Lenn Sakata

[Michael Trzinski]

The little Asian American from Hawaii was a good enough player that he spent 11 seasons in the major leagues and was also an astute baseball man who coached or managed in the A’s, Angels, Giants, and Rockies organizations for nearly 20 years. He also coached and managed in Japan.

Lenn Haruki Sakata was born in Honolulu and attended college at Gonzaga University. After choosing not to sign with San Francisco (1972) and San Diego (1974), he signed with Milwaukee in 1975 as the 10^th pick in the secondary phase of the January draft.

The 5-foot-9 infielder spent a season at Double-A Thetford Mines and one-plus seasons at Triple-A Spokane before getting called up to Milwaukee in July 1977. He made 15 straight starts at second base for Milwaukee in July/early August and would split time at the position with Don Money. Sakata started 0-for-12 but got his first big league hit off Ron Guidry of the Yankees. Two days later he hit his first HR off Dennis Martinez of the Orioles. His batting average got as high as .216 but dropped to .162 at the end of the season after an 0-for-25 skid over the last month.

Sakata won the second base spot in 1978 and started nearly every day for the first five weeks despite batting under .200. But when Robin Yount ended his holdout in mid-May, Paul Molitor moved from shortstop to second base and Sakata was out of a job. Sakata ended with 78 at-bats and a hitting line of .192/.267/.244 with four doubles.

Even though Sakata batted .500 (7-for-14) in four games for the Brewers in 1979, he spent most of the season at Triple-A Vancouver. He requested a trade after the season and was dealt to Baltimore in December.

Sakata played with the Orioles from 1980-1985. In 1981, he took over the shortstop position from eight-time Gold Glover Mark Belanger. In July 1982, he was replaced by Cal Ripken, Jr., who began his long consecutive games played streak. Sakata moved to second base and had his best season offensively, setting career highs in every category.

He played just 36 games over the 1986-87 seasons with Oakland and the New York Yankees and retired from baseball before beginning his long coaching and managing career.

Sakata was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the 50 greatest sports figures in Hawaii’s history and is also a member of the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame.

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