Dice-K Ruins Another Japanese Pitcher’s Life
Thursday night, Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Red Sox beat Tomo Ohka of the Blue Jays in what was just the fourth matchup between Japanese starting pitchers in Major League Baseball history. In defeating Ohka, Matsuzaka erased former Japanese-born MLB Pitcher Mac Suzuki’s one page – or one line – in the record book. You see, in all three of the previous Japanese pitching matchups in Major League history, Suzuki had been the losing pitcher: Once to Hideki Irabu, once to Hideo Nomo and another time to Mr. Ohka himself. Sorry, Mac. At least you can still say you’re the first Japanese player to play in the Majors without first playing in the Japanese leagues.