Impressive Article about Japanese Baseball Player

Hello!

In the other day, I encountered one impressive article about baseball on the Internet.

Today, I’d like to write about that.

First, do you know him?

If you like baseball and a fan of Softbank Hawks, you absolutely know him.

His name is Munenori Kawasaki, one of the most famous and the best baseball player Japan has produced. He really follows Ichiro, you know, and in this spring, he entered the same baseball team in America, “Seattle Mariners.”

But many Japanese baseball fans didn’t think that he could play with Ichiro, honestly included me, because the situation was too strict for him to play in a major league. It’s true that he is a great baseball player in Japan, but there are too many other great players in America.

 Here, I’ll quote the article. It is a comment by one big fan of Mariners. It’s very very long, so if you don’t have enough time to read in English, I recommend you to see here. I also write about this in Japanese so you can see translation here.     http://pyaian07.blogspot.co.uk/

It’s not often that a player goes from unknown to “I’ll take any contact” to Spring Training to not really being anything more than he was advertised offensively to hero and fan favourite but Munenori Kawasaki has done just that.

A relationship that started out as “Okay, let’s give it a go because you’re basically giving it away” has gone to “Dude, we love you. We really, really love you. ”

And it’s not like Kawasaki is anything special as a baseball player. Through 15 games and 32 plate appearances, he is hitting .214/.313./.214,.221 wOBA, 38 wRC+, .000 ISO and -0.3 fWAR.

Kawasaki is the 25^th man on this roster. He’s the backup to a SS hitting .147 and yet nobody would question that he is the backup because Brendan Ryan is still a great defensive shortst op and Kawasaki is not a great hitter.

Yet, her I sit thinking about Mariners baseball and here I sit mostly thinking about Munenori Kawasaki because he’s the kind of player that I think every team would be lucky to have.

What started as an unknown and as nothing more than a Japanese name that most of us had never heard of before has turned into an opportunity to relish the moments we have watching a player for the Mariners that is like a projection of ourselves, the fans, if we had the chance to play for the Mariners.

We heard about him like that; he’s a gritty guy, a moodmaker, he’s fast, he has great range on defense, not a fantastic arm though, and he can steal bases. He wouldn’t cost a lot and the Mariners are the only team he wants to go.

Indeed, he is a “moodmaker” and that mood is Goooood.

As his playing in Spring Training, we are reminded of this player and that the light-hitting shortstop that trains with and loves Ichiro is now in Seattle.

Through slapping singles in Spring Training to his sparse but memorable appearances throughout the season, the love of Kawasaki has grown from ”We don’t know what you are but if you play good defense you can have a spot, I guess” to “Holy sit, you’re the best. Your value to a team and to Earth cannot be quantified with mere numbers. There ia no sabermetric stat for adorable-ness.”

As children, we see Henry Rowengartner go from regular kid to major leaguepitcher and it made us laugh, smile, and think “WOW! WHAT WOULD THAT BE LIKE IT WOULD BE SO COOL, DUDE!”

And now as an adult I see Kawasaki and I get those same feelings.

He reminds me of childhood.

He reminds me of innocence.

He reminds me of what it was like to love baseball simply because you loved baseball.

Because it was about spending time with your friends and that’s all he wants todo: spend time with his friends.

That's why Kawasaki was willing to come to Seattle (and only Seattle) because he wanted to be with his friend. He wanted to play baseball. He wants to get better and he wants to win, but more than anything he wants to have fun and just be with his friends.

During an era where baseball has become more of a numbers game than anything else, Kawasaki reminds us what it was like to simply enjoy the moments we have and the moments that we can share together. That's why I appreciate him, that's why I really like this guy.

Thanks for that Munenori. We like you too!

That's all to quote.

How did you feel by reading this?

I think that we can learn a lot of something important from this article.

Today's post is all.   See you next...