Returning to Japanese baseball this season after a decade-long absence is Ralph Bryant, one of the most prolific sluggers ever to play the game here as a member of the Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1988 to 1995, and currently the first-base coach and a batting instructor with the Orix Buffaloes.

Bryant was asked last winter to join the coaching staff of the merged Orix-Kintetsu club by manager Akira Ogi, Bryant's manager for the first five years he played for the Buffaloes, and the Georgia native accepted right away.

Bryant's colorful and storied playing career in Japan actually began with the Chunichi Dragons, though most fans and even veteran media members forget that, because he never played with the Dragons varsity.