
  7. ^ Victor Starffin - Japanese Baseball's Tragic Hero | NPB Player Profiles, retrieved 2023-05-02
  8. ^ http://www6.plala.or.jp/guti/cemetery/AREA/list_00.html (in Japanese)
  9. ^ ナターシャ・スタルヒン著「ロシアから来たエース」（PHP文庫）. "Ace from Russia" by Natasha Starhin (PHP Bunko).
  10. ^ a b Bjarkman, Peter C. Victor Starffin . Baseball Biography Project (eng.) . Society for American Baseball Research . Date of treatment July 25, 2020.
  11. ^ Natalia Vakhonina. "A Hollywood director makes a film about a Tagil citizen " Between the lines news agency (September 17, 2013). Date of treatment July 25, 2020.

Further reading

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  • Puff, Richard. "The Amazing Story of Victor Starffin". The National Pastime, no. 12 (1992), pp. 17–20. ISBN 0-910137-48-X.
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Awards
Preceded by Japanese Baseball League MVP
1939–1940 		Succeeded by
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