In a May 22, 1953 Sporting News article, John Hoffman wrote that, "Life has had many uncertainties for Joe Stanka." But even he could not predict that Stanka’s professional career as a pitcher would take him from a decade-long stint in the minors all the way to Japan to become their league’s MVP, and the hero of the 1964 Japan Series.
Although he played briefly in the major leagues, if you look in any baseball encyclopedia you’ll see that Joe Stanka’s major league career consisted of only two pitching appearances with the White Sox in 1959. But that, as they say, is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. A recent addition to the SABR member ranks, Stanka’s professional baseball career has seemingly taken the small-town boy to the four corners of the globe. We’re happy to provide a glimpse into his incredible baseball journey in this SABR Nine.
1. During your time in the minor league, majors and Japan, who influenced your baseball career the most?
Well, I would have to say that the only thing that comes to mind was my manager in Macon, Georgia, Nick Collup. Nick told me, after I’d been there awhile, when Wid Matthews [Cubs director of player personnel] called him after they had just drafted me from the Dodger chain…I think Wid was the guy who personally drafted me…and said, "Joe lands on his heel, but leave him alone and he’ll win for you." And Nick said that he told him, "I don’t care if he lands on his ear if he wins." That gave me a lot of confidence in Nick…and Nick stayed with me a lot. I was always a slow starter. He had a lot of confidence in me, and that really helped.
2. What were some memorable moments in your minor league career that drove you to succeed early in your career besides, obviously, wanting to make it to the majors?
The only thing that comes to mind—now remember, we’re talkin’ thirty-five to forty years ago, so some of these things have gone out into cyberspace. As I mentioned, I was a slow starter—I really had trouble in the first half of most seasons although I was usually one of the best pitchers in the league in the second half. But I got off to a good start in ’59 because I was in a lot better shape thanks to winter ball. I was in Sacramento and there were a lot of scouts watching me...I heard rumors all the time about how this club or that club was on the verge of signing me. The White Sox did buy me about the 1 st of September. That’s the only time I really thought, "Yeah, I’m going to make it to the major leagues." Because I was pitching good….I can’t say that there’s one game in that ten years that really sticks out.
3. Do you think if you hadn’t had such a bad experience when you were first called up to the White Sox, you would have lasted longer in the majors?
First of all, me and a couple of roommates had a going away party the night before [I was called up]….So I got to Chicago extremely tired and as I checked into the hotel where we were all staying, all singles most of them, there was a note there from [Hank] Greenberg saying, "Drop your bags and get to the park when you get here. I want you to start tonight." Of course, [Al] Lopez had a different idea than that and started Billy Pierce, as I remember. And Pierce got into trouble about mid-game and they called for me to warm up. Well, even though I had ten years, I was nervous and I was tired. Warming up, I apparently pulled a groin muscle. I didn’t get into that particular game. The second night though I did. And I really aggravated that groin muscle. So I went to the trainer the next day to see what it was…I didn’t know anything about a groin muscle. I didn’t even know what a groin was. The trainer told me and I said, "What do I do?" And he said, "What do you want to do?" And I said, "Well, I want to get back in the game, if possible." And he said, "Well then the best thing to do is not run, he said don’t even suit up. Do as little as you can, stay off that leg." I don’t know whether that’s true or not, that’s just what he told me. And I said, "Well, I’ll have to tell Lopez that I’m not going to show up." And he said, "No, I’ll take care of that. I’ll tell him." Well, he did not. Nothing was really said and I didn’t get into another game and I was kind of wondering why.
When the Series started and tickets were starting to go out, Bob Shaw told everyone in the clubhouse that if you have tickets you don’t need he could get you pretty good money for them. And I said, "Well, I don’t have that many to use, you can have mine." Later on, when he was passing out money, I said, "Did you get my tickets?" And he said, "You didn’t have any." Well that didn’t set real well with me. So I hit the steps about ten at a time to see Greenberg and talked to him about that in no uncertain terms. And Greenberg said, "Well I didn’t know anything about that. I’ll see that you get your tickets." And I said, "While we’re at it. What really aggravates me is that I took a pay cut from Sacramento, as far as money, to come up here." He said, "I know what you made…you made such and such." And I said, "No, I made more than that. I had an expense account." He said, "Well that’s illegal. That wasn’t reported so that’s why I didn’t know. I’ll get that for you, too." Greenberg started walking away and then he turned around and said, "But you got a lot of nerve asking for more money when you refuse to pitch." Apparently, after I returned to the bullpen bench from the trainer, Lopez called down for me to warm up and the bullpen coach said "he doesn’t want to pitch." So I told Greenberg that the bullpen coach had it wrong. But I never got back into another game. I think it was a total misunderstanding looking back at it.
So with the problems the team and I had with each other, and my usual slow starts, I figured my ticket was punched to San Diego, and I wasn’t going back to the minors; I had ten years of that. And honestly, even if the misunderstandings had never happened, I don’t think I was a major league pitcher at that time. Sure I would have won some games, and I would have had bad games, but I was not a consistent major league pitcher then. I had a major-league fastball, but my control wasn’t real good. I had trouble with left-handers. I didn’t have a pitch like the one I had the last couple years in Japan—I came up with that on a fluke. If I had had that pitch, then yeah, I could have stuck. But not without it.
4. So you make it to Japan, and you don’t know any of the language. Did it help having a bilingual American like Carl Hanta with you there as an interpreter?
Only from the comfort standpoint. As far as helping the baseball career…no, outside of maybe I was a little more comfortable. I enjoyed Carl more as a friend…he’s a great guy. It was a comfort to have somebody around all the time that did speak English. At that time, there was only one other American the first year and he was on Nisei also. And then Buddy Peterson came over the second year. It was nice having another American there. Even though I’m partial, having talked to some of the other players I was on one of the better teams as far as friendly goes. There was a couple of guys that didn’t like Americans in general, and me in particular, but otherwise most of them were pretty friendly. And the two top pitchers on the Nankai club, very nice, very friendly guys, they spoke just the least little bit of English, we used a lot of hand signs and everything to converse. I was very comfortable with them, that was nice. They assigned an office staff person who spoke a little English to interpret enough that we could communicate. Nankai was super helpful to me. They built us a house that we wanted and got a telephone that we felt we needed. Which was extremely hard to get then.
5. Did you prefer the American style of baseball or the Japanese style and which do you think was better?
Well, the Americans played for the big inning and the Japanese played for one run at a time…and they still do as far as I hear. A lot of times they’ll settle for a tie…they still have tie games. The first three years I played there, they would hit a ground ball to short stop or second base, [the runner] would turn right half-way to first base. Or a fly ball to the outfield, the runner wouldn’t even try to reach first base. That kind of surprised me that the manager never did say anything. That was happening pretty much on all the other teams. That was the one thing that always particularly aggravated me....They didn’t want American advice. They wanted you to do your thing. They would see what you were doing and then they would accept it or reject it or make it Japanese style. Take what they wanted out of it. The first game I pitched, for instance along that line, introduced me to the first Japanese phrase that I learned. There was a base hit to left field and the fielder let it go through his legs and then slowly turned around trotted after it while the runners were circling the bases. I blew my top out there. The manager asked Carl [Hanta], "What’s the matter?" So when I came in, Carl said, "He’s partly mad because he wasn’t pitching well, he thought, and because the guy didn’t hustle after the ball. The phrase that Carl told me [that the manager replied with] was the Japanese translation for "I can’t help it." That’s kind of a good example of the hustle they had during that time. The play was worse than the American style, even they admit that.
6. During the 7th game of the 1964 Japan Series you pitched a shut out after having pitching the day before, in The National Pastime #25 article, Carl Hanta described this as an eye-opening moment for many Japanese because they considered the American pitchers "softies" because they needed four days rest. Were you aware that your actions would have that kind of impact?
I was having a real good year that year, as you know, 26-7. And I think I was the only pitcher the last three weeks of the season that won a game. I’ve got the records. It shocked me because we just about lost the pennant. I had relieved in a couple of games towards the end. When I heard the phone ring at home, after having pitched the night before [during the Series], I figured it was the team wanting to know if I would relieve that night. When instead of relief, Tsuruoka [the manager] wanted to know if I was willing to start in the game. I kind of laughed and said, "Sure." But I always figured, even to the time the game started, that he’d change his mind. Experience had showed him that I wasn’t going to have anything [after having pitched the night before]. I didn’t really think about it. It was a laugher to me. I had no question when the phone rang who it was and what they wanted. I pitched probably as good or better as the night before, let’s just say it was meant to be.
7. What was your most favorite/hated ballpark?
Well, I always had trouble in the San Diego ballpark…always. My favorite ballpark was one that I was only in one time, and that was Fenway Park. I was always a Red Sox fan. It was my first introduction into baseball, way back when, before I joined pro ball. The worst one was the Duncan [South Carolina] as far as a bad ballpark. It was a joke. The grounds were bad, the lights were horrible, which might’ve been good if I had had sense enough to use them [to my advantage].
8. In your career, who was the toughest hitter you pitched against?
There’s two. One in Japan and one here and both in the minor leagues. Of course you got to remember I didn’t pitch much in the big leagues. I pitched against some big-leaguers while they were in the minors. I didn’t pay any attention to them in the minor leagues. Later on I found out, hey, I was with that guy in such and such a league. I found that out by reading articles. There was Earl Rapp, he must have hit over a thousand off me. If there’s a batting average of eleven hundred…that’s what he hit [laughing]. And then there was the first basemen for Daiei, later became Tokyo [Orions]. [Kihachi] Enomoto, a left-hand-hitting first baseman, the outs I got off of him were frozen ropes. Those were two guys that stand out very quickly, very clear. I don’t think anyone in the big leagues, Williams or Mantle, or anybody else would have hit me any harder or more often then those two.
9. Do you feel like you’ve had a unique experience in professional baseball?
With winter ball in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela… Japan…and pretty well all the [U.S.] states, I feel really blessed to have had 17 years in baseball, and to see and do the things we did.
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