Tom Davey

Well, what exactly are you looking for? He only played in his first game last night (July 4, 2003). He came in in the bottom of the 8th at Yokohama Stadium, just after starter Takahashi had lost the tie by giving up a pair of home runs in the 7th, so Hiroshima was down 5-3.

Davey got Nakane on a line drive to short, then gave up back to back base hits to Taneda and Furuki, Taneda's a double to right and Furuki's single driving him in. Odashima, who was a catcher I'm not familar with, yet caught the whole game, became Davey's first strike out victim. But pinch hitter Saeki drove a pitch into the left field corner that Maeda tried too hard to get, but it hit the wall just above him. By the time Maeda changed directions and got to the ball, Saeki had an RBI triple. Davey finished off his debut game by getting Ishii to ground out to second.

In all, he faced 6 batters in 1 inning of work, giving up 2 runs (both earned) on 3 hits with 1 strike out for a 18.00 ERA.

If you want to follow his stats on a daily basis, the Carp stats page will have them. It's odd that they say he hasn't faced anyone in 1 game. Checking TBS, my source, it says the same thing, so it appears to be a glitch on their side.

As for the procedure for joining the league, that's something that an agent can tell you better than I. I imagine that it goes something like, get scouted, try out, sign a contract, fly to Japan, work out at ni-gun (sounds like "knee goon" - the farm team), impress the coaches and raise to ichi-gun (the top team).

I have a feeling that that isn't quite what you were asking, but I'm not sure about how else to interpret the question.

Hope this helps.

[Old thread]

Tom was my pitching coach in high school. I am in my mid 20s now. I've followed his career pretty closely and I know he's been thrown around to a lot of teams in the MLB and ended up in Japan. What I can say about him is that he could make a great middle relief pitcher. While none of his pitches are "lights out," he can spot his fastballs and breaking balls quite well. And, while I realize he is not getting any younger, I still think if he had the opportunity to stay with one club for any extended period, he could be a spectacular set-up man, even in the Majors.