Second basemen in professional baseball are not normally known as cleanup and power hitters, and their names are seldom seen among league leaders in the home run and RBI categories.
However, current Tokyo Yakult Swallows second sacker Tetsuto Yamada, a possible Triple Crown winner this season, reminds me of another heavy hitter who played that position years ago for the Yokohama BayStars — American Bobby Rose. Both right-handed batters wearing uniform No. 23, Yamada and Rose are the also same height at 180 cm.
Rose, then 26, played his first season in Japanese baseball in 1993, the first year of the BayStars, after the team name was changed from the Taiyo Whales.