Baseball! – Three Japanese samurai face in the World Series

The Major Leagues World Series has just begun today. It’s striking that three Japanese players play as an opponent for the first time in the Major League history – Kazuo Matsui of the Colorado Rockies vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima of the Boston Red Sox.

Kazuo and Daisuke used to play together in the Seibu Lions, one of the greatest team that had been the first division of the league for over 25 years, as star player. It’s immeasurable how much they contributed to Lions’ Pacific League victory in 2002.
Okajima used to play in the Nippon Ham Fighters, which won the championship last year. Although he was not a “star”, he gained a strong position as reliever.

Detracting from the baseball a bit, Kazuo really loves his daughter. He told on TV interview a few years ago that his daughter’s name was sewed on his glove instead of his wife’s. (God knows how much his wife got angry… ;p)

Daisuke is going to be a starter on 3rd game. How exciting to see a face-off between previous Lions players in such a big game!