finalyear bats birth_place debutyear finaldate statvalue position finalteam statlabel debutdate birth_date article_title debutteam name throws
1987 right honolulu , hawaii 1977 june 28 .230 25 109 second baseman new york yankees batting average home runs runs batted in june 21 8 june 1954 lenn sakata
 milwaukee brewers lenn sakata right
lenn sakata

lenn haruki sakata -lrb- born june 8 , 1954 in honolulu , hawaii -rrb- is a former professional baseball player who played in the major leagues primarily as a utility player from 1977 to 1987 and was a member of the baltimore orioles 1983 world series championship team .
he was the second asian american to play major league baseball .
he is yonsei -lrb- fourth-generation american of japanese ancestry -rrb- .
sakata graduated from kalani high school in 1971 .
sakata played college baseball for the gonzaga bulldogs of gonzaga university in spokane , washington .
sakata began 1981 as a reserve and missed time in may due to a sprained ankle .
in september , he took over the shortstop position , replacing longtime oriole shortstop mark belanger .
sakata was humble about this , saying , `` i never looked at myself as the next mark belanger .
it would have been pointless and arrogant for anybody to feel that way . ''
he was the starting shortstop for the orioles when cal ripken , jr. , began his consecutive games played streak .
when manager earl weaver decided to shift ripken to short at the beginning of july , 1982 , he moved sakata to third , keeping sakata in the lineup .
sakata was the catcher -lrb- a position he did not usually play -rrb- when tippy martinez picked three toronto blue jays off first base in the tenth inning of the august 24 , 1983 game at baltimore 's memorial stadium .
the orioles had replaced their starting catcher and his backup while rallying to tie the game in the ninth inning .
three consecutive blue jays hitters reached first base and each one , thinking it would be easy to steal a base on sakata , took a big lead .
martinez picked off all three base runners .
sakata hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the tenth to win the game .
after his playing career ended , sakata began coaching in the minor league system .
he has served as manager of the modesto a 's -lrb- 1989 -rrb- , san jose giants -lrb- 1999 , 2001 , 2004 -- 2007 -rrb- , bakersfield blaze -lrb- 2000 -rrb- , and fresno grizzlies -lrb- 2002 -rrb- .
on may 31 , 2007 sakata notched his 527th victory as a california league manager , setting the record for lifetime wins .
sakata became the farm team manager of the chiba lotte marines in japan in 2008 .
he returned to american baseball in 2011 , becoming the hitting coach for asheville tourists -lrb- low-a -rrb- .
after managing the modesto nuts from 2012-2013 , sakata rejoined the san jose giants in 2014 and was succeeded on january 10 , 2015 by russ morman taking over as manager beginning the 2015 season .
sakata was selected by cnn sports illustrated as one of the 50 greatest sports figures in hawai'i history and is a member of the hawaii sports hall of fame located in the bishop museum .
sakata owns a small chain of high-end independent grocery stores in the fresno , california area .
