Hard to believe that story about former major league outfielder Jesse Barfield being pushed down a flight of stairs by his 18-year-old son Jeremy.

The elder Barfield played the 1993 season here in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants when Jeremy was a youngster of 5. Now the boy has been arrested following the Aug. 22 incident during which his father suffered a head injury.

An older Barfield son, Josh, plays second base for the San Diego Padres, and what a shame something like this happened to an obviously talented baseball family.

The news got me thinking of that season 13 years ago when Jesse Barfield, then 33, joined the Yomiuri Giants, managed at the time by Shigeo Nagashima. Barfield had come here after a notable 12-year big league career playing for the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. In 1986, he led the American League with 40 home runs and was an All-Star.

However, the strikeout-prone Barfield did not adjust well to Japanese pitching. Though he hit 26 home runs in only 104 games, he managed just 53 RBIs and a paltry .215 batting average with a league-leading 127 whiffs.

He was released by Yomiuri, but there is an interesting postscript to his Japan career.

The Giants' crosstown rival Yakult Swallows, who had won the Central League pennant in 1992 and 1993, made a move to acquire Barfield for 1994.

Then-Yakult manager Katsuya Nomura reportedly said the Swallows coaches had found a flaw in Jesse's batting swing; one the Giants had missed.

They figured they could correct the defect, and Barfield would hit more homers with a lot fewer strikeouts wearing a Yakult uniform.

The player verbally agreed to join the Swallows, and a team official called Barfield's agent prior to spring training to say he was boarding a flight to Texas with Jesse's contract.

"Don't bother coming," the agent told a shocked Yakult rep. "He just signed with the Houston Astros."

Naturally, the Yakult management was embarrassed and furious at Barfield for going back on his word. They threatened to sue but later backed down.

There is no record of Barfield ever having played for the Astros in 1994, and we are left wondering how he might have done had he joined the Swallows.

Meanwhile, the son of another former foreign player in Japan is also in the news.

The Oakland Athletics announced they have signed shortstop Shane Keough, 19, the A's 36th-round pick from the June 2005 draft.

Keough, drafted out of Northwood High School in Coto De Caza, Calif., had been playing for Yavapai College in Arizona.

Shane is the son of Matt Keough, former A's pitcher and now Special Assistant to the General Manager.

Matt pitched in Japan with the Hanshin Tigers from 1987 to 1990, winning 45 games over the four-year span. Matt's father (and Shane's granddad) Marty Keough, also a former major leaguer, was an outfielder with the Nankai Hawks in Japan's Pacific League in 1968.

Should Shane go on to play in the American or National League, the Keoughs would join the Boones (Ray, Bob, Bret and Aaron) and the Bells (Gus, Buddy and David) as three-generation family major leaguers.

If Shane eventually joins a team in NPB, the Keoughs would be the first grandfather-father-son combination to have played in Japanese pro baseball.

A brief story about Matt from his days here: One night he struck out Hiroshima Carp American slugger Rick Lancellotti, the 1987 Central League home run king (39). "Lance" swung and missed at a wicked strike-three pitch thrown by Keough.

Lancellotti did not realize until later what had happened and, the next day during pre-game practice, he went over to Keough and said, "I'll get you next time. I can't believe you threw me a spit ball!"

The pitcher just laughed, and it probably never occurred to the Japanese umpires that Keough threw a wet one.

Yet another offspring of a former foreign player in Japan is already making his mark in the majors.

Prince Fielder, son of Cecil, is a regular with the Milwaukee Brewers. Like Jeremy Barfield and Shane Keough, Prince spent time here as a youngster when his dad was belting out homers for Hanshin in 1989.

Prince, 22, is hitting .275 with 24 home runs and 68 RBIs for the Brew Crew, and there is also a story about Cecil, the way his Japan career ended after one season and why he went back to the American League.

It goes like this: First baseman Cecil Fielder was leading the Central League with 38 home runs when the Tigers went to play the Giants at Tokyo Dome on Sept. 13, 1989. His nearest challenger for the long ball title was Larry Parrish of the Yakult Swallows who had 36 at the time.

In the top of the eighth inning of the Giants-Tigers game, Fielder fanned for the third out and, as he was waiting for a teammate to bring out his cap and glove, he playfully flipped his bat to the ground, expecting to catch the handle after the barrel rebounded off the turf.

Got that?

But it came up awkwardly and hit him on the right hand. Fielder flinched in pain but went on to play the bottom of the eighth in the field.

The next day, he took his swollen and still hurting hand to a hospital for X-rays and found he had broken his own thumb. His season was done, and Parrish went on to win the homer title with 42.

Because Fielder had failed to win the crown, Hanshin reportedly offered him a reduced salary contract for 1990, and his agent decided to look elsewhere.

He got Cecil a deal with the Detroit Tigers, and the player responded with a 51-homer, All-Star season in the Motor City, eventually earning him multimillions.

No one knows what would have happened had Fielder not tried that stupid bat-flipping trick that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

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Contact Wayne Graczyk at: [email protected]