Ichiro Suzuki took the Major Leagues by storm in 2001, winning both the American League Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year awards while leading the Seattle Mariners to an American League-record 116 wins. For good measure, he also took home the AL batting title and a Gold Glove Award. Read more »
Although he managed Team Japan to the World Championship at the first-ever World Baseball Classic in 2006, Sadaharu Oh is still best known as the All-Time Home Run King who hit 868 home runs in his 22-year Japanese professional career. He led the Japan Central League in home runs 15 times (13 of them consecutive). He won League Most Valuable Player honors 9 times, made 18 All-Star Teams, won 5 batting titles, and even won the Triple Crown (leading the league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in) twice in a row.... Read more »
In March 2006, ace pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka led Team Japan to the World Championship at the first-ever World Baseball Classic, where he also won the Tournament's Most Valuable Player award. His performance may have shocked the world, but it did not surprise the people of Japan, who still remember with awe what he did on Japan's biggest stage, eight years before. Read more »
Introduction
Ichiro Suzuki
Sadaharu Oh
Although he managed Team Japan to the World Championship at the first-ever World Baseball Classic in 2006, Sadaharu Oh is still best known as the All-Time Home Run King who hit 868 home runs in his 22-year Japanese professional career. He led the Japan Central League in home runs 15 times (13 of them consecutive). He won League Most Valuable Player honors 9 times, made 18 All-Star Teams, won 5 batting titles, and even won the Triple Crown (leading the league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in) twice in a row.... Read more »
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Ichiro Suzuki
Ichiro Suzuki
Born: October 22, 1973, Kasugai, Japan
High School: Aikodai Meiden Koko, Aichi
Currently: Right field, Seattle Mariners
In each of his five seasons in the Major Leagues, Ichiro has posted 200-plus hits, made the All-Star team, won the Gold Glove, and led the league in singles. He won his second batting title in 2004, the year he broke the all-time single-season hits record with 262. In 2006, Ichiro led Japan's national team to a championship win in the inaugural World Baseball Classic, batting .364 and scoring seven runs in eight games.
Ichiro started training under the tutelage of his father at the age of three. His father spent every day from 3:30 in the afternoon until 12 midnight -- and often beyond -- putting Ichiro through a grueling practice routine. At age twelve Ichiro wrote the following essay, now one of the 2,000 objects on display at the Ichiro Exhibition Room in Najoya:
"My dream when I grow up is to be a first-class professional baseball player...I have the confidence to do the necessary practice to reach that goal. I started practicing from age three. From the age of nine I practiced baseball 360 out of 365 days a year and I practiced hard. I only had five to six hours a year to play with my friends. That's how much I practiced. So I think I can surely become a pro. I will play in junior high school and high school. When I graduate I will enter the pros. My dream is to join the Seibu Lions or the Chunichi Dragons. My goal is a contract signing bonus of 100 million yen."
Ichiro had incredible success in junior high school and was recruited by the prestigious high school baseball program at Aikodai Meiden Koko ("Meiden"). At Meiden, Ichiro starred as a left-handed pitcher and led the team to the Koshien Tournament twice. In his three-year high school career, Ichiro had an absurd .502 batting average, hitting 19 home runs and stealing 131 bases. In 536 at-bats he struck out only ten times, and never once swinging.
Despite all of his success, Ichiro was not drafted until the 36th round of the Japanese professional draft (he weighed only 120 lbs.). Ichiro proved the scouts wrong by starting his career with three straight Pacific League MVP awards. He went on to earn seven straight batting titles and seven straight Gold Gloves in Japanese pro ball before signing to the Seattle Mariners.
Sadaharu Oh
Sadaharu Oh
Born: May 20, 1940, Tokyo, Japan
High School: Waseda Jitsyugo, Tokyo
Currently: Manager, Japan National Baseball Team
In high school, Oh made many appearances at Koshien and suffered several tough defeats. In 1957, Waseda High School made it to the Spring Koshien Tournament with the second-year Oh as their ace pitcher. Right before the tournament started, Oh suffered serious blisters on two fingers of his pitching hand. The only way to heal the injury was with rest, but Oh refused to let his team down. Hiding his injury so as not to demoralize his team, Oh pitched the entire first game at Koshien and won. Oh's catcher noticed the bloodstained ball, but agreed to keep the injury secret from the rest of the team. The next day, Oh pitched another complete game and earned the victory, and again his catcher kept the injury a secret, but the blisters worsened. The pain and infection was unbearable, and now Oh faced the prospect of pitching two more games -- on back-to-back days -- for the championship. All the same, Oh pitched and won another complete game, enduring the worst pain of his life. After the game, on the eve of the Final, he had already lost all feeling in his fingertips, and was convinced he couldn't pitch in the Final.
That night, Oh was paid a surprise visit by his father, who had noticed the subtle injury while watching his son pitch on television. Oh's father had traveled 350 miles from Tokyo to bring him a Chinese herbal remedy. The miracle treatment worked, and Oh was able to just make it through his fourth complete game in four days, squeaking out a one-run victory. Oh had won the Championship, proved his fighting spirit, and earned fame and the respect of the nation.
In his 1984 autobiography, A Zen Way of Baseball, Oh wrote:
"The press in our country makes much of 'the spirit of high school baseball.' And it is true -- as far as it goes. High school players back then -- and now -- give themselves to the game in ways that are both admirable and foolish ... The papers the next day and for some days following made much of the fact that I pitched with such an injury. It demonstrated this superb 'spirit of high school baseball.' But if the game had been lost -- as well it might -- the stories might have been different."
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Born: September 13, 1980, Tokyo, Japan
High School: Yokohama Koko, Yokohama
Currently: Pitcher, Seibu Lions
Matsuzaka became a national hero in 1998 when he pitched Yokohama High School into the Koshien Tournament and dominated the competition like no one before or since. In the semi-final game at Koshien, his team faced P.L. Gakuen High School, one of the traditional powers of high school baseball. In stifling heat, Matsuzaka pitched a game for the ages, emerging victorious after 17 grueling innings and 250 pitches. The very next day, in the title game, he hurled a no-hitter to win the National Championship.
Matsuzaka was drafted #1 overall by the Seibu Lions of Nippon Pro Baseball, and was an ace pitcher for Japan in both the Summer Olympics and the World Baseball Classic. Expect to see the rubber-armed Matsuzaka in the American Major Leagues after 2006.