Background and career
Daisuke Matsuzaka (松坂 大輔, Matsuzaka Daisuke; [matsɯꜜzaka daꜜisɯ̥ke]; born September 13, 1980) is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher, who pitched professionally for 23 seasons, 16 of them in NPB, 7 in MLB. He is currently a baseball color commentator, critic, reporter, and YouTuber. Daisuke is nicknamed "the Monster of the Heisei Era" (平成の怪物, heisei no kaibutsu) in Japan and "Dice-K" in the United States by The Boston Globe and USA Today. He played for the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Saitama Seibu Lions, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Internationally, Matsuzaka represented Japan. Matsuzaka was selected the All-World Baseball Classic Team and World Baseball Classic MVP of the inaugural and the second World Baseball Classic, and is an Olympic bronze medalist. He is the first player to have won both a World Series and a World Baseball Classic, winning the 2006 World Baseball Classic with Team Japan and the 2007 World Series with the Red Sox.
Matsuzaka was born on September 13, 1980, in Koto Ward, He was named after Japanese high school star pitcher Daisuke Araki. Growing up in Koto, Tokyo, he studied kendo from the age of five to nine and began playing organized baseball when he was in third grade.
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. By his second of three years, he had developed into the school's ace pitcher. Despite his early success, he would experience a setback that summer when he threw 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). During that offseason, his fastballs first began to regularly sit around 87 mph (140 km/h). After pitching his school to the championship of the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament (Spring Koshien), Matsuzaka set his aim on the 1998 Summer Koshien and eventually led his school to the championship. In the quarterfinal of the 1998 Summer Koshien, Matsuzaka threw 250 pitches in 17 innings in a win over PL Gakuen. (The previous day he had thrown a 148-pitch complete game shutout.) The next day, despite trailing 6–0 in the top of the eighth inning, the team miraculously won the game after scoring 7 runs in the final two innings (four in the eighth and three in the ninth). He started the game in left field, but came in as a reliever in the ninth inning to record the win in 15 pitches. In the final, he threw a no-hitter, the second ever in a final. This performance garnered him the attention of many scouts. Due to the large number of players from the 1998 Summer Koshien cohort who went on to enjoy success at the professional level, baseball players who were born in the 1980 Japanese academic year (from April 2, 1980, to the following April 1, 1981) have been called the "Matsuzaka Generation" in Japan.
After graduating from high school, he was taken by the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Saitama Seibu Lions with the first pick of the 1998 draft, although both the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks of the North American Major Leagues also recruited him. At first, Matsuzaka stated that he wanted to play for the Yokohama BayStars, and, if he could not, he would then go to work for a company and after which choose the team of his choice through the reverse-draft (gyaku-shimei) system. That changed however, when the manager of the Lions, Osamu Higashio, an accomplished pitcher in his own right, met with Matsuzaka for dinner. At the dinner, Higashio gave Matsuzaka his winning ball for career win number 200. Matsuzaka accepted it and allowed himself to be drafted by the Lions.
Matsuzaka won his first official pro game in his first start of the 1999 season against the Nippon Ham Fighters at the Tokyo Dome. His first career strikeout came against Atsushi Kataoka in the first inning on a high fastball clocked at 155 km/h (96 mph). He won the game, but he also gave up the first home run in the game to Michihiro Ogasawara of the Nippon Ham Fighters. On May 16, 1999, when Matsuzaka was in his rookie season at age 18, he first faced Ichiro Suzuki, a player for the Orix Bluewave at the time, and recorded three strikeouts in three at-bats with a walk. Matsuzaka states that this game was the moment he started to believe that he "belonged" in pro baseball. However, Ichiro would get a bit of revenge on Matsuzaka by hitting his 100th career home run off him in July of that year. Matsuzaka started in the All-Star game as a rookie in 1999. He struck out Takuro Ishii and Takanori Suzuki of the Bay Stars before number three hitter Yoshinobu Takahashi of the Giants managed to make contact and fly out to left field. In his first professional season in 1999, Matsuzaka had 16 wins and five losses as the team ace, and was voted Rookie of the Year. Another rookie pitcher in the rival Central League, Koji Uehara, also won the same honor with a 20-win season. Together, they would come to represent their respective leagues as dominant starting pitchers for seasons to come. In 2000, Matsuzaka had 14 wins and 7 losses. He had 15 wins and 15 losses in his 2001 season and won the Eiji Sawamura Award. Matsuzaka spent a considerable portion of his 2002 season on the disabled list, which did not count toward his service time. He was not able to regain his pitching form in the 2002 Japan Series, when the Lions faced the Yomiuri Giants. In Game 1 at Tokyo Dome, where the designated hitter rule is not allowed, Matsuzaka batted 7th in the lineup to take advantage of his above-average hitting for a pitcher. However, not only did Matsuzaka not fare well at the plate in this game, but he also helped the Giants to a rout by giving up two key home runs. One was to extremely popular Giants first baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara, who hit a middle-of-the-plate Matsuzaka fastball off one of the billboards at the back of the left field stands. Matsuzaka would give up another key RBI to Kiyohara in game 4 in relief, as the Lions were meekly swept by the Giants in the series. In 2003, Matsuzaka logged 16 wins and 7 losses. He easily won the Pacific League ERA title with a 2.83 mark. Matsuzaka used to play for Japan's National Baseball Team, and pitched against South Korea. He was selected for the NPB All-Star Game in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006. He was voted MVP of the 2004 game.
On October 25, 2006, Scott Boras was announced as Matsuzaka's agent to represent him in any contract dealings in the Major Leagues. On November 2, Matsuzaka was officially granted permission by the Lions to pursue a career in Major League Baseball via the posting system. On November 14, the Boston Red Sox won the bidding rights to Matsuzaka with a bid of $51,111,111.11, outbidding the Texas Rangers, New York Mets, and New York Yankees. The enormous figure — two to three times the Lions' payroll — astounded both Japanese and American baseball executives. The Red Sox had 30 days to sign Matsuzaka to a contract. If a deal could not be reached, Matsuzaka would have returned to the Lions, nullifying the bid. Scott Boras refused to consider the posting fee as part of the contract negotiations, while Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein recalled, "We tried to come up with a total number, for the post and contract, that made sense." On December 11, Epstein, Red Sox owner John W. Henry and CEO Larry Lucchino boarded a plane to "[take] the fight directly to [Boras]". Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe asserted that Boras, by refusing to negotiate, was using Matsuzaka as a protest or "test case of the posting system." On December 13, Matsuzaka and Boras joined Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, CEO Larry Lucchino, and Chairman Tom Werner on a private plane owned by Red Sox owner John Henry headed for Boston. During the flight—which was followed by both the Boston and the Japanese media—the group agreed to terms on a contract. Journalist Nobuhiro Chiba characterized Japanese reaction to the signing: "I think the people are relieved to send Daisuke to the Boston Red Sox." In Boston, Matsuzaka passed his physical and signed a six-year, $52 million contract, which could have been worth as much as $60 million if he fulfilled incentives. The details of the contract included a $2 million signing bonus with a $6 million salary in 2007, $8 million in each of the following three seasons (2008–2010), and $10 million in each of the final two years (2011–2012). He also had a no-trade clause, specially constructed by the Red Sox to fit Matsuzaka's contract. The final agreement was announced Thursday, December 14 at a 5 p.m. EST news conference at Fenway Park. Afterwards some members of the press noted the confusion created by Matsuzaka's translator at that announcement. Art Martone of the Providence Journal commented, "Matsuzaka's interpreter's command of the English language was shaky, and thus the pitcher's translated comments were brief and, occasionally, unintelligible. About the only clear statement relayed by the interpreter was when Matsuzaka said, 'I'm very happy and excited to be a member of the Boston Red Sox.'"
