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SGV-Laker fan
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 Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 7:17 am Post subject: |
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| 1995Lakers wrote: | | Sasaki is a grade A dumbass if he chooses the Padres over the Dodgers. Any team with Manny Machado "leading" a team, soft Darvish (although it seems he is finally letting his b**** drop - about time), broken ownership infighting AND cutting payroll, little sister organization to the Dodgers and its best player a certified idiot in Tatis Jr. All of these are publicly known. How this joke of an organization even deserves to be in the final 3 is beyond me. It should have been the Yankees over these clowns in SD. |
someone should tell Sasaki the history of KL and PG13. both guys in their prime chose the Clippers over Lakers just want to be different, just want to prove they can dethrone Lakers as the king of LA, look how they end up. signing with the JV team in your region is self imposed death sentence for your career. just want to be different isn't always that cool in the long run. |
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LongBeachPoly
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Joined: 14 Jul 2012
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 7:34 am Post subject: |
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| strong9 wrote: | | The number of Padres players following him is increasing by the hour..lol. They are either recruiting him or signaling what's happening |
According to: Padres reddit, all the players who followed him were in that meeting with him:
| Quote: | I read somewhere that they had a second meeting with Sasaki and Shildt, Machado, Merrill, and Yu were all present. I accidentally refreshed my Instagram and can’t find it now, but damn. This is going to be crazy until he decides.
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| Quote: | He was seen throwing to Salas as well.
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| Quote: | Abd Salas immediately followed him on IG
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| Quote: | Actually, Ohtani and Yamamoto follow him and he follows Yamamoto, Ohtani and Darvish.
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| Quote: | | Quote: | But is Rouki following Manny and Jackson?
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No |
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1995Lakers
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 7:41 am Post subject: |
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| I really want to see Roki sign with the Dodgers just to see what these idiots do then. Do they un-follow him???? It would be funny as hell. |
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aprevo15
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 7:52 am Post subject: |
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That last posts about Roki not following Machado and Jackson is funny.
This feels like Ohtani being on a plane to Toronto all over again.
He's really putting on a show with this charade by throwing a BP for them. |
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LongBeachPoly
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 9:05 am Post subject: |
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Sasaki's agent list 4 of the biggest factors:
(I'm sure this was discussed around here but somehow I probably missed it, specifically reason no. 4)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6045382/2025/01/08/roki-sasaki-team-odds-mlb/
1) Success on the field:
| Quote: | What Wolfe said:
“The best I can say is, he has paid attention to how teams have done, as far as overall success, both this year and years past. He does watch a lot of Major League Baseball.” |
2) A history of developing pitchers:
| Quote: | | At the Winter Meetings, Wolfe said that Sasaki was looking for a team that has had success on the field and a history of developing pitchers. |
| Quote: | What Wolfe said:
“He’s talked to a lot of players, foreign players, that have been on his team with Chiba Lotte. He asked questions about weather, comfortability, pitching development.” |
3) Direct flights from his new city to Japan:
| Quote: | | He also mentioned access to direct flights from his new city to Japan as a consideration. |
| Quote: | What Wolfe said:
“When we supply information to our Japanese players, long before they come over here, one of the things that we provide for them is direct flights from Japan and the amount of time it takes for family to come and visit you.
I think about five or 10 years ago that was something that maybe they weighed a little bit more, but now you can fly direct from Japan to most of the major cities in the U.S.” |
4) Sasaki hates/wants to avoid dealing with media scrutiny:
| Quote: | | But perhaps most interestingly, he said that because of Sasaki’s personal experiences growing up in the spotlight in Japan, a small market team outside of the media glare might have a greater chance than some might think. |
| Quote: | What Wolfe said:
“I think that there’s an argument to be made that a smaller, mid-market team might be more beneficial for him as a soft landing coming from Japan, given what he’s been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media,” Wolfe said.
“It might be — I’m not saying it will be — I don’t know how he’s going to view it, but it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market.” |
| Quote: | | Teams took note, with some altering their presentations to account for the perceived preferences. |
Yeah, somehow I missed no. 4. I didn't know he's had bad experiences dealing with media scrutiny in Japan. Makes sense since he's been a phenom practically growing up. |
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1995Lakers
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 9:16 am Post subject: |
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| How does a guy who said he wants to be the best and be known/recognized as such, hope to avoid media scrutiny???? Makes absolutely no sense. If you are the King, all eyes will be on you and if you want to be known as the King like you say you do, you get recognized as such when eyeballs are on you and you pitch well in the biggest games. You wanna pitch in the biggest games? Be a Dodger |
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LongBeachPoly
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 9:24 am Post subject: |
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^^^
I think of Giannis and Jokic. They want to be the best, but their personalities seem like they like being in smaller markets. They want to play the game and go home and just live a regular normal life. Especially Jokic.
I think the media prying into their personal lives is what players want to avoid. Think of TMZ. |
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SGV-Laker fan
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 9:27 am Post subject: |
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| LongBeachPoly wrote: | ^^^
I think of Giannis and Jokic. They want to be the best, but their personalities seem like they like being in smaller markets. They want to play the game and go home and just live a regular normal life. Especially Jokic. |
then Sasaki should sign with Toronto. Padres organization and their fans will fan the flame to build up the rivalry with Dodgers even more after he signs with them. for someone who just want to master his own game, i don't think he wants all those extra attention, and facing a pissed off Dodger fanbase for the next decade. |
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LongBeachPoly
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 9:29 am Post subject: |
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| SGV-Laker fan wrote: | | LongBeachPoly wrote: | ^^^
I think of Giannis and Jokic. They want to be the best, but their personalities seem like they like being in smaller markets. They want to play the game and go home and just live a regular normal life. Especially Jokic. |
then Sasaki should sign with Toronto. Padres organization and their fans will fan the flame to build up the rivalry with Dodgers even more after he signs with them. for someone who just want to master his own game, i don't think he wants all those extra attention, and facing a pissed off Dodger fanbase for the next decade. |
It depends how much he weighs factor no. 4 right? The agent listed 4 factors. We're not sure how much he weighs each factor. We don't even know if these 4 factors are real or just their charade. |
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ChickenStu
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Location: Anaheim, CA
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 9:52 am Post subject: |
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| The LA media isn't exactly known for being tough, so I'm hoping that this isn't a major factor. One other possible wrinkle here, in trying to think about his mindset, is that his father and grandparents died in that tsunami in Japan some 14 years ago, when Sasaki was just 9 years old. (There's an article in The Athletic today by Stephen Nesbitt about it, and I would have linked it but I don't get The Athletic.) You have to wonder how such an experience might change a person, and he was just a little kid at the time. For example, maybe he just doesn't give a flying you-know-what about what anyone might think and he's just going to do what makes him happy. That might be why you pass up the hundreds of millions of dollars by simply waiting 2 more years. And if he does join the Padres, maybe he simply relishes the idea of knocking off Goliath. Or maybe it's the shot to play with his idol, Darvish. Who knows. |
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LongBeachPoly
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 10:18 am Post subject: |
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^^^
I’ll link it for you.
He’s said that’s exactly why he’s unwilling to wait. He says that incident taught him to not take the present for granted because there’s no guarantee of the future.
Live for today first and foremost.
| Quote: | How Roki Sasaki’s life, career and outlook were shaped by disaster
Stephen J. Nesbitt
Jan 14, 2025
https://archive.ph/zFsbH
……………..
Sasaki does not speak often about the tsunami and all he lost. (He declined to be interviewed for this story.) When he does, he speaks of the fear he felt that day, his desperation for normalcy afterward and his desire to live life to the fullest.
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| Quote: | “Given what’s happened in his life,” Wolfe said, “I think he looks at the world very differently.”
Maybe there would be a $300 million deal on the table in two years. Maybe not.
“There are no absolutes in baseball,” Wolfe said. “And the way Roki looks at life, there are no absolutes in life.” |
| Quote: | In Rikuzentakata, Murakami finds that worldview pervasive among young tsunami survivors.
“People that have undergone trauma like this, experiencing a tsunami and having loved ones pass away, you have a change in your thought process,” he said.
“If you have something you want to do, do it. You only live once.”
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Lakersfan1211
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ocho
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 11:21 am Post subject: |
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We should have him warm up in Padres gear.
_________________
14-5-3-12 |
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ChickenStu
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 11:22 am Post subject: |
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^
Thanks LBP. And as to the above, yes, this is good. Seems like we are getting the last meeting before he makes his decision. |
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LongBeachPoly
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 11:27 am Post subject: |
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1995Lakers
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 11:33 am Post subject: |
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| Had a feeling this was going to be the case where we would be the last meeting. It only makes sense if you think about it especially with our narrative that this is all a big charade. Had he chosen us without this second meeting, then fanbases would complain that he was wasting everyone's time when he had us pegged all along. At least by doing this, he can say he gave everyone a fair chance. We still need to show him that we dont take him for granted though.....similar to the Magic Johnson meeting with Lebron. This really feels like a "check the box" as in don't f*** it up type of meeting....as long as we put in a good showing, this is over |
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LongBeachPoly
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 11:44 am Post subject: |
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^^^
Entire article:
| Quote: | How Roki Sasaki’s life, career and outlook were shaped by disaster
Stephen J. Nesbitt
Jan 14, 2025
It was 2:46 p.m. on a Friday when the walls around Tomoyuki Murakami started to shake. He scrambled for cover inside the city hall in Rikuzentakata, a fishing village along Japan’s mountainous northeast coast. Murakami, a city official, had never felt an earthquake so strong. Plaster cracked. Picture frames fell and shattered. The floor sank in spots. The shaking lasted six minutes.
| Quote: | | “I thought I was going to die in that city hall,” Murakami said recently, through an interpreter. |
In Murakami’s office was a picture of the Little Leaguers he coached, a team photo taken the previous year at the baseball field by the water’s edge, flanked by a forest of 70,000 pines designated one of the most scenic places in the country.
In the second row was a tall 8-year-old, Roki Sasaki. He was one of the youngest boys in the Little League program, tagging along with his older brother, Ryuki, the team’s shortstop. The coach had noticed Sasaki’s strong arm when playing catch, but it wasn’t until the last scrimmage of the season that Sasaki was allowed to pitch. He struck out the side in his first inning.
| Quote: | | “That,” Murakami said, “was when I realized.” |
Today Sasaki, now 23, is one of the most coveted pitchers on the planet, a potential ace poised to sign with a Major League Baseball club within a week.
But that day — March 11, 2011 — Sasaki was in a third-grade classroom at Takata Elementary School. As aftershocks rumbled and tsunami warnings rang out, teachers hurried the children to higher ground behind the school.
Murakami’s training in disaster response had taught him that after a major earthquake, Rikuzentakata could be hit with a tsunami high enough to flood the first floor of city hall. Even when a firefighter radioed, a half hour after the earthquake, that waves had overcome the town’s 18-foot sea wall, Murakami had no way of knowing the scale of the unfolding disaster.
He helped residents to the second floor of city hall. After assisting an elderly woman who could no longer walk, Murakami turned and saw the water rapidly approaching. He fled to the fourth-story roof, arriving just as the tsunami tore through the building beneath him. Only those who made it to the roof survived.
The Tohoku earthquake — the strongest recorded in Japan, at a magnitude of 9.1 — and resulting tsunami killed more than 18,000 and remains the costliest natural disaster to date. Rikuzentakata, which had 23,300 residents before the tsunami, reported 1,800 dead or missing.
Sasaki’s father and paternal grandparents died. His father, Kota, had been at work, helping run a funeral parlor, a few blocks from home. The neighborhood was flattened.
The waves reached the front steps of the elementary school, spewing wreckage across the playground where Sasaki’s Little League team was scheduled to start practices later that month. The death toll might have been far worse had the tsunami happened when students were home.
| Quote: | | “The children who went to higher ground were saved,” Murakami said. |
Murakami’s mother picked up his 6-year-old son, Yuta, at his nursery school after the earthquake. He presumes they went home, to the house the family had just built. He doesn’t know for sure. Their bodies were never found.
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| Quote: | Two years ago, on the 12th anniversary of the tsunami, residents in Rikuzentakata crowded into an auditorium at a new community center built into a hillside looking out toward Hirota Bay. They were there to watch Sasaki take the ball in Tokyo, a six-hour drive south, to pitch for Samurai Japan in a World Baseball Classic game against the Czech Republic.
| Quote: | “Watching him pitch inspires us in the ravaged region,” Murakami said that day.
“His pitching on March 11 is a fateful event. He is our hope.” |
Stepping in against Sasaki in the first inning, Eric Sogard, an 11-year major leaguer, knew nothing of Sasaki’s story, only his stuff. Sogard fouled off a 101 mph fastball and waved at two devastating splitters, striking out on four pitches.
| Quote: | | “The dude is electric,” Sogard recalled. “The real deal.” |
That seemed to be the consensus after Sasaki struck out eight over 3 2/3 innings, with 20 of his 21 fastballs exceeding 100 mph. He drew headlines for delivering an apology and candy to a batter he’d hit in the knee with a fastball.
Another headline called Sasaki “baseball’s next great ace.”
But manager Hideki Kuriyama had not given Sasaki that start as an international showcase. The game held greater meaning, and Sasaki had met the moment.
| Quote: | | “It’s hard to explain,” Kuriyama said afterward, “but to me, it’s as if he is throwing his soul, not the baseball.” |
Sasaki does not speak often about the tsunami and all he lost. (He declined to be interviewed for this story.) When he does, he speaks of the fear he felt that day, his desperation for normalcy afterward and his desire to live life to the fullest. The disaster that ripped apart his hometown dictated so much of what has come after for Sasaki; its echoes can be seen in his rise through the Japanese high school ranks, in how he handled his early success in Nippon Professional Baseball, and ultimately, in his decision to leave Japan this offseason to jump to the majors earlier than expected.
| Quote: | “I cannot easily erase the agony and sadness I felt at the time,” Sasaki said in 2021.
“I only have a sense of gratitude to those who supported me.” He implored those too young to have seen the tsunami to “not take for granted the things they have now and the precious people around them.” |
After their home was swept away, Sasaki’s widowed mother, Yoko, and her three sons — Ryuki, Roki and Reiki — stayed temporarily at a nursing home in Rikuzentakata before moving to Ofunato, a city 10 miles up the coast.
They had lost everything they weren’t carrying with them on that Friday afternoon, but Sasaki clung to his love for baseball.
| Quote: | | “I was happiest playing baseball,” he said, “because I could lose myself for stretches of time. I felt I was able to give my best even through hard times and heartbreaking times.” |
The next Murakami heard of Sasaki, he was a middle schooler with a fastball pushing 88 mph and a lower-back injury threatening to end his pitching career. But Sasaki healed and grew into a tall, rail-thin teenage sensation as a high schooler. He turned down private schools with prestigious baseball programs to keep playing with his friends in Ofunato.
Scouts from across Japan and the United States flocked to ballfields in Iwate prefecture to see Sasaki pitch. After Sasaki hit triple digits on a scout’s radar gun in May 2019, Murakami learned Sasaki had earned a designation, kaibutsu, reserved for generational young pitchers.
Reiwa no kaibutsu. (The Monster of the Reiwa era.)
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| Quote: | At 18, Sasaki turned down a chance to sign with a major-league club as an amateur to take a final run at Summer Koshien, a national high school baseball tournament that is the largest amateur sporting event in Japan. Ofunato had not reached Koshien in 35 years.
Watching Sasaki pitch Ofunato into a qualifying game for Koshien — a regional final against Hanamaki Higashi High School, the powerhouse that produced Shohei Ohtani and Yusei Kikuchi — Murakami knew the weight on Sasaki’s shoulders. Murakami, a right fielder in his youth, had led Takata High School to its only trip to Koshien. Later in life, when Murakami faced a challenge in his academics or career, he reminded himself, If I could get to Koshien, I could do anything.
Sasaki had thrown 435 pitches over eight days, including a 194-pitch outing in which he hit 101 mph — breaking Ohtani’s record for hardest pitch thrown by a high schooler — and struck out 21 in a complete game he won with a home run in the 12th inning.
Even after throwing 129 pitches in the regional semifinal, he expected to start the final the next day. Aces rarely rest on the road to Koshien. Daisuke Matsuzaka, nicknamed the Monster of the Heisei era, once threw 398 pitches in two days.
| Quote: | | “It’s the dream of every high school kid to pitch in Koshien,” said author Robert Whiting, who has written about Japanese baseball since the 1970s. |
But manager Yohei Kokubo sat Sasaki in the final. Ofunato lost, 12-2.
| Quote: | | Afterward, Kokubu said he was trying to prevent injury: “He may have been fit to throw today, but it was my decision.” |
A reporter asked Kokubu: Is winning less important than Sasaki’s future?
That question has hung over much of Sasaki’s baseball existence. His future has been the subject of fascination across the baseball universe since the first videos of him pitching were posted on the internet.
After Ohtani’s smooth transition to MLB, even more evaluators are ready to dream upon the future of the next great Japanese teen. Kokobu’s decision made Sasaki a lightning rod.
| Quote: | | Isao Harimoto, the NPB hit king, said, “It’s not just Sasaki’s team. The players have practiced all their lives to achieve the dream of going to sacred Koshien.” |
| Quote: | | Yu Darvish, another pitcher who had risked his arm and made his name in Koshien, disagreed: “For a pitcher who is in the national spotlight as much as he is, it was a courageous stand to protect his future.” |
When the Chiba Lotte Marines drafted Sasaki No. 1 overall in the 2019 NPB draft, manager Tadahito Iguchi and pitching coach Masato Yoshii, both former major leaguers, exercised similar caution with Sasaki. Rather than risk Sasaki joining the long list of high school stars blowing out early in their pro careers, Yoshii, who had earned a master’s degree in physical education to further his understanding of pitching mechanics, scripted a plan for Sasaki to build strength.
Sasaki didn’t pitch in a game during his first season as a pro, throwing only bullpen sessions and simulated games in 2020. He pitched part of the 2021 season in the minors and had extra rest between starts.
| Quote: | | “There was little they could do other than let him grow into his body, which they were willing to do,” said the writer Jim Allen, who covers Japanese baseball. |
Yoshii seemed to agree with Kokubu: Sasaki had a future worth protecting.
One day during the 2021 season, Sasaki approached three teammates in the clubhouse — former big leaguers Brandon Laird, Leonys Martín and Adeiny Hechevarría — with a question:
| Quote: |
“Do you think I’m good enough to pitch in the majors?” |
| Quote: | | “Absolutely,” Laird replied. |
| Quote: | | “Really?” Sasaki asked. |
Laird grinned. Sasaki’s fastball crackled in the triple digits, and his split-fingered fastball flummoxed batters.
| Quote: | | “I don’t think you’re going to have a problem over there, man,” Laird said. |
Sasaki made his dream to pitch in the majors no secret.
| Quote: | | Former Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Gregory Polanco, who played for Chiba Lotte in 2024, told the Washington Post last spring that Sasaki asked about the majors every day: “I go in there, and he’s joking around: ‘I’m going to this team, I’m going to that team!’ He’s so ready to go.” |
As a child, Sasaki drew inspiration from watching Masahiro Tanaka, the Rakuten Eagles ace who had visited schools in Iwate prefecture after the tsunami. In 2013, Tanaka went 24-0, led the Eagles to their first Japan Series title, then signed with the New York Yankees. Sasaki wanted to one day follow in Tanaka’s footsteps to the majors.
| Quote: | | “I hope that I too can bring such joy and hope to children,” Sasaki told the Post. |
Any doubt observers harbored about Sasaki’s ability to dominate pro hitters vanished on April 10, 2022, when he threw a perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes. Sasaki struck out the third hitter of the game, reigning batting champion Masataka Yoshida, then struck out the side in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings. His 13 consecutive strikeouts in a game were a Japanese baseball record, far surpassing the MLB record of 10 in a row.
| Quote: |
“It was unfair,” Laird recalled. “Boom, boom, boom. One of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed.” |
In the visiting clubhouse, Orix reliever Jesse Biddle watched on a TV with the team’s analytics staff. Several years prior, Biddle had seen a video of Sasaki pitching in high school and thought, Is that sped up? Now the kid was carving up the eventual Japan Series champions.
| Quote: | | “It was laughable what was happening,” Biddle said. |
By the ninth inning, Biddle had moved to the bullpen. The crowd roared with each strike. The stadium radar clocked Sasaki again at 101 mph.
| Quote: | | “I don’t care what anybody says,” Biddle said. “He was throwing 110.” |
Sasaki fired the final pitch — a splitter for his 19th strikeout — and raised his arms. The Monster of the Reiwa era, the son of Rikuzentakata, had just thrown the first perfect game in the Japanese majors since 1994. (Sasaki then followed one of the greatest games ever pitched with a near replica. In his next start, Sasaki threw eight perfect innings — running his total of consecutive outs to 52 — before Iguchi pulled him, in another attempt to protect his arm.)
On the Orix bus after Sasaki’s perfect game, the Buffaloes licked their wounds, and two former big leaguers debated.
| Quote: | | Breyvic Valera groused about a few calls. Just one more at-bat, Valera said, and he would have had Sasaki. |
| Quote: | Rangel Ravelo cut off his teammate, shaking his head.
“That wasn’t a pitcher we faced today,” Ravelo said. “That was a god.” |
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| Quote: | Sasaki’s second chance to sign with a major-league club wasn’t supposed to come for another two years. Most Japanese stars who leave for the United States do so after 25, when they are permitted to sign a free-agent contract like Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s $325 million megadeal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. (The Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays are the finalists to sign Sasaki.)
By leaving at 23, like Ohtani did, Sasaki is considered an amateur, with his payday restricted to the amount available in each MLB team’s international bonus pool.
For Sasaki, waiting could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
| Quote: | | “If he wanted money,” Allen said, “he’d stay in Japan for two years.” |
Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, said he first met Sasaki a few years ago when they were connected by another client, former major leaguer Yoshi Tsutsugo. It was immediately evident that Sasaki intended to pitch in the majors sooner than later.
| Quote: | “He wanted to make sure that I was up for the challenge with him,” Wolfe said at MLB’s Winter Meetings in Dallas last month.
“It was going to be very difficult. He knew he was going to be subject to a lot of criticism in the media.” |
That criticism has come, much of it aired by former NPB players who feel Sasaki has not earned the right to walk away early.
By 23, Ohtani had won hardware and a Japan Series title. Sasaki has not. He did not pitch particularly well last season, missing time with shoulder fatigue as his velocity and stuff dipped. He has not yet pitched a full NPB season, won a title or contended for a Sawamura Award, the Japanese equivalent to the Cy Young. So, why now?
| Quote: |
“Given what’s happened in his life,” Wolfe said, “I think he looks at the world very differently.” |
Maybe there would be a $300 million deal on the table in two years. Maybe not.
| Quote: | | “There are no absolutes in baseball,” Wolfe said. “And the way Roki looks at life, there are no absolutes in life.” |
In Rikuzentakata, Murakami finds that worldview pervasive among young tsunami survivors.
| Quote: | “People that have undergone trauma like this, experiencing a tsunami and having loved ones pass away, you have a change in your thought process,” he said.
“If you have something you want to do, do it. You only live once.” |
March 11 — 3.11 — is now a day of national mourning.
This spring marks 14 years since the disaster. Only one of the 70,000 pines on the Rikuzentakata waterfront survived the tsunami. They call it the Miracle Pine. Engineers moved earth and gravel from the mountains to rebuild the city center on a manmade plateau more than 20 feet high.
Many residents retreated to homes at higher elevations. The view of the bay is now obstructed by a 41-foot sea wall, a structure not tall enough to halt a tsunami the same size as 2011 — waves were as high as 60 feet — but enough to buy time to evacuate.
Fumiaki Konno, a local tour guide who escaped the tsunami by climbing a Shinto shrine hill, described the dichotomy many survivors still hold, having had so much washed away, yet knowing they were the lucky ones.
| Quote: | | “I lost everything,” he said, “but I had my life.” |
Technically, 200 are still missing in Rikuzentakata. It wasn’t until two years after the tsunami that Murakami filed the paperwork pronouncing his 6-year-old son dead.
| Quote: | Only after his daughter was born, Murakami said, “I had the courage to submit both the certificate of birth for my daughter and the certificate of death for my son at the same time.”
Murakami adjusted his glasses. He spoke quietly. “If he was still with us, this would be his coming-of-age year,” he said. |
Murakami still works as a city official. He no longer coaches baseball, but he has taken on a new responsibility: president of the Roki Sasaki fan club in Rikuzentakata. The group organizes watch parties and distributes merchandise. Their posters hang throughout city hall.
Sasaki returns to his hometown whenever he visits his mother in Ofunato.
He goes to his favorite restaurant, Shikairo, where his photos adorn the wall and a signed Chiba Lotte jersey is on display.
Sasaki stops at the funeral home to see his late father’s colleagues.
Then he heads down toward the water. There’s a new athletic complex near the sea wall, and from time to time in the offseason, Sasaki can be seen training on one of the baseball fields.
He was there in November, in the weeks before flying to Los Angeles to meet with MLB clubs for the first time. Murakami spoke with Sasaki on that visit, not only about the realization of Sasaki’s major-league dream, but about how his dreams have continued to grow.
Now Sasaki sees his future the same way his first baseball coach always has. Far more than the money, Sasaki wants to become one of the great pitchers to have played the game.
| Quote: | | “From the bottom of my heart,” Murakami said, “I’m so proud of him.” |
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aprevo15
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Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 7779
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:30 pm Post subject: |
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In regards to LBP's post earlier.....
1. Success on the field: Every year we are in the playoffs. Went to World Series 4 times winning 2 in 8 years.
2. A history of developing pitchers: Koufax and Clayton should be more than enough. If not there is Buehler and most recently Stone and Ryan. Stone and Ryan are injured but they turned out to be good pitchers.
3. Direct flights from his new city to Japan: LAX enough said.
4. Sasaki hates/wants to avoid dealing with media scrutiny: Our media is pretty tame. Besides you got other superstars on this team that will take some of the media attention away. Only negative I see is the way Darvish was treated after blowing game 7 in the World Series in 2017. Since that’s his boy (supposedly) this might hurt us a bit. |
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ChickenStu
Retired Number
Joined: 25 Apr 2015
Posts: 35645
Location: Anaheim, CA
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:32 pm Post subject: |
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| aprevo15 wrote: | In regards to LBP's post earlier.....
1. Success on the field: Every year we are in the playoffs. Went to World Series 4 times winning 2 in 8 years.
2. A history of developing pitchers: Koufax and Clayton should be more than enough. If not there is Buehler and most recently Stone and Ryan. Stone and Ryan are injured but they turned out to be good pitchers.
3. Direct flights from his new city to Japan: LAX enough said.
4. Sasaki hates/wants to avoid dealing with media scrutiny: Our media is pretty tame. Besides you got other superstars on this team that will take some of the media attention away. Only negative I see is the way Darvish was treated after blowing game 7 in the World Series in 2017. Since that’s his boy (supposedly) this might hurt us a bit. |
Ha, I was just coming here to post that just now, on the Dodgers Nation Podcast, Doug McKain was pointing out that LAX has 15 direct flights to Japan, while San Diego only has one. "Do with that information what you will", he says. |
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LarryCoon
Site Staff
Joined: 11 Aug 2002
Posts: 11507
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:33 pm Post subject: |
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| 1995Lakers wrote: | | How does a guy who said he wants to be the best and be known/recognized as such, hope to avoid media scrutiny???? Makes absolutely no sense. If you are the King, all eyes will be on you and if you want to be known as the King like you say you do, you get recognized as such when eyeballs are on you and you pitch well in the biggest games. You wanna pitch in the biggest games? Be a Dodger |
One other thought I had -- for a long time, the Lakers' media team was just a lot better than the Clippers' media team, and a lot of that came from the experience of being in the spotlight and being under intense media scrutiny for so many years. They knew what they were doing. The Clippers' media team, OTOH, were just flying by the seat of their pants most of the time, and when they made the playoffs or something else happened that warranted media attention, they fell short in a lot of ways.
I don't know if the equivalent situation exists with the Dodgers and Padres, but I'd lay money on the Dodgers being able to handle the media and protect Sasaki much better than the Padres could. |
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aprevo15
Star Player
Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 7779
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:43 pm Post subject: |
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| I hope Sasaki takes note on the construction going on in Dodgers stadium. Dodgers sign 1.2 billion in contract, wins the World Series, then spends 100 million on renovating the club house. What team does that? While Padres and many other teams are cutting cost by nickel and dime'ing everything, Dodgers are reinvesting just about everything they profit back in to the team. |
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aprevo15
Star Player
Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 7779
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:48 pm Post subject: |
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| ChickenStu wrote: | | aprevo15 wrote: | In regards to LBP's post earlier.....
1. Success on the field: Every year we are in the playoffs. Went to World Series 4 times winning 2 in 8 years.
2. A history of developing pitchers: Koufax and Clayton should be more than enough. If not there is Buehler and most recently Stone and Ryan. Stone and Ryan are injured but they turned out to be good pitchers.
3. Direct flights from his new city to Japan: LAX enough said.
4. Sasaki hates/wants to avoid dealing with media scrutiny: Our media is pretty tame. Besides you got other superstars on this team that will take some of the media attention away. Only negative I see is the way Darvish was treated after blowing game 7 in the World Series in 2017. Since that’s his boy (supposedly) this might hurt us a bit. |
Ha, I was just coming here to post that just now, on the Dodgers Nation Podcast, Doug McKain was pointing out that LAX has 15 direct flights to Japan, while San Diego only has one. "Do with that information what you will", he says. |
Only downside to LAX is the traffic. Sometimes it can take you almost an hour after you get off the 105 or 405 fwy exit.  But that will change once the LAX metro station is finished this year. Many people will be taking that instead. |
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Lakersfan1211
Star Player
Joined: 28 Mar 2021
Posts: 9092
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 1:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Dominican INF Teilon Serrano, who was set to sign with the Dodgers in the upcoming 2024-25 international signing period, withdrew from his agreement and is back on the market, per sources.
Serrano will now look to sign with a new MLB organization. |
https://x.com/francysromeroFR/status/1879276221999296532 |
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eureca
Franchise Player
Joined: 18 Jan 2004
Posts: 16318
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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| LongBeachPoly wrote: | Sasaki's agent list 4 of the biggest factors:
(I'm sure this was discussed around here but somehow I probably missed it, specifically reason no. 4)
4) Sasaki hates/wants to avoid dealing with media scrutiny:
Yeah, somehow I missed no. 4. I didn't know he's had bad experiences dealing with media scrutiny in Japan. Makes sense since he's been a phenom practically growing up. |
Just FYI, his agent walked back those comments about market size. He said market size won't be a factor.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/wolfe-market-size-isnt-a-factor-in-sasakis-decision.html |
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LongBeachPoly
Franchise Player
Joined: 14 Jul 2012
Posts: 18718
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| Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2025 3:12 pm Post subject: |
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| eureca wrote: | | LongBeachPoly wrote: | Sasaki's agent list 4 of the biggest factors:
(I'm sure this was discussed around here but somehow I probably missed it, specifically reason no. 4)
4) Sasaki hates/wants to avoid dealing with media scrutiny:
Yeah, somehow I missed no. 4. I didn't know he's had bad experiences dealing with media scrutiny in Japan. Makes sense since he's been a phenom practically growing up. |
Just FYI, his agent walked back those comments about market size. He said market size won't be a factor.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/wolfe-market-size-isnt-a-factor-in-sasakis-decision.html |
Thx.
I tend not to believe when people walk back statements.
He makes it sound like he was talking out of his ass during the winter meetings.
No agent is this incompetent? |
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