page_title: Victor Starffin
section_title: Post-war career
hierarchical_section_title: Victor Starffin / Biography / Post-war career
caption_attribution_description: A baseball player from Russia, Victor Starffin（ヴィクトル・スタルヒン）
context_page_description: Victor Starffin, nicknamed "the blue-eyed Japanese", was an ethnic Russian baseball player in Japan and the first professional pitcher in Japan to win three hundred games. With 83 career shutouts, he ranks number one all-time in Japanese professional baseball.
context_section_description: After a brief period working as an interpreter for the U.S. Occupation authorities (SCAP), Starffin returned to professional baseball in 1946, but chose not to return to the Giants, instead signing a contract with a new team, the Pacific, an offshoot of the team now known as the Yokohama BayStars. The Pacific's contracts with several famous players, including Starffin, led to a serious conflict, and Pacific was forced to forfeit four games. However, this decision ultimately resulted in the Giants losing the first Japanese championship after World War II, as one of Pacific's forfeited games had been a loss to Great Ring (now the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks): the change from a loss to a win gave Great Ring the title over the Giants.
  Starffin also played for the Shochiku Robins (now the Yokohama BayStars) in 1947, and the Kinsei/Daiei Stars (now the Chiba Lotte Marines) after 1948. He finally signed with the Takahashi/Tombow Unions (a forerunner of the Chiba Lotte Marines) in 1954-55. In 1955, his last season, he became the first career 300-game winner in Japanese professional baseball. He retired in 1955 with a career record of 303 wins and 176 losses.
caption: Starffin was the first pitcher to win 300 games in Japanese baseball
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