Ralph Wendell Bryant (born May 20, 1961) is a retired

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player. He played with the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

in the major leagues, and with the

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...

and

Kintetsu Buffaloes The were a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team based in Osaka, Japan, which was in the Pacific League. In 2005 the team was merged with the Orix BlueWave to become the team now known as the Orix Buffaloes. The team played in Fujiidera Stad ...

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

. He batted left-handed, threw right-handed, and played outfield for most of his career.

Career

Born in

Fort Gaines, Georgia Fort Gaines is a city in Georgia, United States, with a population of 1,107 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Clay County. History The present town of Fort Gaines was founded in 1816 as protection against the indigenous Creeks an ...

, Bryant studied at

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) is a public college in Tifton, Georgia. It is part of the University System of Georgia and offers baccalaureate and associate degrees. The college is named after Abraham Baldwin, a signer of the Uni ...

. He was drafted in the first round of the 1981 amateur draft by the

, having previously been drafted by the Dodgers and

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

, but did not sign with either team that year. Bryant was promoted to the major leagues for the first time in , but was unable to establish himself as a regular outfielder, and spent the next three years traveling back and forth between the major and minor leagues. In , the

of the Japanese

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...

showed interest in Bryant, and he was shipped to Japan in May, 1988. On June 7, 1988, Dick Davis, the cleanup batter of the

, was arrested on drug charges, and the Buffaloes were forced to let go of one of their best hitters mid-season. Unable to fill the offensive void left by Davis, the Buffaloes found Bryant, who was playing on the Dragons minor league team. After seeing Bryant blast a home run in a minor league game, the Buffaloes offered to purchase his contract. The Dragons minor league staff was opposed to the trade, but regulations allowed for only two non-Japanese players per team, and the Dragons already had

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese baseball star

Genji Kaku Genji Kaku/Yuen-chih Kuo (Kaku Genji/Kuo Yuen-chih, 郭源治, born October 4, 1956), is a Taiwanese former professional baseball player from Taitung, Taiwan. His family comes from the Taiwanese aborigines. He obtained Japanese citizenship in ...

and slugger

Gary Rajsich Gary Louis Rajsich ( ; born October 28, 1954) is an American Major League Baseball (MLB) scout and a former professional baseball outfielder. He played all or parts of four seasons in the Majors from until , then played three additional seasons f ...

on their roster, leaving no room for Bryant. The purchase was finalized on June 28, giving birth to one of the best left-handed power hitters in Japanese baseball history. Bryant quickly established his presence with the Buffaloes, hitting 34 home runs in only 74 games to contribute to their huge comeback which put the team in a close second place to the

Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, wh ...

in 1988. Ironically, many Buffaloes home games that year were held in the

Nagoya Baseball Stadium Nagoya Stadium (ナゴヤ球場) was a stadium in Nagoya, Japan. It was primarily used for baseball and was home of the Chunichi Dragons until they moved to the Nagoya Dome The Nagoya Dome (ナゴヤドーム), known as Vantelin Dome Nagoya (� ...

, the home field of the

. Bryant played his best season in , where his 49 home runs led the Buffaloes to their third

Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consis ...

championship. He won the season MVP award that year, and also tied

Sadaharu Oh Sadaharu Oh (Japanese: , ''Ō Sadaharu''; born May 20, 1940), also known as Wang Chen-chih (), is a Japanese-born former baseball player and manager Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Ō Sadaharu"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 758. who ...

's career record for hitting 3 home runs in a game 5 times. He continued his success in subsequent seasons, and retired in after missing most of that year due to injuries. He was invited back to Japan in by manager

Akira Ogi was a professional Japanese baseball player, coach, and manager. He was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame The is a museum which includes a library, reference rooms and . It first opened in 1959 next door to Korakuen Stadium in ...

as a hitting coach for the

Orix Buffaloes The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefectur ...

. He left this job after only one year, but blasted three home runs in an inter-league home run contest during the season. Though he hit a large number of home runs throughout his career, he also struck out countless times, and holds the top four spots on the single-season strikeout records in

. Bryant was also the first player with MLB experience to strike out more than 200 times per season in both the Central League and Pacific League.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Ralph 1961 births African-American baseball players Albuquerque Dukes players American expatriate baseball players in Japan Caimanes del Sur players American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic Chunichi Dragons players Kintetsu Buffaloes players Midland Angels players Lethbridge Dodgers players Living people Los Angeles Dodgers players Major League Baseball outfielders Nippon Professional Baseball coaches Nippon Professional Baseball designated hitters Nippon Professional Baseball MVP Award winners People from Fort Gaines, Georgia San Antonio Dodgers players Vero Beach Dodgers players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople