Who is the best Gaijin ever?
You make a good case for Manuel, but when it comes to all around play on both sides of the ball I don't see how you get past Rose and Warren Cromartie purely from a player standpoint. As we're seeing this season, Rose was a lot more valuable to Yokohama than Cro was to Yomiuri (and that point in itself is debatable). Both are very very good defensive players with above average speed whereas Wells, Bass, Manuel and and the Lees were okay at best defensively but couldn't run much.
Also, while we're addressing gaijin players regardless of position, how about Victor Starfin, a Russian emigre who went on to win 303 games and became the first hurler to win more than 30 games (the first time he won 40 in fact) in Japanese baseball history? He was also the first gaijin to be inducted into Japan's Baseball Hall of Fame. And Wally Yonamine, a Japanese-American? Another early great.
And if you'll indulge me in a bit of off the wall speculation, Bass may forever haunt the Hanshin Tigers in the same way that the Japanese naval victory at Tsushima Strait over the Russian fleet haunted Japan's military in World War II. The Japanese, during that conflict, were always looking for a Tsushima-style decisive faceoff that would determine ultimate victory in an afternoon. The Hanshin Tigers are always on the lookout for a magic gaijin to be the new Bass (look at the hype over Ivan Cruz in the pre-season as an illustration). As has been pointed out, there is no silver bullet gaijin that will put you in the Japan Series since you need the supporting cast to help things along. Hanshin needs to worry more about player development at home and not look for some gaijin to be their savior who will make up for the club's obvious shortcomings. Getting the "new Bass" won't help (Seibu with Cabrera anyone?) unless you have a Kakefu or a Mayumi or an Okada to keep things rolling.
My 5 best Suketto (based on his impact on their team's success):
Charlie Manuel
Randy Bass
Bobby Rose
Daryl Spencer
Orestes Destrade
As Chiba-san wrote a few weeks ago in Shukan Baseball, one can win the division with mediocre hitting and great pitching, but not the other way around (although the Giants are trying to disprove that theory this year). So are teams really focusing their attention where it isn't really necessary? And like finding a second Bass or Boomer, where it isn't likely to meet expectations?
And with the second Bench-Boy's "impact" case, I would expect Cromartie to be in there as well. He was great at getting the crowd going with his "banzai, banzai, banzai" to the right/center field stands.
Rose wasn't a specticle like Cromartie. Very much the opposite, in fact, never show boating around the bases or to the crowd. But his play sparkled brighter than pretty much any other player I've seen on the diamond. The radio announcers never tired of talking about his great snap throws to get runners out that no other player could get. When he was tagged with an error, the announcers would often dispute it, pointing out that nobody else would have gotten close enough to even bobble the ball, so it would have been a hit with anyone else.
With all the emphisis on home runs that most teams seem to put into evaluating suketto, Rose was a fabulous exception.
One more note, though. It's pretty easy to judge the more recent players that many of us have seen play, but much more difficult to compare them to legends like Manuel, Spencer, or even Starfin. Even comparing stats doesn't cut it as 30 home runs could win a home run title one year and 40 may not even make the top 5 in another. I'm reading Fitts-san's Japanese Baseball Superstars right now, and learning a lot about players that I'd only seen before in the all time rankings. Starfin is in there, but I don't see any other suketto.
Leon Lee is my alltime favorite NPB player. (Although I've always been a Hanshin fan growing up in Yokohama.) I remember him coming to our school (YIS) to pick up his children, and he always had time to play baseball, kickball, discuss baseball with us. He would never ever lose his temper in anyway, always humble, and friendly. Not only was he a serious power hitter, but what makes him one of the great ball players of all time was his personlality. He would never complain to the umpires, even at times when he had right to do so. He let the game do the talking. One of his goals was to hit the organist in left field bleachers. He never hit the organ booth but he did manage to shatter the billboard in center field below the score board!
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Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
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But my choice for the best ever goes to Charlie Manuel of the Yakult Swallows and Kintetsu Buffaloes. ...
Manuel is currently the manager of the successful Cleveland Indians club. Manuel almost singlehandedly won Japan championship for Yakult (1978) and two Pacific League pennants for Kintetsu (1979, 1980). The amazing thing is that both teams were perennial doormats in NPB up to that point. Both Bass and Rose had great supporting casts, especially Bass who had Okada, Kakefu, Mayumi, etc. but Charlie Manuel almost did it by himself. But the most impressive episode about him was while playing for the Buffaloes, Manuel fractured his jaw when he was beaned in the face but came back wearing a football helmet. This incidence really won the Japanese people's respect. He was a truely a great baseball hero back then.
For your reference:
ALL TIME GAIJIN HR LEADERS
[by Westbaystars: Combine this with the excellent commentary by an annonymous reader and I think we have an excellent poll. Who was the best sukettor? (Cromartie translated that to mean "migrant worker" while it litterally means "helper.")]