All but unknown in Japan prior to his selection to the Samurai Japan team for the World Baseball Classic, major leaguer Lars Nootbaar is aiming to make a name for himself in the country of his roots by helping the squad in its quest for global supremacy.
Nootbaar is the first-ever Japanese-American player to be named to a Japanese national team, and family on both sides of the Pacific look for him to serve as a "bridge between Japanese and American baseball" in the tournament, in which the Tokyo Pool started on Thursday.
An outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, Nootbaar was born and raised in a Los Angeles suburb by an American father, Charlie, and Japanese mother, Kumiko, who is from Higashi-Matsuyama, Saitama Prefecture. He speaks little Japanese, but can handle chopsticks well enough to eat the traditional Japanese dishes of natto and miso soup. Among his favorite foods is gyoza (steamed or fried dumplings).
