A 10th-round pick flew to Tokyo to get noticed. A first-time author flew that story all the way to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This one is about the outsider road.
Aaron Fischman is an award-winning sports writer and the author of A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back, the true story of pitcher Tony Barnette's six years in Japan's NPB and his MLB debut at 32. The book was named a CASEY Award finalist for Best Baseball Book of 2024 and earned Aaron a seat in the Baseball Hall of Fame author series.
In this episode of Leaders & Learners, Tonya McKenzie gets into resilience, identity, the gaijin path, and what it really costs to bet on a story nobody asked you to tell.
In this episode:
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Why an unknown pitcher made the perfect first book
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The 41 saves and 1.29 ERA the league still made him wait on
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How the 2011 Tohoku disaster shaped the story
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From blank page to CASEY Award finalist to Cooperstown
Subscribe for more conversations on leadership, media, and narrative control. New episodes drop on the channel. For the full written breakdown, read CTRL the Narrative on Substack.
Guest: Aaron Fischman | aaronfischman.com | @byAaronFisch on X and Instagram
Host: Tonya McKenzie, Founder of Sand & Shores | sandandshores.com | tmckenzie@sandandshores.com
#Baseball #JapaneseBaseball #ABaseballGaijin #SportsBooks #CTRLtheNarrative #LeadersAndLearners #TonyBarnette #HallOfFame #SportsMedia #Resilience