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East Asia Baseball had two no-doubt first ballot Hall of Fame inductees for the 1980 class. Both were big slugging first basemen with Chu Park receiving 99.3% and Kakuzo Yokoyama getting 98.6%. Only one other player cracked 50% in 1980 with 2B Su-Yeon Park at 53.6% for his fourth attempt. No players were dropped after ten ballots.



Chu Park – First Baseman/Designated Hitter – Pyongyang Pythons – 99.3% First Ballot

Chu Park was a 6’3’’, 200 pound left-handed first baseman from Namyangju, a city of around 700,000 people located just northeast of Seoul. Park was a prolific home run hitter who also was a great contact hitter with an above average eye. He smacked 40+ home runs and 100+ RBI both in 10 different seasons. Park also got you around 25-35 doubles/triples per year and had solid baserunning skills despite below average speed. He was a career first baseman and was viewed as weak defensively, but not awful. He made about 3/5s of his starts at first with the rest as a DH. Park was also an intelligent and hardworking player, making him very popular and successful.

Park was a player signed as a teenage amateur free agent after being spotted by scouts from Pyongyang. He went north and made his debut at age 21 in 1955, although he wasn’t a starter until 1957. He’d be the full-time guy at 1B from there onward in a 14 year tenure with the Pythons, who emerged as the premiere dynasty in East Asia Baseball in the 1960s. Pyongyang won the Korea League North Division in nine straight seasons from 1961-69, winning the KL title seven times and the EAB championship six times (61, 62, 65, 66, 67, 68).
Park was a huge part of this success, leading Korea in runs scored thrice, hits once, home runs twice, RBI thrice, total bases twice, batting average once, OBP twice, slugging thrice, OPS thrice, and WAR once. Park won eight Silver Sluggers (58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 67). He was third in MVP voting in 1958, then won the award for the first time in 1959 with a 67 home run, 151 RBI, 11.1 WAR season. This set the single-season home run record in EAB, which held for 13 seasons. His was only the sixth season of 150+ RBI to that point.

Park won his second MVP in 1961 with 65 home runs, 135 RBI, 11.0 WAR, a career best .356 average and 135 runs; the sixth most runs a season to that point. Park would only win MVP twice, but he’d finish second again in 1965. He had nine seasons of 6+ WAR and continued to put up impressive stats as Pyongyang’s dynasty commenced. Over 66 playoff games in his career, he had 67 hits, 39 runs, 17 home runs, 43 RBI, and 2.4 WAR. Park won the 1961 KLCS MVP and the 1965 East Asian Championship MVP. While dominating in the North, he also played for the South in the World Baseball Championship from 1958-69. In 159 games, he had 130 hits, 95 runs, 55 home runs, 98 RBI, and 7.0 WAR.

At age 35, Park left Pyongyang and entered free agency for the first time. He’d remain beloved as a legend for the Pythons and would see his #14 uniform retired. His final stats in Pyongyang saw 90.6 WAR, 2206 hits, 1317 runs, 590 home runs, 1508 RBI, and a .318/.378/.644 slash. Park gave Major League Baseball a shot with a three-year contract worth $690,000 from Oklahoma City. ACL injuries would plague his three-year MLB tenure with limited effectiveness when healthy. In total with the Outlaws, he had 2.8 WAR in 302 games with 269 hits, 146 runs, 68 home runs, and 188 RBI.

Park decided to return to Korea at age 38 by signing with Changwon. He wasn’t able to find his old success in his EAB return either as his body continued to break down. He spent 1972 with the Crabs and was traded in late May 1973 to Seongnam, suffering a broken bone in his elbow that ended his season only two weeks into his Spiders tenure. They cut him and he went back to Changwon for 1974, retiring after the season at age 41.

For his EAB career, Park had 2407 hits, 1432 runs, 374 doubles, 643 home runs, 1634 RBI, a .308/.370/.622 slash, 168 wRC+, and 93.3 WAR. Including the MLB run, he had 711 home runs and 1822 RBI. He was 11^th in home runs and 10^th in EAB RBI among Hall of Famers at retirement. Park was a critical part of Pyongyang’s dynasty in the 1960s, which stands the test of time as one of the all-time impressive runs of any professional baseball team. He was an easy first ballot selection at 99.3%.



Kakuzo “Rush Hour” Yokoyama – First/Third Base – Kawasaki Killer Whales – 98.6% First Ballot

Kakuzo Yokoyama was a 6’2’’, 200 pound right-handed corner infielder from Yamaga. a small city of around 50,000 in southwest Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture. Yokoyama was an elite home run hitter who smacked 60+ home runs three times and 40+ in 12 different seasons. He was a solid contact hitter who could effectively draw walks, although he did have a high strikeout rate. Yokoyama was good for around 25 doubles per year and lacked speed to leg out too many extra bases. His defensive career was about 2/3s at first base and the rest at third where he was considered a weak defender at the former and an atrocious one at the latter. Yokoyama was a solid leader and very durable, making him one of the most popular Japanese players of the era.

His power was recognizable even while attending Chiharadai High School in Kumamoto. In the 1954 East Asia Baseball Draft, Yokoyama was picked second overall by Kawasaki, where he’d spend nearly his entire pro career. He had a few pinch hit appearances as a teenager, but mostly spent his initial years as a Killer Whale in their developmental academy. Yokoyama became a full-time starter in 1958 at age 21 and would play 130+ games each year for the next 17 seasons.

Yokoyama was a good starter immediately, but was considered elite by his third full season with 8.4 WAR and 46 home runs, earning his first Silver Slugger and a second place finish in MVP voting. He’d win the Silver Slugger again in 1962, 63, 64, and 68 and even took a Gold Glove at first base in 1972. Yokoyama won back-to-back MVPs in 1962 and 1963 with both seasons seeing 113 runs scored, 60+ home runs, 142+ RBI, and nearly 10 WAR. He’d lead the league in home runs five times and RBI four times. Yokoyama would take third in MVP voting in 1965 and second in 1968.

Kawasaki was a mid-tier team much of his run, although they would make the playoffs in 1967, 68, and 71. In 1967, the Killer Whales won the Japan League title, eventually losing in the EAB Final to the Pyongyang dynasty. In 21 playoff starts, Yokoyama had 20 hits, 12 runs, 6 home runs, and 14 RBI. He also played for Japan from 1961-73 in the World Baseball Championship; making 105 starts in 119 games with 86 hits, 72 runs, 42 home runs, 79 RBI, and 4.8 WAR.

Yokoyama’s production began to drop slightly as he entered his 30s, but he was still a solid starter. However, Kawasaki entered a rebuilding period in the early 1970s and the aging star would part ways after the 1973 season. He’d still maintain great relations with Kawasaki, who would quickly retire his #12 uniform. At age 37, he entered free agency for the first time and signed with Yokohama. His lone season with the Yellow Jackets was easily the weakest of his career, although he did cross the 2500 career hit and 1500 career RBI thresholds. Yokoyama opted to retire at age 38 following the 1974 campaign.

Yokoyama’s final stats: 2610 hits, 1520 runs, 388 doubles, 752 home runs, 1818 RBI, a .286/.352/.586 slash, 173 wRC+, and 103.1 WAR. He was the seventh EAB hitter to cross 700 career home runs and was fourth all-time at retirement. He also at retirement was fourth in RBI and ninth in hitting WAR. Yokoyama was a prolific hitter of the era and a no-doubt first ballot Hall of Fame pick at 98.6%.