Victor Starffin

Viktor Starukhin (Виктор Константинович Старухин, 1 May 1916 – 12 January 1957), nicknamed "the blue-eyed Japanese" (青い目の日本人), or more commonly known as Victor Starffin, 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.

Early years
Viktor Starukhin (also known as Victor Starffin) was born in 1916 in Nizhny Tagil, in the Urals region of what was then the Russian Empire, but after the Russian Revolution he moved with his family initially to Harbin, Manchuria, then eventually settling in Asahikawa, Hokkaidō, where he attended Asahikawa Higashi High School. Initially bullied due to him not being Japanese, Starukhin eventually studied the language well, and was also very athletic, so much so that he would still win a 100-meter dash, even if his classmates got a 20 meter head start. This had been partly due to his size. Specifically, he stood at 6 feet (180cm) by the age of 11. He was also good at baseball, having discovered the sport after moving to Japan. His tall height mixed well with baseball, as his skill allowed him to use it as a way to connect and make friends with his classmates, and it also allowed him to distance himself from the issue of his family issues of his father, Konstantine Starukhin, resorting to heavy alcohol drinking.

Initially, Starukhin was scouted by Koyo Gakuin High School in Nishinomiya, but other schools complained about it, as they weren't on the idea of a foreigner pitching for them, so he joined Asahikawa Higashi's baseball team, helping them to 2 consecutive finals of the Hokkaido tournament of the Japanese High School Baseball Championship, failing both times to qualify for Summer Koshien.

Starukhin wanted to get into Waseda University, but he was scouted by Matsutaro Shoriki in the autumn of 1934 as a member of the national baseball team for an exhibition game against the United States. At that time, the Ministry of Education had a regulation stating that high school baseball players who played professionally forfeited their eligibility to enter higher education, so Starukhin was reluctant to turn pro. However, he and his family had entered Japan on transit visas, and his father, Konstantin Starukhin, was in jail awaiting trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, as he had murdered a co-worker of his wife due to political indifferences between both parties, and because of that, he was able to claim he killed her due to him thinking she was a spy sent by the Soviet government to monitor Russian refugees in Hokkaido. Shoriki effectively blackmailed Starukhin, stating that if Starukhin refused to play professionally, Shoriki would use his connections with the Yomiuri Shimbun to publicise the details of Konstantin Starukhin's case, therefore deporting him and his mother back to Russia, and likely to be arrested by the NKVD due to his father's political alignment.

Tōkyō Kyojingun/Yomiuri Giants
Starukhin was signed by the Tōkyō Kyojingun (now the Yomiuri Giants), outside the draft, in 1936, and played for them until 1944. He was one of the premier pitchers in the Japanese baseball "dead-ball era" (pre-1945), when many of Japan's best players were serving in the Imperial Japanese Army. He won two MVP awards and a Best Nine award, 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. He also became the first foreign player in NPB history to throw a no-hitter, doing so against the Korakuen Eagles on July 3, 1937.

World War II
In 1940, as xenophobia increased in Japan, Starukhin was forced to change his name to Suda Hiroshi. Later, during World War II, wartime paranoia resulted in Starukhin being placed in a detention camp at Karuizawa with diplomats and other foreign residents.

Post-war career
After a brief period working as an interpreter for the U.S. Occupation authorities (SCAP), Starukhin 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. Pacific's contracts with several famous players, including Starukhin, led to a serious conflict, and Pacific was forced to forfeit four games. However, this decision ultimately resulted in Starukhin'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 change from a loss to a win gave Great Ring the title over the Giants.

Starukhin stayed with Pacific in 1947, which became known as the Taiyo Robins. In 1948 he moved to Tamura's other team, the Kinsei/Daiei Stars, staying with that franchise through 1953 (although Tamura sold the team to Daiei Film after the 1948 season). Starukhin finally signed with the Takahashi/Tombow Unions (a forerunner of the Chiba Lotte Marines) in 1954–55. In 1955, his last season, he became the first career 300-game winner in Japanese professional baseball. Originally, it was thought that Starukhin recorded his 300th win against the Kintetsu Pearls at Kawasaki Stadium on July 28, 1955. However, due to NPB rules on pitcher wins pre-war, it was only considered his 298th. He would get his actual 300th win on the 9th of September against his former Daiei Stars team at Nishinokyogoku Stadium in Kyoto City. When asked what he wanted to do next, Starukhin stated he wanted to get 2,000 career strikeouts and 100 shutouts before ending his baseball career. He never got to do so, due to him being forced to retire as after a 7-21 record in 1955, he was cut from the Unions and no other team wanted to sign him, despite him stating he was willing to also pitch for free. He retired in 1955 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, Starukhin 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) in Setagaya, Tokyo on his way to a high school reunion with his classmates from Asahikawa Higashi High School. The exact circumstances of the incident are debated to this day, with speculation ranging from a simple accident to suicide or drunk driving.

Starukhin is buried in Tama Cemetery in Tokyo. He was the first player to be honored in a funeral where former teammates of his shared stories of his time playing with them.

Tributes
In 1960, he became the first foreigner elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

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

Personal life
Starukhin spoke fluent Japanese 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 "Nikolai-do" in Ochanomizu (neighborhood in Tokyo) where other Russians emigrants gathered. He searched for friends and even found a bride.

Family
In 1939 Starukhin married a Russian emigrant, Elena. In 1941, their first-born son was born. 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. After the death of her husband, Kunie worked several jobs to support her family.

Professional Statistics
*Bold = lead league