Daisuke Matsuzaka, Red Sox’ Japanese Wonderboy
Named after high school pitching star Daisuke Araki, Matsuzaka exploded onto the scene as a high schooler, at Yokohama High School, Japan.
Background:
Daisuke Matsuzaka was considered by many to be the greatest and most popular pitcher in Nippon Pro Baseball from 1999-2006 before going to the United States, though he only won one Sawamura Award.
After excelling at the Little League and junior high level, Daisuke Matsuzaka was admitted into Yokohama High School, a baseball powerhouse, in the spring of 1996. Despite his early success, he would experience a setback that summer when he allowed a go-ahead wild pitch in the semi-final game of the Kanagawa Prefecture preliminary round of the National High School Baseball Championship (Summer Koshien).
He set numerous rookie records - he became the first kid out of high school to strike out 10 or more in his first exhibition game, got the most All-Star votes at pitcher (the first rookie to do so in 29 years), struck out 5 in the All-Star game (a record for a rookie out of high school) and tied Keishi Suzuki ’s rookie record with 15 strikeouts in a game.
He became the only high schooler to go unbeaten all year long and set a high school record for strikeouts (208, broken in 2005 by Masahiro Tanaka).
He pitched 5 perfect innings in his first start in Nippon Pro Baseball and became the second rookie out of high school to pitch a shutout in April since World War II.
After graduating from high school, he was taken by the Seibu Lions with the first pick of the 1998 draft. Matsuzaka got a 50-million yen signing bonus and a 13-million yen salary, and both the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks of the American Major Leagues also drafted him.
2004 saw Matsuzaka become the first Japanese pitcher to reach 100 mph on a radar gun, which he did during the 2004 Olympics, when he and Japan earned bronze medals.
He was selected the MVP of the 2006 World Baseball Classic.The year after representing Japan to the first championship of the WBC (World Baseball Classic), Daisuke moved to North America to play for the Boston Red Sox. Sporting the nickname “Dice-K,” Matsuzaka is a very good pitcher and is trying his hardest to reverse the curse for the Red Sox
Matsuzaka requested to be posted to Major League Baseball already after the ‘05 season, but the Lions refused to honor his request, but then, on November 2 2006, Matsuzaka was officially granted permission by the Lions to pursue a career in Major League Baseball via the posting system.
Teams expressing the most interest in Matsuzaka were the New York Yankees and Mets, the Boston Red Sox, the LA Dodgers and the Seattle Mariners.
On October 27, 2007, he started for Red Sox and won game 3 of the 2007 World Series against the Colorado Rockies, marking his first World Series appearance. In the game, he recorded his first major league hit: a two-out 2-run single off of Josh Fogg. Pitching, he gave up two runs, three hits, three walks and recorded five strikeouts. Matsuzaka is the first Japanese pitcher to win an MLB playoff game and only the fifth rookie to start a game seven in the playoffs.
Daisuke Matsuzaka has had mixed results throughout the postseason, but his last two trips to the mound have been just good enough. In Game 3 of the World Series, Matsuzaka allowed just two runs and picked a most opportune time to log his first hit.
