Thanks to the commenter in the below post who passed along the info, which seemed to eminate from a David Lennon tweet this afternoon indicating the the Mets’ new reliever,Ryota Igarashi, will suit up in No. 18 this year.
Lennon (and a good number of commenters at MetsBlog where the news was dissected and blown up in 45 seconds) focused in on what a crime it was to re-issue Darryl Strawberry’s number — as if they hadn’t noticed they’d given it to Jeremy Reed, Art Howe and Craig Paquette, to name only three, in the years since Strawberry left town, and they all missed the real significance of the number to players from Japan.
It’s been a tradition in Japan dating to the 1930s to give an ace pitcher No. 8 or 18. Eiji Sawamura, the 1930s legend for whom Japan’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award is named, wore No. 8 for the All-Nippon team that hosted a team of American stars for a 1934 tour that sparked the creation of a professional baseball league in Japan. Hall of Fame pitchers including Masao Date (an All-Nippon teammate of Sawamura’s) and Motoshi Fujita were 18. The tradition carries to modern players like Daisuke Matuzsaka, who now wears 18 for the Red Sox, and Hideaki Wakui, who today wears 18 for Matuzsaka’s former team, the Seibu Lions, and who this year won the Sawamura Award. The Mets issued No. 18 to their first pitcher from Japan, Takashi Kashiwada.
The passing along of numbers with significance is in my opinion an admirable tradition in the Japanese game and is echoed in pro soccer where its common to see a team’s top player wear No. 10.
Thanks to Rob Fitts, a writer and Japan baseball researcher, whose collection of photos andbaseball cards helped illuminate this post.
Submitted by Chris C. (not verified) on Thu, 01/14/2010 – 9:30am.
I remember Kashiwada dressing in 18… If I remember correctly, he was in 47 for spring training when Valentine invited him and another guy from Japan.
I remember the significance of ’18” was important to Hideki Irabu when he came to the Yankees… I don’t, however, remember a Met Japanese pitcher who took that number… Yoshii, Ishii, Nomo, Takatsi, Iriki (Spring Training), etc. That is what I find interesting.
i didnt realize that
Submitted by Scott (not verified) on Thu, 01/14/2010 – 6:19pm.
i didnt realize that yesterday that you can put a name down for the comments. and i did look at the tweet from Lennon and posted it here. i am wondering why they gave Igarashi a number and not everyone else they signed
I think Igarashi must have
Submitted by Jon Springer on Thu, 01/14/2010 – 8:46pm.
I think Igarashi must have made an appearance in uniform, some of the Mets are doing that this week. Lennon many have encountered him there.
You gotta wonder if they are re-considering the whole “caravan” thing — they used to do that every January to drum up interest in single-game tixx sales, before they got fat and happy. For many of the guys it was the first view in uniform and it always whetted my appetite for the spring.
Does Scooby-Doo drive a
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 01/15/2010 – 3:11pm.
Does Scooby-Doo drive a Ryota?