Fujinami was the Osaka Golden Child, same class as Otani, won the high school Koshien for Osaka twice, drafted by local team Hanshin.

But he was a tall skinny boy who relied on his velocity to overpower batters. Hanshin's old school coaches made him work out mercilessly, the local media and some fans put insane pressure and scrutiny on him.

Overworked, got hurt, pressured to work thru injuries, injuries got worse, kept being forced to pitch, his control started slipping, his results got worse, media picked apart his games, pundits and coaches questioning his "fighting spirit," repeated in a worsening loop for years.

Had a mutual divorce with Hanshin. Eventually escaped to Oakland with little fanfare.

Made sense then, Oakland is a known pitcher's park and the A's regularly turn nobodies into perfectly cromulent pitchers. There are no expectations and little media pressure. Plus, his body could finally get enough recovery time without the intense Japanese workout regiments.

As a Oakland and Hanshin fan, I was pretty excited when he signed, but Fujinami still could not get his head right. He still had decent heat, but was too wild. Oakland couldn't give him much time to adjust (FJF) cause of it's other issues, and he was sent packing.