Tsuyoshi Wada

Tsuyoshi Wada
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks - No. 21
Pitcher
Born: February 21, 1981 in Kōnan , Japan
Strikes: Left	Throws: Left
Debut in the Nippon Pro Yakyū
April 1,  2003  with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks
NPB statistics (until 2010)
Win- Loss	91-56
Earned Run Average	3.37
Strikeouts	1,161
Teams
Fukuoka Daiei Hawks Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (since 2003)

Tsuyoshi Wada ( Japanese 和田 毅 , Wada Tsuyoshi ; born February 21, 1981 in Kōnan , Aichi Prefecture ) is a Japanese baseball player . The left-handed pitcher has played for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in the Japanese Pacific League since his professional debut in 2003 . With the Japanese national team, he won the first World Baseball Classic in 2006 and the bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Wada grew up in his father's home in Izumo, Shimane Prefecture , from the age of eleven and attended the prefecture-run Hamada high school. In his second year, the team qualified for the summer Kōshien , but retired in the first round against the Akita commercial school through a Sayonara-oshidashi , a walk-off walk, wadas. In the summer of Kōshien in his senior year 1998, the Hamada high school reached the quarter-finals with him and was only subject to extra time. Upon graduation, Wada attended Waseda University and played in the League of Six Universities of Tokyo , where he renewed a 25-year-old record for strikeouts in 2002 .

In the 2002 draft , Wada came to the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks under manager Sadaharu Oh via the jiyū kakutoku waku seido ( 自由 獲得 枠 制度 ), in which players could be signed up to 2006 before the actual draft . From the beginning he was used there as a starter and was awarded for his good performance in the first year (14-5, 3:38) 2003 as shinjin'ō , as rookie of the year , the Pacific League. Despite then temporarily weaker performance, he has since been part of the Hawks' regular rotation, in 2005 and again in 2009 he opened the season for the Lions as kaimaku-tōshu ("opening pitcher ", usually the best starter of a team). In 2003, 2004 and again in 2010 he took part in the All-Star Game . He quickly recovered from elbow surgery in 2007; In 2009 he needed treatment after an inflammation of his elbow and played his weakest season so far. In the same year he was also removed from the national squad for the second World Baseball Classic at short notice. In 2010, when the Hawks were the first to complete the Pacific League for the first time since 2003, Wada had one of his best seasons with an ERA of 3.14 and led the league with 17 wins together with Chihiro Kaneko . For the season's performance, Wada was named the MVP of the Pacific League.

Wada has been married to model Kasumi Nakane since 2005.

Web links

• Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks : player profile (Japanese)
• Personal Blog Wadas (Japanese)
• Nippon Yakyū Kikō / Nippon Professional Baseball: Player Statistics

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Japan finalizes WBC roster. In: The Japan Times . February 23, 2009, accessed October 15, 2010 . 
2. ^ Dragons 'Wada, Hawks' Wada named MVPs. In: The Japan Times . November 19, 2010, accessed November 24, 2010 .