Victor Starffin ( rus, Виктор Константинович Старухин, Viktor Konstantinovich Starukhin, 1 May 1916 – 12 January 1957), nicknamed , was a Japanese baseball player. While playing in Japan, he became the first professional pitcher in Japan to win 300 games. With 83 career shutouts, he ranks number one all-time in Japanese professional baseball.Wilbert, Warren N. ''The Shutout in Major League Baseball: A History'' (McFarland, 2013), p. 108.

Biography

Early years

Victor (or Viktor) Starffin (Starukhin) was born in 1916 in

Nizhny Tagil Nizhny Tagil ( rus, Нижний Тагил, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj tɐˈgʲil) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located east of the boundary between Asia and Europe. Population: History The prehistor ...

, in the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through European ...

region of what was then the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, but after the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

he moved with his family to northern

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

, where he attended

Asahikawa is a city in Kamikawa Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital of the subprefecture, and the second-largest city in Hokkaido, after Sapporo. It has been a core city since April 1, 2000. The city is currently well known for the Asahiy ...

Higashi High School. Starffin wanted to get into

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

, but he was scouted by Matsutaro Shoriki in the autumn of

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

as a member of the national baseball team for an exhibition game against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. At that time, the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

had a regulation stating that high school baseball players who played professionally forfeited their eligibility to enter higher education, so Starffin was reluctant to turn pro. However, he and his family had entered Japan on transit visas, and his father, Konstantin Starffin, was in jail awaiting trial on charges of

involuntary manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th c ...

, both of which put the family at risk of

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

. Shoriki effectively

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

ed Starffin, stating that if Starffin refused to play professionally, Shoriki would use his connections with the ''

Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are t ...

'' to publicise the details of Konstantin Starffin's case.

Tōkyō Kyojingun/Yomiuri Giants

Starffin was signed by the Tōkyō Kyojingun (now the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

), outside the draft, in 1936, and played for them until 1944. He was one of the premier pitchers in the

Japanese baseball Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 and is Japan's most popular participatory and spectator sport. The first professional competitions emerged in the 1920s. The highest level of baseball in Japan is Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), which ...

"dead-ball era" (pre-1945), when many of Japan's best players were serving in the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

. He won two MVP awards and a

Best Nine award The Best Nine Award is awarded annually to the best player at each position in both the Central League and Pacific League of Japanese professional baseball as determined by a pool of journalists. History While the Best Nine Award was first presen ...

, and won at least 26 games in six different years, winning a league record 42 games in 1939. He followed his record-setting 1939 performance with another 38 wins in 1940.

World War II

In 1940, as xenophobia increased in Japan, Starffin was forced to change his name to Suda Hiroshi. Later, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, wartime paranoia resulted in Starffin being placed in a detention camp

Whiting, Robert Robert Whiting (born October 24, 1942) is a best-selling author and journalist who has written several books on contemporary Japanese culture - which include topics such as baseball and American gangsters operating in Japan. He was born in New Jer ...

. ''You Gotta Have Wa'' (Vintage Departures, 1989), p. 47. at

Karuizawa is a resort town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 20,323 in 9897 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Karuizawa is one of the oldest and most ...

with diplomats and other foreign residents.

Post-war career

After a brief period working as an interpreter for the U.S. Occupation authorities (

SCAP SCAP may refer to: * S.C.A.P., an early French manufacturer of cars and engines * Security Content Automation Protocol * ''The Shackled City Adventure Path'', a role-playing game * SREBP cleavage activating protein * Supervisory Capital Assessment ...

), Starffin returned to professional baseball in 1946, but chose not to return to the Giants, instead signing a contract with a new team, the Pacific Baseball Club, owned by

Komajiro Tamura Komajirō Tamura (February 21, 1904–January 21, 1961) was a Japanese businessman and Professional baseball in Japan, professional baseball team owner. Tamura was a textile manufacturer, and owner of, among others, Taiyo Rayon and of Lucky Gol ...

. Pacific's contracts with several famous players, including Starffin, led to a serious conflict, and Pacific was forced to forfeit four games. However, this decision ultimately resulted in Starffin's old team the Giants losing the first Japanese championship after World War II, as one of Pacific's forfeited games had been a loss to Great Ring (now the

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...

): the change from a loss to a win gave Great Ring the title over the Giants. Starffin stayed with Pacific in 1947, which became known as the

Taiyo Robins The Shochiku Robins were a Japanese baseball team that played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The franchise originated in the Japanese Baseball League (NPB's predecessor) and existed from 1936–1953, when it merged with the Taiyo Whales. ...

. In 1948 he moved to Tamura's other team, the Kinsei/

Daiei Stars The were a Japanese professional baseball team that was founded in 1946, and played in various incarnations until 1957, when it merged with another team. Overall, the franchise only had three winning seasons, never rising higher than third place ...

, staying with that franchise through 1953 (although Tamura sold the team to

Daiei Film Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, producing ...

after the 1948 season). Starffin finally signed with the Takahashi/Tombow Unions (a forerunner of the

Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural ...

) in 1954–55. In

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

, his last season, he became the first career 300-game winner in Japanese professional baseball. He retired in

with a career record of 303 wins and 176 losses.

Retirement

After retirement, he became an actor and presenter of radio programs.

Death

In 1957, Starffin was killed in a traffic accident when the car he was driving was hit by a tram on the Tōkyū Tamagawa Line (now replaced by the

Tōkyū Den-en-toshi Line The is a major commuter line operated by the private railway operator Tokyu Corporation and connecting south-western suburbs of Tokyo and neighbouring Kanagawa Prefecture, with its western terminus of , to a major railway junction of western d ...

) in

Setagaya, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood and administrative district within the ward. The ward calls itself Setagaya City in English. Its official bird is the azure-winged magpie, its flower is the fringed orch ...

. The exact circumstances of the incident are debated to this day, with speculation ranging from a simple accident to suicide or drunk driving. Starffin is buried in

Tama Cemetery in Tokyo is the largest municipal cemetery in Japan. It is split between the cities of Fuchu and Koganei within the Tokyo Metropolis. First established in April 1923 as , it was redesignated Tama Cemetery in 1935. It is one of the largest green a ...

in Tokyo.

Tributes

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

, he became the first foreigner 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 Tokyo, Japan. In 1988, the museum moved to a new site within the Tokyo Dome. The Hall of Fame and Museum was created as a ...

. Asahikawa City has nicknamed its municipal baseball stadium, as Asahikawa Starffin Stadium, since 1984.

Personal life

Starffin spoke fluent

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and was said to be "more Japanese than Japanese" with respect for his in-laws, but he was worried that his friends would never cross the line with the labels "foreigner" and "exile". It was said to be the case. Therefore, he went to the

Orthodox church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church * Oriental Orthodox Churches * Orthodox Presbyterian Church * Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand * State church of the Roman Empire * True Orthodox church See also * Orthodox (di ...

" Nikolai-do" in

Ochanomizu is a neighborhood in Tokyo, Japan. It extends from the Yushima section of Bunkyo-ku to the Kanda section of Chiyoda-ku. Sundai Preparatory School, Meiji University, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and Juntendo University all have main ca ...

(neighborhood in Tokyo) where other Russians emigrants gathered. He searched for friends and even found a bride.ナターシャ・スタルヒン著「ロシアから来たエース」（PHP文庫）. "Ace from Russia" by Natasha Starhin (PHP Bunko).

Family

In 1939 Starukhin married a Russian emigrant, Elena. In 1941, their first-born son was born.Bjarkman, Peter C. Victor Starffin . Baseball Biography Project (eng.) . Society for American Baseball Research . Date of treatment July 25, 2020. After staying in the Karuizawa camp, Elena filed for divorce and left with Bolovyov for the United States, leaving her seven-year-old son Starukhina. The second wife was a Japanese woman Kunie in 1950, whom they met on Christmas at the Russian Club in Tokyo in 1948. She took care of his son, and they had two daughters.Natalia Vakhonina. "A Hollywood director makes a film about a Tagil citizen " Between the lines news agency (September 17, 2013). Date of treatment July 25, 2020. After the death of her husband, Kunie worked several jobs to support her family.

Professional Statistics

*Bold = lead league

References

External links

*
Jim Albright's analysis of Starffin's candidacy for the American Baseball Hall of Fame

{{DEFAULTSORT:Starffin, Victor 1916 births 1957 deaths People from Nizhny Tagil People from Verkhotursky Uyezd Russian exiles White Russian emigrants to Japan Japanese baseball players Russian baseball players Yomiuri Giants players Shochiku Robins players Daiei Stars players Takahashi Unions players Expatriate baseball players in Japan Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Road incident deaths in Japan World War II civilian prisoners held by Japan Sportspeople from Sverdlovsk Oblast