Randy Bass

Randy Bass
Member of the Oklahoma Senate from the 32nd district
Incumbent
Assumed office November 2004
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Height	185 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Spouse	Kelley Bass
Occupation	politician, former baseball player

Randy Bass
First baseman
Batted: Left Threw: Right
Professional debut
MLB: September 3, 1977, for the Minnesota Twins
NPB: 1983, for the Hanshin Tigers
Last appearance
MLB: June 7, 1982, for the Texas Rangers
NPB: 1988, for the Hanshin Tigers
NPB statistics
Batting average	.337
Home runs	202
Runs batted in	486
Teams
Minnesota Twins (1977) Kansas City Royals (1978) Montreal Expos (1979) San Diego Padres (1980–1982) Texas Rangers (1982) Hanshin Tigers (1983–1988) (NPB)
Career highlights and awards
Japanese Triple Crown (1985, 1986) 1985 Central League MVP 1985 Japan Professional Sports Grand Prize

Randy William Bass (ランディ・バース) (born March 13, 1954 in Lawton, Oklahoma) is a former American baseball player and current politician. He is less notable for his career in Major League Baseball than for his success in Japan's Hanshin Tigers of Central League, where he had the most spectacular run of any American to ever play in Japan. Currently, Bass is a Democratic State Senator from Oklahoma, representing District 32 since 2004.

Baseball

Bass came up with the Minnesota Twins as a first baseman in 1977. In his six seasons in the Major Leagues (divided among five teams), he was never a day-to-day player, usually coming off the bench just to pinch hit. After his contract expired following the 1982 season, Bass signed with the Hanshin Tigers of the Central League, who made him their starting first-baseman. Bass is often credited as single-handedly turning the fortune of the Tigers which resulted in the team's run and eventual victory of the Japan Series in 1985.

Bass took advantage of the differences between Japanese and American styles of pitching, and immediately became the Tigers' star slugger. He won four consecutive league batting titles; in 1986, he nearly became the first player in Japan to bat .400, finishing the season with a .389 average, a record that still stands, despite Ichiro Suzuki's formidable challenges to it in 1994 and 2000. Bass won consecutive batting Triple Crowns (1985 and 1986), a feat no player has accomplished in the U.S. Major Leagues since the 1960s. In 1985, he was on a pace to break Sadaharu Oh's record of 55 home runs in a single season, but fell short by one, because in the last game of the season the pitcher from Oh's Yomiuri Giants threw only intentional walks (allegedly to prevent the Westerner from breaking Oh's record). In Japan, his spectacular performance is a legend and among Tigers fans; he is nearly deified, being jokingly referred in conjunction with God and Buddha, "Kami-sama (God), Hotoke-sama (Buddha), Baasu-sama (Bass)" (sama is an honorary variation of "san" similar to Sir or His holiness).

Curse of the Colonel

Bass is also famous in Japan for the "Curse of the Colonel." Following the 1985 Series victory, revelers celebrated by calling off the names of team members one by one. At each name, a fan who looked like that player would jump into the filthy Dotonbori canal. For Bass, someone threw a life-sized model of Colonel Sanders, the mascot of Kentucky Fried Chicken and the only close-at-hand likeness of a bearded American, into the river. The statue disappeared and is said to have caused the subsequent decade-long dismal performance in the Central League.

In an attempt to remove the curse, fans made repeated attempts to find the model, making offerings to the statues of the Colonel for forgiveness. In 2003, when the Tigers returned to the Japan Series after 18 years with one of the worst records in the Central League, many KFC outlets in Kōbe and Ōsaka moved their Colonel Sanders statues inside until the series was over to protect them from rabid Tigers fans. The newly replaced Colonel Sanders statue in the Dotonbori KFC branch was bolted down to prevent a repeat of the incident.

On March 10, 2009, the top half of the statue (minus hands and legs) originally thrown into the Dotonbori River was recovered during construction of a walkway. A diver said that he had thought he had found a large barrel, but was surprised when it turned out to be the upper body of the Colonel. The statue's legs and right hand were recovered the following day. The statue is still missing its glasses and left hand. The statue of Colonel Sanders is currently in a KFC franchise across the street from Koshien Stadium.

After baseball

After his 1988 retirement, Bass became active in community projects to promote baseball in his native state, while continuing to make trips to Japan as a cultural ambassador. Bass was elected to the Oklahoma State Senate as a Democrat in 2004. He was re-elected in 2006. In the Senate he serves as the Co-Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee Natural Resources and Regulatory Services. He also sits on the Appropriations, Retirement and Insurance, General Government and, Judiciary Committees.

Name spelling

Though the name Bass would conventionally be transcribed バス Basu in Japanese, Randy Bass is known as バース Bāsu (pronounced [baːsɯ̥]). The Hanshin Tigers requested the change because the owner of the team, Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., directly owned a bus operation in those days (currently owned by Hanshin Bus Co., Ltd.). Because "bus" is written exactly the same as Bass in Japanese ('basu'), the Tigers worried that Japanese media might create headlines such as "Bus unstoppable" (consecutive hits), "Bus explodes" (home run) or "Bus crash" (if he slumps), which would have a negative impact to the corporate image of Hanshin Bus.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs
• Oklahoma State Senate page
• The Curse of Bass
• Lawton Politics
• Sen. Bass official Bio
• City of Lawton official Webpage