Wally Yonamine Of The San Francisco Seals

I was surprised a few months back to discover that there was a baseball card featuring Japanese Baseball Hall Of Famer Wally Yonamine as a member of the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League.  Yonamine was an American of Japanese descent who was born in Hawaii in 1925.  He was drafted into the Army just before World War II ended and spent most of his time in the service playing sports.  He briefly played football with the San Francisco 49ers after getting out of the Army but was released after getting injured playing baseball.  He was signed by San Francisco Seals manager Lefty O'Doul in 1950 but didn't play for them - they farmed him out to Salt Lake City in the Pioneer League.  After hitting .335 with the Bees he was expected to join the Seals for 1951 but instead was convinced by O'Doul to go to Japan.  The Yomiuri Giants owner wanted to bring American players back into professional baseball in Japan (there had been a handful of Americans playing in Japan before the war) and Yonamine became the first American to play in Japan after the war.  The rest is history.  (If you're interested in reading more about Yonamine, I highly recommend Rob Fitts' book "Wally Yonamine - The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball".)