When he had moved there for school, he figured he was putting his baseball fandom on the backburner. He had fallen in love with the sport in his native Tokyo, where Nippon Professional Baseball is a ...

His death was confirmed by the Seattle Mariners, one of six MLB teams he played for between 1987 and 1995. He was also a coach for the Mariners from 2010-2013. "Our hearts go out to his family ...