I moved to Tokyo on August 31st, 1998. It was...not the most remarkable thing that happened in Japan that summer. Less than two weeks earlier, on August 22nd, a young right hander from Yokohama High School named Daisuke Matsuzaka had thrown a no-hitter in the final of the Summer Koshien High School Tournament. It was just the second no-hitter in a championship game in the 80+ year history of the tournament, and he instantly became a household name across the country. Over the last four (consecutive) days of the tournament he threw:
- A 148 pitch shutout
- A 250 pitch 17 inning complete game
- A scoreless 9th inning to get the W, after starting the game in LF as the team came back from a 6-0 deficit late
- The no-hitter to win the Final, and the legend was born.
A few months later he was drafted 1st overall in the NPB draft, and signed with the Seibu Lions. In 1999, after going 16-5 with a 2.60 ERA in 180 IP, he won the Pacific League Rookie of the Year award (the Central League RoY award that year went to a young Yomiuri Giants pitcher named Koji Uehara.) Matsuzaka was decent if unspectacular for the next few seasons, until he began to really put it together in 2003. Because of a connection I had to the Red Sox at the time, when Sox scout Craig Shipley came to Japan to scout Seibu Lions' superstar Kazuo Matsui late in 2003, I ended up having dinner with him in Tokyo one night. A buddy and I were a bit star struck as Shipley regaled us with tales of facing Nolan Ryan, and then the conversation turned to the reason he was here. Matsui is probably not for the Red Sox, he told us, but there was one Lions player that caught his eye - their young pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Fast forward to late 2006 and Matsuzaka is going to be posted. Over the 2005-06 seasons he threw a total of 400 innings of sub-2.30 ERA ball, with 426:83 K:BB. Which is to say, I was giddy with hope the Sox felt the same as Shipley had a few years earlier, but it's not like he'd been keeping me in the loop, so I just had to cross my fingers and wait. I think we all know the rest -- the Sox spent over $100 million to win the posting bid and sign him to a six year deal. I was living in Hong Kong by 2007 but happened to be back here in Tokyo on a business trip when he was scheduled to make his first career MLB start. I excused myself early from a fairly large client night out, and got back to my hotel by the 2am game time. 7 IP, 1 ER, 10 K. He was brilliant, and I was ecstatic.
As you folks may remember, in 2007 the Red Sox went to the World Series. I did too, flying from Hong Kong to Denver for Games 3 and 4. Here's what I wrote to friends and family about Game 3 at the time:
Then ahh, you know, there was the rest of it.
In 2015 he returned to Japan, signing with the Softbank Hawks. Across the 2015-17 seasons, injuries limited him to just one game, where he pitched 1 inning, facing 10 batters and giving up 5 R (2 ER), including 2 BB and 2 HBP. He was on the Chunichi Dragons in 2018-19, and in 2018 pitched 50+ innings of sub-4.00 ERA ball to earn the NPB comeback player of the year award. In a feel-good story he even started one of the two 2018 All-Star games. In 2020 he went full circle, signing with his original club, the Seibu Lions. Spinal surgery meant he missed the entire 2020 season, and this year he hasn't made an appearance for either the big club or the AAA (ni-gun) squad where he spends most of his time. In July he announced he'll retire at the end of this season, which brings me to the point of the thread.
On Friday the Seibu Lions called him up to the big club for the first time this season. He hasn't made a single appearance this year in either AAA or the bigs, and revealed that after all the various arm, neck, and spine surgeries, he can't really feel the fingers in his throwing hand anymore. But as is the "fan service" custom here for longtime fan-favorite pitchers, Seibu gave him the "start" tonight -- allowing him to face the first batter of the game, before pulling him. Earlier in the day he gave an emotional hour long press conference, towards the end of which he battled through tears when someone asked him about discussing his decision to retire with his family. A condensed version is here:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Hlx-40AYw
...as he struggles with the question at the 8:50 mark, he says "Man, this is why I didn't want to do a press conference."
Ahead of the game it seems all of Saitama was with him - the local train station closest to the stadium was decked out in Matsuzaka pictures, and the #5 platform was temporarily re-numbered as the #18 platform, after his uniform number:
View: https://twitter.com/Fullcountc2/status/1450370314521624576?s=20
As for his lone batter, well friends, he walked the guy. But he threw five straight fastballs, topping out at 73mph and given the numb fingers thing, I don't think anyone was too surprised. Here is the final chapter in the saga of Daisuke Matsuzaka, professional baseball player:
View: https://twitter.com/PacificleagueTV/status/1450386812472475649?s=20
Daisuke, thanks for all the memories, and taihen otsukare sama deshita.
- A 148 pitch shutout
- A 250 pitch 17 inning complete game
- A scoreless 9th inning to get the W, after starting the game in LF as the team came back from a 6-0 deficit late
- The no-hitter to win the Final, and the legend was born.
A few months later he was drafted 1st overall in the NPB draft, and signed with the Seibu Lions. In 1999, after going 16-5 with a 2.60 ERA in 180 IP, he won the Pacific League Rookie of the Year award (the Central League RoY award that year went to a young Yomiuri Giants pitcher named Koji Uehara.) Matsuzaka was decent if unspectacular for the next few seasons, until he began to really put it together in 2003. Because of a connection I had to the Red Sox at the time, when Sox scout Craig Shipley came to Japan to scout Seibu Lions' superstar Kazuo Matsui late in 2003, I ended up having dinner with him in Tokyo one night. A buddy and I were a bit star struck as Shipley regaled us with tales of facing Nolan Ryan, and then the conversation turned to the reason he was here. Matsui is probably not for the Red Sox, he told us, but there was one Lions player that caught his eye - their young pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Fast forward to late 2006 and Matsuzaka is going to be posted. Over the 2005-06 seasons he threw a total of 400 innings of sub-2.30 ERA ball, with 426:83 K:BB. Which is to say, I was giddy with hope the Sox felt the same as Shipley had a few years earlier, but it's not like he'd been keeping me in the loop, so I just had to cross my fingers and wait. I think we all know the rest -- the Sox spent over $100 million to win the posting bid and sign him to a six year deal. I was living in Hong Kong by 2007 but happened to be back here in Tokyo on a business trip when he was scheduled to make his first career MLB start. I excused myself early from a fairly large client night out, and got back to my hotel by the 2am game time. 7 IP, 1 ER, 10 K. He was brilliant, and I was ecstatic.
As you folks may remember, in 2007 the Red Sox went to the World Series. I did too, flying from Hong Kong to Denver for Games 3 and 4. Here's what I wrote to friends and family about Game 3 at the time:
In 2008 he was 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA and sure sure, he led the league in walks, but he also had the lowest H/9, and finished 4th in Cy Young voting!Just a bit about Game 3 other than to say it was sheer unbridled awesomeness: Daisuke. He was up and down all year, and while I'm probably his staunchest defender, I'll admit he was more than a little frustrating to watch sometimes. Saturday October 27th was not one of those times. He was awesome. Let me refresh everyone's memory as to how the 3rd inning went down:
Ellsbury doubles. Pedroia singles. Papi doubles, Ellsbury scores. Manny intentionally walked. Eventual Series MVP Mike Lowell singles, Pedroia and Papi score. Normally this is where a stadium would get very quiet when the home team is down. But not when the visiting team is the Sox, and not when our lineup is this locked in. Walking around outside Coors before the game we estimated that maybe half the people there were Sox fans. Once we got inside it seemed a lot lower, maybe 20%. But 20% of 50,445 is still a crapload of Sox fans. In fact it's 10,089 Sox fans, I just did that on a calculator. And ten thousand Red Sox fans can make a lot of noise when their team goes up 3-0 in a World Series game. Coors is a nice stadium, and to us was at its finest when it was rocking AND no white towels were being waved around. The 3rd inning continued: Drew popped out, Tek singled (aaaaand Manny is out at home...by a mile), Lugo walks. Then up comes Daisuke. He singles through the hole at short, scoring Lowell and Varitek. 10,000 Red Sox fans make even more noise. Holy crap that was unbelievable. Then Jacoby Ellsbury comes up and hits his second freaking double of the inning, this one scoring Lugo. Daisuke then went out in the bottom of the 3rd and struck out Morales, struck out Kaz Matsui, and got TU-LO! to GROUND-OUT! 1-2-3, and we're up 6-0 after 3. Let it suffice to say I enjoyed the 3rd inning. A lot.
Then ahh, you know, there was the rest of it.
In 2015 he returned to Japan, signing with the Softbank Hawks. Across the 2015-17 seasons, injuries limited him to just one game, where he pitched 1 inning, facing 10 batters and giving up 5 R (2 ER), including 2 BB and 2 HBP. He was on the Chunichi Dragons in 2018-19, and in 2018 pitched 50+ innings of sub-4.00 ERA ball to earn the NPB comeback player of the year award. In a feel-good story he even started one of the two 2018 All-Star games. In 2020 he went full circle, signing with his original club, the Seibu Lions. Spinal surgery meant he missed the entire 2020 season, and this year he hasn't made an appearance for either the big club or the AAA (ni-gun) squad where he spends most of his time. In July he announced he'll retire at the end of this season, which brings me to the point of the thread.
On Friday the Seibu Lions called him up to the big club for the first time this season. He hasn't made a single appearance this year in either AAA or the bigs, and revealed that after all the various arm, neck, and spine surgeries, he can't really feel the fingers in his throwing hand anymore. But as is the "fan service" custom here for longtime fan-favorite pitchers, Seibu gave him the "start" tonight -- allowing him to face the first batter of the game, before pulling him. Earlier in the day he gave an emotional hour long press conference, towards the end of which he battled through tears when someone asked him about discussing his decision to retire with his family. A condensed version is here:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Hlx-40AYw
...as he struggles with the question at the 8:50 mark, he says "Man, this is why I didn't want to do a press conference."
Ahead of the game it seems all of Saitama was with him - the local train station closest to the stadium was decked out in Matsuzaka pictures, and the #5 platform was temporarily re-numbered as the #18 platform, after his uniform number:
View: https://twitter.com/Fullcountc2/status/1450370314521624576?s=20
As for his lone batter, well friends, he walked the guy. But he threw five straight fastballs, topping out at 73mph and given the numb fingers thing, I don't think anyone was too surprised. Here is the final chapter in the saga of Daisuke Matsuzaka, professional baseball player:
View: https://twitter.com/PacificleagueTV/status/1450386812472475649?s=20
Daisuke, thanks for all the memories, and taihen otsukare sama deshita.