By Stan "The Fan" CharlesI remember as a kid, once in a great while getting the opportunity to watch Japanese baseball on TV. I think I almost had to exclusively watch it on ABC's Wide World of Sports. I always romanticized about the small changes in the game -- the netting to keep fans safe from hard-hit foul balls and perhaps save on the cost of baseballs. The other changes were with the look of the field, how many of the infields didn't have grass, and, if I recall correctly, the dirt lane from the pitching rubber to home plate.Currently, the Diamondbacks' Chase Field is the only American stadium to have that bowling alley look. But back then on TV, it was different, and it was cool.It was also cool that some of my favorite players, such as the Orioles' Jim Gentile and the Senators' Don Blasingame, once deemed unworthy to play in the big leagues, could go over to Japan and add an extra 1-2 years to their careers.Nowadays, that tradition has been turned on its head a bit, as struggling younger U.S. players may go over to Japan to jump-start their careers. Such was the case with Cecil Fielder, who was only a fair to middling type of first baseman/designed hitter with the Blue Jays, and yet, after 2-3 years in Japan, was transformed into a major slugger with the Tigers.Repeating his feat more or less was a young pitcher by the name of Colby Lewis, who after a couple of seasons in Japan was able to help the Rangers, his original club. Lewis was a key member of the Texas rotation when it made back-to-back World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011.At the same time, several Japanese or Korean players began to be impact players: Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, Chan Ho Park and Hideki Matsui, to name just a few.The Orioles weren't playing in that sandbox. In fact, the Orioles barely made any effort outside the U.S. borders to scout and develop players. Although former general manager Pat Gillick talked about turning on the pipeline of Latin American and Cuban players, the real effort began under ex-president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail, That effort now continues, to a larger degree, with MacPhail's successor, executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette.The first-ever Japanese player to play in the United States was a left-handed relief specialist by the name of Masanori "Mashi" Murakami, who pitched for the San Francisco Giants in 1964. It was not until the year 2009 that Koji Uehara became the first Orioles player of Asian descent.MacPhail signed Uehara to a three-year contract, which had a club option for a fourth season. As was the case with many Orioles during the 1998-2011 period, Uehara was a bust during his first season in Baltimore, pitching to a 4.05 ERA during 12 mostly short and horrid starts in 2009. Uehara was 34 at the time, and it looked as if the Orioles had signed a guy past his prime.Then, in 2010, a funny thing happened: Uehara got healthy, and the Orioles used him exclusively out of the bullpen. He started out as a middle-innings guy, quickly began to get into games in the seventh and eighth innings and later had a brilliant -- but short -- run as the closer. He recorded 13 saves while tossing 44 innings and posting an ERA of 2.86 and a WHIP of 0.95.The Orioles didn't leave anything to chance for the 2011 season and brought in Kevin Gregg to be the closer, because, in part, there were fears about Uehara being too frail to work on back-to-back days -- mandatory for a closer.But the 2011 Uehara was so good in his first 47 innings, he posted a 1.72 ERA and a WHIP of 0.70, and playoff contenders started to keep an eye on him. And so it was that before the July 31 trading deadline, the O's shipped their heartbroken reliever (Uehara had fallen in love with his first U.S. home, and in fact, he and his family still live in Baltimore) to Texas for right-handed pitcher Tommy Hunter and a guy you may have heard of, first baseman Chris Davis.During the last two months of the 2011 season in Texas, Uehara was not the Uehara who had wowed people in Baltimore in 2010 and the first four months of 2011. He pitched 18 innings and had an ERA of 4.00, with a WHIP of 0.78.The Rangers exercised their club option on Uehara for 2012, and in 36 innings he pitched to a 1.75 ERA and 0.64 WHIP. But his innings total (36) was a downer, as he battled through a variety of ailments.There was talk of the O's trying to bring Uehara back as a free agent for the 2013 season. But then the Red Sox came in and blew the tire kickers away with a one-year, $4.25 million contract with a vesting option for 2014 at $5 million.As many of you know, down went Boston closer No. 1 Joel Hanrahan by May 1. Then down went No. 2, Andrew Bailey, first for poor performance and then, by the middle of July, he was done for the year and needed surgery on his shoulder. At the age of 38, Uehara has been a dominant closer, throwing 68.2 innings and posting an ERA of 1.18, while allowing 30 hits and nine walks. He's struck out 95 batters, and his WHIP keeps getting lower as his age gets higher: 0.57.For their part, the Orioles did magnificently well in the Uehara trade. The only thing that might have made it perfect was if they had re-signed Uehara for 2013. Imagine what he could have done with the problems current O's closer Jim Johnson has had -- 46 saves out of 55 opportunities thus far in 2013, after converting 51 of 54 save opportunities in 2012.Duquette, within weeks of his signing on as executive vice president of baseball operations, focused like a laser beam on Asia and signed both Wei-Yin Chen and Tsuyoshi Wada, two left-handed starting pitchers who had pitched in the Japanese baseball league in 2011. Chen was signed for three years and Wada two years.Unfortunately for the O's, Wada has not pitched a single inning with the big league club, but has come back strong from his 2012 Tommy John surgery and is waiting in the wings. He could be activated for a must-win start in Tampa during the next few days.Chen, who is Taiwanese, has posted a record of 19-18 with a 4.01 ERA in 314.1 innings pitched during his two seasons in Baltimore. The interesting thing about Chen is if you break down his starts inning by inning, his ERA is probably in the high 1s or low 2s in the first five innings, and then quickly shoots up to the high 5s and 6s in innings six and seven.Because of the contributions of Uehara and Chen and the potential of Wada, the Orioles' limited efforts in Asia have paid off in a big way.Posted Sept. 18, 2013