Note: This is an article I found from 1949.

Japanese Battery Ready to Work for California Nine

This distinction was held today by the Modesto Reds, home owned club of the class California Baseball League.

The first of the Nisei battery to arrive was Henry "Hank" Matsubu, College of Idaho student, picked up by Dave Herman, scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates with whom the Modesto Reds have a player agreement.

Matsubu, a catcher, had a batting average of .300 with the Idaho college, winner of the 1948 Pacific Northwest conference title with a record of 21 victories to six losses.

The pitching side of the battery also arrived. He is Jiro Nakamura of Mountain View, Cal., who played with the San Mateo, Cal. Junior college this spring. He is 19 years old, weighs 165 pounds and is five feet, nine inches tall.

Matsubu, who has been playing as a pinch hitter and pinch fielder as well as catching in about the 10 games he has played since reporting for the Modesto Reds, is hitting .134 currently. He said he has played just about every position there is on a ball team while in high school and college.

Matsubu began playing at Corbett, Ore. high school, but moved with his family to the Hunt, Idaho, relocation center during the war where he finsihed high school. He pitched two one-hitters and one no hit game while on his high school team. After high school he spent 19 months in the Army special services division at Ft. Lawrence, Wash, where he was a member of the Ft. Lawrence Warriors, winners of the Sixth Army baseball championship.

Matsubu, now 21, says he plans to return to Idaho college after the current season.

Sports writers who "interviewed" Nakamura on his arrival describe the rookie pitcher as one of the least talkative baseball players they have ever interviewed.