My Take
Don Blasingame — "Blazer" — is one of those guys who deserves way more name recognition than he gets. A slick-fielding second baseman out of Corinth, Mississippi, he spent over a decade in the majors with five clubs, including some solid years as the Cardinals' everyday second sacker in the late 1950s. But honestly, what makes Blasingame genuinely fascinating to me is what came after: he crossed the Pacific and made a real go of it in Japanese baseball during the 1960s, well before that kind of move became a recognized career path. To do that — leave everything familiar, adapt to a completely different baseball culture and language — took a quiet kind of courage that rarely makes highlight reels. He passed away in 2005 at 72, but his life reads like a testament to loving the game more than the spotlight.
Overview
Donald Lee Blasingame (March 16, 1932 – April 13, 2005), nicknamed "Blazer", was an American professional baseball player. He played as a second baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1955–1959), San Francisco Giants (1960–1961), Cincinnati Reds (1961–1963), Washington Senators (1963–1966), and Kansas City Athletics (1966).
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Don Blasingame
- Name (Japanese)
- ドン・ブラッシンゲーム
- Reading
- どん・ぶらっしんげーむ
- Born
- March 16, 1932 – April 13, 2005
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Pisces / Monkey
- Origin
- Corinth, Mississippi, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- 177 cm
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- baseball player
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.