- Aug 21, 2008
- 2,393
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Hiraku Matsuda is a 32 year old professional softball pitcher in Japan. He is currently one of the top two or three pitchers in the world. (And, no, he doesn't throw a screwball...)
@Hillhouse, have you seen this guy pitch?
Yes, I know him. Ironically, he took my place on the New York based team I was on after I retired, 2013 or 14. He only lasted 1 season in the USA, it didnt go well for him. There is a rumor he's coming back in 2021 for a different team, I'm sure he'll be a different pitcher. Japan is tricky because they isolate themselves a lot from the softball world as their season is played the same as ours in North America. Kiwi's, Aussies, Argentina players all come here during their off season. So Japan's only connection to the outside world of softball is, their teams pay a lot of money to have pitchers (male and female) to play in Japan. It's finally worked out that Japan takes a "season break" from latter June to late August, which is allowing players to play in both Japan and USA. The top level teams in the USA only play from late June through mid August, about 6 total weekends.