Eiichiro Yamamoto

Eiichiro Yamamoto was Japan’s key representative who served the International Baseball Association (1st Vice President in the 1970s) and worked diligently to develop the growth of baseball since the 1950s. Known as “Yammy,” he was inducted into three Baseball Halls of Fame – Japan in 1997, Cuba and Nicaragua. After playing baseball at Keio University of the Tokyo Big 6 League and the Japanese Industrial League, Yamamoto served as a naval officer during World War II. Following his military service as colonel in the Japanese Navy, he became an umpire for collegiate and industrial baseball leagues. In 1975, his keen administrative ability led him to a position as President of Japan Baseball Federation. Yamamoto was in attendance in Los Angeles for the important Extraordinary Baseball Congress of the Association International Baseball Amateur (AINBA) at the Biltmore Hotel, September 10-12, 1979 and was one of nearly 100 representatives who visited Dodger Stadium as a guest of Dodger President Peter O’Malley. At that meeting, the goal was to establish baseball as a demonstration sport in the 1984 Games of the XXIII Olympiad in Los Angeles with a long-term view of obtaining gold medal status in the Olympic Games.

Yamamoto also was a guest at the dedication ceremonies for “Dodger Baseball Field” at Tianjin Institute of Physical and Cultural Education in the People’s Republic of China on September 12, 1986. Peter privately built the first field dedicated to baseball in China and several baseball friends from Japan joined him for the festivities. Peter invited Yamamoto to be his guest at Dodgertown, Vero Beach, Florida and on March 8, 1988, he was introduced at Holman Stadium before the Dodgers-Baltimore Orioles exhibition game, along with other international baseball leaders.

In 1989, Yamamoto was elected the 3rd Vice President of the International Baseball Federation. At the same time, he was serving as the Vice President of the Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) since 1981. He became Chairman, BFA in 1995. Elected to 2nd Vice President of the Association International Baseball Amateur (AINBA), Yamamoto worked with Dr. Robert Smith, Peter O’Malley, Bowie Kuhn, Rod Dedeaux and others in the longtime efforts to have baseball recognized by the IOC as an Olympic sport. Yamamoto was a special guest of Peter O’Malley when baseball was a demonstration sport with an eight-team exhibition tournament at Dodger Stadium in 1984. But, it wasn’t until 1992 when they saw their dream come true in Barcelona, Spain, as baseball debuted as a gold medal sport in the Olympic Games. Yamamoto advocated opportunities for women’s baseball and encouraged the use of a rubber ball as opposed to a hard ball for safety. He formed an alliance to bring together Asian countries to host baseball tournaments. In later years, he was passionate about baseball in Latin America and Cuba. In a late-in-life interview for www.nagase-kenko.com, Yamamoto said, “My life work has been to make baseball as the true international sport.” He passed away on May 26, 2006.