<Begin Segment 25>

AH: How did you know Lefty O'Doul, and where did he see you play baseball?

WY: Actually, he didn't see me play. He, somebody introduced me to Lefty because, I guess, being a football player, baseball player, and somebody in Hawaii introduced me to Lefty. And then Lefty... so I guess they must have told Lefty that I was a pretty good baseball player. So Lefty told me if I want to play with the Seals, he would sign me up. So I said, you know, now that I'm out of football, so I figured, "Well, I might as well play baseball." So started to, so I played, so I signed up with the Seals and we trained at El Centro, California. And then after spring training, then he told me "Go to Salt Lake, get some seasoning." So I went in Salt Lake and played one year at Salt Lake.

AH: And that was Class C?

WY: Class C, yeah.

AH: And you had a good year there.

WY: .335 I batted, yeah.

AH: Wow.

WY: So then Lefty was going to bring me up. But then Lefty told me, "Before I bring you up, I think you should go to Japan. I think the Japanese will love your style of play." So I said, I said, "If you think I should go," I said, "I'll go." And I didn't know anything about Japanese baseball.

AH: I was wondering why he said that, because when you actually got to Japan, they hated your style of baseball.

WY: Yeah. [Laughs] But I went, and I guess Lefty didn't think that I would knock guys down and all that stuff, maybe. But when I was in Japan, I had a field day. But my manager, Mr. Mizara, really helped me. He told me, "What you learned in the States, you do it here in Japan. I'll back you up 100 percent." And that's all I wanted to hear because... so after that when I started to play, anybody was in my way, I would knock 'em down.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2003 Japanese American National Museum. All Rights Reserved.