Clay Breshears – A True “Veteran” of JapanBall!

As a JapanBaller, it’s fair to say that Clay Breshears has earned his stripes. More so than most.

He began his odyssey in 2014 and now counts nine trips to Japan, a couple to various parts of the U.S. west coast, and another to Alaska for the Midnight Sun Game. Three of the Japan trips were of the lengthy See-it-All variety that earned him Hall of Fame status. By his estimate, he has attended approximately 75 games in Japan and another 15 in the U.S. under the auspices of JapanBall.

While no official statistics exist, it’s likely that Breshears trails only legendary JapanBaller Leon DeHaven, who figures he’s been on 20 or so tours and seen around 100 games.

So calling Breshears a veteran JapanBaller is akin to saying Shohei Ohtani is a good baseball player. Or that Mars is far from Earth. And, you know, those Formula 1 cars are pretty fast.

Impressive. And especially so for someone whose interest in baseball came about more gradually, rather than as an all-consuming passion from the start.

“I was really more of an NFL [National Football League] guy early on,” he says. “I’ve been a Green Bay Packer fan since Super Bowl 1 [in January 1967], and I always will be.”

Still, there was room for baseball on his interest shelf. Breshears was born and raised in Spokane, WA, which was and still is home of the Spokane Indians minor league team. At the time, the club was in the AAA Pacific Coast League and was the top affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

“An aunt and uncle took us to a game,” he said, “and we had a really good time, so we started going more often. Baseball has been interesting to me ever since, although I like the game itself more than getting into the history and statistics like some people do, and I’m not particularly a fan of any specific team.”

He did, though, become at least a follower of the Chicago Cubs in the early 1990s. While working on his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Tennessee, he was a guest at the home of a friend who subscribed to cable TV and watched a Cubs game on Chicago’s WGN superstation.

“I noticed the second baseman and thought, ‘Wow, that guy looks familiar,’” he said. The “guy” was the Cubs’ eventual Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg, who had starred in both baseball and football at the same high school Breshears had attended. From that point, he started watching games on WGN whenever possible.

After getting his degree, Breshears worked for two years at the University of Southern Mississippi and then for three-and-a-half years at Rice University, which is based in Houston. While with Rice, he continued to live in Mississippi and work remotely, but he always made time for baseball when possible.

“Some of my co-workers said ‘we should get together for a team meeting,’ so I got to fly over there,” he said. “I’d always check to see when the Cubs were going to be in Houston, and we’d go because those were the Sammy Sosa years when he was hitting home runs all over the place. I also would go to games when we had conferences in other MLB cities, like Atlanta and Minneapolis. Whenever we got the chance on a business trip, I’d catch a game.”

Afterward, Breshears went to work for Intel in Champaign, IL, and spent 12 years there before moving within the company to Hillsboro, Oregon, near Portland, in 2012. He first learned of JapanBall during his time in Illinois while browsing the Internet for information on Anime, another of his interests. But it wasn’t until he moved to Oregon that he went on his first tour.

“Oregon was four hours closer to Asia,” he said with a laugh, “so I decided to do it. I went on one of the partial tours – not a See it All – and I realized maybe after the third game that it was really a ‘baseball tour,’ not just a tourist thing, and I’ve loved it ever since. There is always enough free time to do other things.”

In addition to Anime, he also interested in Manga and Shogi, a Japanese chess game. He has seen museums in Japan dedicated to them, as well as a festival held in Tendo each April that celebrates Shogi. He is a particular fan of manga artist Osamu Tezuka and has visited a museum in the Osaka area dedicated to his work. 

One regret is that he has yet to see the Unko Museum – translated literally as the “Poop Museum” – on Tokyo’s island of Odaiba. We were in Yokohama once, and our game got rained out,” he said. “There was a traveling exhibition that day, but I forgot about it until after we got back to our hotel. It’s not something on your average tour guide list, but it sounds interesting. 

“I have the philosophy that you can take any stop [off mass transit] and see something worthwhile. I remember one year hanging around with a couple of other people on the tour – we’d often get kind of lost but would always find something worth seeing. I remember another time when I was headed to Blue Star Donuts – a place I’d never been to, even though it’s headquartered in Portland. I got off the train, went on the stairs to go across the tracks, and found some statues based on Anime. You never know what you might find.”

Given his “veteran” status and his familiarity with Japan and how to get around, he’s also often called upon to help others find their ways around and get to places they find interesting.

“I enjoy interacting with people and sharing whatever knowledge I might have with other travelers,” he said.  Ross, whose own JapanBall resume rivals that of Breshears, said, “Clay and I were both newbies to JapanBall on the 2014 trip, but we both tried to make others feel comfortable about traveling around Japan. We would communicate and strategize. Clay is a good planner, but he’s also open to changes, and he pivots easily. He’s a problem solver.” 

Ross recalled another trip, in 2018, when a typhoon threatened to cause havoc with the itinerary.

“We had to leave Sapporo early to get back to Tokyo after the big earthquake had hit. Clay accompanied some people on the train, and I helped some others get back by plane. The airport was packed with people, so it was quite an adventure, but we all got back OK.”

Bob Bavasi, who co-founded JapanBall and led the organization for 20 years before turning it over to current president Shane Barclay, also has first-hand knowledge of Breshears’ contributions.

“I’d often ask Clay for help,” Bavasi said. “Occasionally, we’d have quite a lot people, and I’d ask him to lead part of the group. There was one time when it was raining heavily and the bullet trains had been canceled. The Tokyo station was packed – just a massive crowd – but Clay helped get the job done. He got his group where it needed to be. He’s always been the type to give a hand and help make things work.” 

That type of involvement has helped nurture friendships that last beyond the end point of any specific trip. 

“Clay and I keep up during the year,” Ross said. “It’s not unusual, as I’ve made many wonderful friends because of my trips with JapanBall.”

Dan Sheehy is another. He was also on the trip in 2014 and stays in touch with Ross and Breshears. He is able to see Breshears occasionally because he lives part-time in the Portland area. 

“When I’m in the area, we talk on the phone or text, and we also have lunch from time to time and go to [Class A Northwest League] Hillsboro Hops games,” Sheehy said. “Whenever we go to games, he has his scorebook and is very much into keeping score. He has a tremendous amount of knowledge and is willing to share that so I can enjoy the game better.

“We also meet sometimes at one of our favorite places – a series of food trucks in Beaverton, just outside of Portland. He always wears a different cap . . . He has quite a collection, though the Hanshin Tigers caps are our favorites.”

Indeed, Breshears has caps from all 12 Japanese teams, plus several from teams in the Australian Baseball League (ABL), MLB teams, and minor league clubs.

“It’s important for him to get a cap on his trips,” Ross said with a chuckle.

Which leads to the question of what’s next. He has time, since he’s now retired following his career at Intel, a later stint with a startup technology firm, and a second tour of duty as a computer science instructor at his alma mater, Eastern Washington University. 

He recently returned from a two-week trip to Australia and benefitted from some sightseeing tips from Sheehy, who had visited there previously. There, he was able to see ABL games in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. He expects to travel on his own to see Houston Astros and Texas Rangers games in the 2025 season, and he may go to Seattle in June when a JapanBall contingent will be there prior to going to Alaska for the Midnight Sun Game. Another goal is to again see ES CON Field, the latest home of the Nippon Ham Fighters that opened in 2023, and he would eventually like to go on the JapanBall tour to the Netherlands. 

Regardless of the specifics, it’s clear that he’ll continue traveling to see baseball and whatever else he finds along the path.

“I like exploring,” he said. “You can always find something worth checking out.”