Starfin's White Russian parents fled to the Japanese island of Hokkaido following the Russian Revolution. When the first Japanese professional league was organized in 1936, young Starfin was promptly recruited. At 6'4" 230-lb, he was the biggest player in Japan for many years, and reputedly threw the hardest. With Eiji Sawamura, and later Takehiko Bessho, Starfin gave the Yomiuri Giants the best one-two pitching combinations in Japanese baseball for nearly 20 years. (MC)
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FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
»November 12, 1939:
P Victor Starfin wins his 42nd game in a 96-game season, leading the Yomiuri Giants to the pennant, and setting a post-1900 world record for season victories that will be equaled (by Kazuhisa Inao in 1961) but never broken. Starfin, the 6'4" son of Russian immigrants, was exempt from the military call-up of able-bodied Japanese. From 1936-55 he won 303 games, the first in Japanese baseball to top the 300 mark. Except for Sadaharu Oh, he is the only non-Japanese player in the Japanese baseball Hall of Fame.
»May 7, 1960:
Takehiko Bessho becomes the winningest pitcher in Japan as his Tokyo Giants beat the Hanshin Tigers 6–3. Bessho has 302 wins, one more than Victor Starfin.
»October 11, 1961: Kazuhisa "Iron Man" Inao of the Nishitetsu Lions lives up to his nickname and notches his 42nd win of the season, tying the all-time world record since 1893 set by Victor Starfin of the Yomiuri Giants in 1939. He also sets a season strikeout record by fanning 353.
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