Archived Weblog Entry - 10/20/2003: "Japanese Baseball News: Saito, Igawa Win Sawamura Award; U.S. Media Gaga Over Godzilla"

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10/20/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Saito, Igawa Win Sawamura Award; U.S. Media Gaga Over Godzilla"

Hanshin, Daiei Aces Each Receive Japan's Version of Cy Young Award

To absolutely nobody's surprise, Hanshin lefty Kei Igawa and Daiei Hawks righthander Kazumi Saito were bestowed with Sawamura Awards Monday. However, it is the first time that two of those trophies were handed out in one season since Yomiuri's Tsuneo Horiuchi and Hanshin's Minoru Murayama took them home in 1966. Igawa is the sixth Tiger to win the award overall and the first in 24 years and the first Hanshin lefthander since Yutaka Enatsu in 1968.

Both pitchers, in typical Japanese style, said that they were overjoyed to be award recipients, but that they didn't imagine themselves as being the type of hurler capable of earning one. "Igawa is better than me," Saito humbly deprecated.

Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino, who has a Sawamura in his trophy case from his days as a pitcher for the Dragons, thought that award voters should have waited until the Japan Series was finished so that they could settle on one winner rather than two.

Team Reports

Yomiuri Ace Koji Uehara was fooling around with a circle change in and a shuuto during a 49 pitch bullpen workout as a member of the squad that will face other Asian nations in an olympic qualifying tournament. He indicated that he was just experimenting with those pitches and isn't inclined to attempt to use them in the upcoming tourney....Pitchers Gary Rath and Cory Bailey were put on waivers.

Yakult Pitcher Nobuyuki Ebisu will be released, as will infielder Yukio Kinugawa....The Swallows continue to offer closer Shingo Takatsu a one year contract and Takatsu still hopes for at least a two year deal. The password is "impasse."

Hanshin Trey Moore will try to get the Tigers off of the floor Tuesday in game three of the Japan Series. Daiei has had trouble against lefthanders this season, but lead by Kenji Johjima and Julio Zuleta, they put it to southpaw Kei Igawa in game one before dismantling righthander Hideki Irabu in game two. However, if past history is any indication, Hanshin only has about a 1-4 chance of coming back to prevail. From his home in Oklahoma, former Tigers first baseman Randy Bass urged the club to believe in themselves since they had beaten good pitchers and strong hitters during the regular season. So, Bass cheered, "keep your heads up and fight like hell"...Team President Nozaki sent along an apology to the commissioner's office for announcing Hoshino's resignation before the Japan Series....Katsumi Hirosawa went 0-6 with five strikeouts in the first two games as Hanshin's DH, so he may be ousted by pinch hitting specialist Hiroshi Yagi in that role should they get back to Fukuoka.

Chunichi The team will indeed invite former Yomiuri infielder Masahiro Kawai to their fall camp in Okinawa in what amounts to an extended tryout....Manager Hiromitsu Ochiai told the press that 18 year old rookie Yoshimi Sakurai will be given a shot at the first base job. "We already have enough outfielders," the former Dragons great allowed. "But we're short at first and catcher." One has to wonder how veteran backstop Motonobu Tanishige will take that comment. It could be that Ochiai doesn't think much of those behind Tanishige on the depth chart.

Yokohama Pitchers Shinji Udaka and Ken Kadokura, who were moved to the Stars by Kintetsu in a trade, had their press conference announcing their acquisition. Kadokura said that he didn't get everything he wanted to get done with the Buffaloes and hopes to accomplish all his goals with his new ballclub. Kadokura is familiar with the Central League since he was once with Chunichi and manager Daisuke Yamashita has tentatively penciled him in to his 2004 rotation.

Daiei Brandon Knight, who will likely start game four of the Japan Series, tuned up by throwing 30 pitches in the bullpen Monday. He said afterward that he could really feel the history at Koshien Stadium. But while catcher Kenji Johjima remarked on how big the ballpark was, righthander Nagisa Arakaki remarked that it felt small to him, probably because there is no 18 foot high wall around the outfield as at Fukuoka Dome....Tsuyoshi Wada will make the start for the Hawks in game three. His father, Masayuki, is a longtime Hanshin fan. Cruel fate, no?...Kazumi Saito will start game six while Toshiya Sugiuchi is scheduled for game seven if they are necessary.

Seibu The Lions have some good looking youngsters and Hiroyuki Nakajima is expected to supplant Kazuo Matsui at shortstop next season while new skipper Tsutomu Itoh intends to give mighty mite infielder Takeya Nakamura the third base job. Nakamura, a 5'8" 216 pound Osaka Toin High School product who has been drawing comparisons with the somewhat taller and slower Norihiro Nakamura, has been referred to as the "Kansai Cabrera." He slugged 83 homers as a secondary schoolboy. Itoh claims that Nakamura is faster than outfielder Hiroyuki Oshima and is better defensively than up and comer Taketoshi Goto. However, what this means for Scott McClain is still uncertain. It could be that they will put him in a DH role or keep him as insurance if Nakamura falters.

Kintetsu Third baseman Norihiro Nakamura had arthroscopic knee surgery Monday. He will need about three months to recover from the procedure, according to Sports Nippon....New additions Eiji Yano and Kazuo Fukumori, who came to Osaka in a trade with Yokohama, had their press conference today formally announcing their acquistion. Yano has just gotten married and said that he wants to help the club win a pennant. Manager Masataka Nashida disclosed that Fukumori will be given a shot at the closer's role while he likes Yano's fastball, but didn't spell out what slot he might occupy in 2004.

Nippon Ham The team announced the acquistion of catcher Satoshi Nakajima from Yokohama in a cash deal. He will wear number 32. He was drafted by the Hankyu Braves (now Orix) on the third round in 1987 and has also played with Seibu....Pitcher Yukiya Yokoyama's number will be 15. He had been offered number 49, but Yokoyama didn't like the fact that you could use the characters "shi (four, death)" and "ku (nine, bitterness, hardship)" to describe those digits, so he refused it.

Lotte Former Giants hurler Hiroya Tani and ex-Hanshin hurler Naoya Sogabe passed a tryout held by the club Monday.

Orix The Blue Wave front office said that former manager Leon Lee will not just be a batting instructor for the foreign players, but will act as a roving hitting coach as well. They may also have him do some scouting....Masato Yoshii will play in a Dominican winter league, according to Hochi Sports. His season was shortened by ankle surgery, though he has started throwing again. Yoshii revealed that he got into some bad mechanical habits trying to compensate for the painful ankle during the season and wats to iron those out....Manager Haruki Ihara has banned pierced ears and dyed hair. "I won't use players who do that," the former Lions shot caller stated. "I want them to use the time spent getting their hair dyed to swinging the bat."

Miscellaneous With his three run homer to straightaway center on a 3-0 86mph fastball that was left out over the middle of the plate Sunday, Hideki Matsui became the first Japanese player ever to go yard in a World Series. Godzilla now has ten post season RBIs, tops on the Yankees. This has lead to Chunichi Sports to insisting that the Ishikawa Prefecture native is on his way to being named MVP despite only being two games into the MLB championship battle....Another writer for the same paper did an article on how he was targeted for some harrasment by a group of three men in July in a Bronx Subway near Yankee Stadium and was glad to escape without being stabbed or shot, though he noted that a lot of the Yankee players use that same subway. However, the writer in questions now takes taxi cabs....Japan Series ratings have been impressive thus far, as an average of around 30% of all tv sets were tuned to the Japanese fall classic....Japan beat the U.S. 2-1 in the Baseball World Cup.

In the News

Matsui and Soriano: Both Started Careers in Japan, but Get Different Results

See story at: Baltimore Sun Article

Godzilla Turns Marlins into Fish Sticks

See story at: Associated Press Article

See another related story at: Washington Post Article

See one more related story at: Greenwich Time Article

Finally, this related story at: Reuters Article

Matsui a Classic Yankee?

See story at: NY Post Article

Matsui Makes Major League Adjustment

See story at: Stamford Advocate Article