It wasn’t long ago that the very idea for this?blog was hatched in the bleachers of?Giants/Marlins game in San Francisco. Two men, talking about their lives in Asia, enjoying a beer after missing Barry Bonds’s 754th HR by seconds.

A video came up on the stadium screen concerning outfielder Dave Roberts, talking about his Japanese mother.?Neither of us?had any idea Roberts was half-Japanese. But when you look at?his profile closely, you can see it.

To the average baseball fan this sort of thing?may be?of little interest. But for two guys?working and living in Asia,?where mixed race babies are…kinda sometimes…maybe…a cause for celebration, it’s interesting.

A recent press release touting a new program to develop?baseball in Vietnam started me wondering if there was already some field ball going on in South East Asia’s fastest growing economy.

There is a bit, but how surprised I was to find that one of my favorite players of the late 90s/early 2000s, Danny Graves, was born in Saigon to an American father and a Vietnamese mother. He is the only Vietnamese born player in major league history.

Graves is a former All-star and during the years and saved 182 games during his 11 year career. I always think of him when a team tries to convert a solid?reliever into a starter a la?Kim Byung-hyun, or?a starter into a reliever as the Phillies did this year with Brett Myers.

The reason being that Graves was a terrible starter, going 4-15 with a 5.33 ERA?during the 2003 season. Graves had a solid year back?as?a reliever in 2004 with the Reds, but then?completely bottomed out after that, bouncing around with the Mets and Indians before retiring prior to?this season.

Ouch. Ok, no longer one of my favorite players from the late 90s.

Here’s the 2003 article this photo is taken from where?Graves brags about his then new Rolls.

Brutal.