For the third consecutive year, Japanese baseball legend Ichiro Suzuki (50) will play a friendly game against high school girls. Ichiro will pitch and Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has 170 career wins in Japan and the U.S., will bat.
The Nippon Women’s Baseball Federation announced a friendly game between a high school girls’ baseball team and the Kobe Chiben team, a social baseball team that Ichiro selected from his acquaintances, scheduled to take place at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on March 21. The pre-game training schedule has been released.
The high school girls’ select team will train first, followed by Ichiro’s team at 4pm. The highlight of the training will be Ichiro and Matsuzaka’s batting practice, which starts at 5pm. The two legends will take batting practice side by side.
Then, at 5:15 p.m., Ichiro takes the field to prepare for his start with catch and light long toss. The game is scheduled to start at 6:20 pm.
Matsuzaka, who retired with 170 career wins in the Japanese and American major leagues (114 in Japan and 56 in the major leagues), participated in last year’s tournament, going 3-for-4 with a home run and an RBI as the No. 4 hitter and shortstop. He plans to participate this year for the second consecutive year.
Ichiro played his first friendly game with a high school girls’ team in 2021. Since retiring, Ichiro has been active in promoting the game of baseball, serving as a special assistant to the president of the Seattle Mariners and giving special lessons to amateur players in Japan during the off-season. 아톰카지노 도메인
Ichiro started the first tournament of 2021 and threw 147 pitches through the ninth inning, allowing four hits, striking out 17 and walking none. His fastball touched 139 mph. At the plate, he was hitless in three at-bats. All three were retired on infield grounders.
In the second friendly in 2022, Ichiro threw a 131-pitch, 14-K complete game. In his ninth start, Ichiro gave up a leadoff single in the first inning after loading the bases with one out on a passed ball. With runners on first and third, he used his changeup to get out of the jam without allowing another run. He then threw 131 pitches through the ninth inning, allowing two runs on 14 hits with one strikeout. At the plate, Ichiro went 4-for-4 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch.
It will be interesting to see how Ichiro performs in the third annual friendly, pitching a complete game at age 50.
Ichiro entered the major leagues in 2001 and played in 2,653 career games through 2019, batting .301 with 117 home runs, 780 RBIs, 1,420 runs scored and 509 stolen bases. He won both the MVP and Rookie of the Year honors in his first year, while also earning All-Star, Gold Glove, and Silver Slugger honors. He finished his career as a 10-time All-Star, 10-time Gold Glove winner, and three-time Silver Slugger.