Long time Hawks pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada, the final active player from the "Matsuzaka Generation" announced his retirement a few weeks ago. Wada had a stellar collegiate career at Waseda University, setting the career strikeout record for the Tokyo Big Six league, before being signing with the then-Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in the "free acquisition phase" of the 2002 draft.
The Hawks immediately put him into their starting rotation and he did not disappoint, going 14-5 with an ERA of 3.38 and 195 strikeouts (in 189 innings). He capped off what ended up being a Rookie Of The Year winning season with a complete game victory over the Hanshin Tigers in Game 7 of that year's Nippon Series, winning the championship for the Hawks. He also pitched for the Japanese team in that year's Asian Championship.
He was a mainstay of the Hawks rotation for the next several years before missing much of the 2009 season with elbow issues. He bounced back in 2010 with a great season, going 17-8 with an ERA of 3.14 and 169 strikeouts. The 17 wins led the Pacific League and he was the league MVP as well as the Best 9 pick at pitcher. He followed that up with an even better season in 2011, going 16-5 with a 1.51 ERA for the eventual Nippon Series champions (Wada made two starts in the Series, getting a no-decision in Game One and the loss in Game Six). Wada then made the decision to move to MLB, signing a two year contract with an option for a third year with the Baltimore Orioles.
He never appeared for the Orioles, however, as he blew out his elbow in early 2012 and underwent Tommy John surgery. He recovered enough to make 19 starts with the O's Triple-A team in Norfolk in 2013 but Baltimore declined to pick up his option for 2014. He signed with the Cubs and bounced between the majors and minors over the next two seasons, going 5-5 with a 3.36 ERA in 21 games (20 starts) with Chicago while spending the rest of the time in Triple-A Iowa (plus one game at Double-A Tennessee).
He returned to Japan and the Hawks for 2016 and it was like he'd never left. He went 15-5 with 3.04 ERA, leading the PL in wins again. He missed a lot of 2017 with another elbow injury and then missed almost all of 2018 with shoulder injuries. He was back in the rotation in 2019 and won Game Four of the Nippon Series against the Giants. He went 8-1 with a 2.94 ERA in 2020 and started Game Four of the Series against the Giants again, getting no decision in a game the Hawks eventually won to sweep the Giants again. He had a so-so year in 2021, going 5-6 with a 4.48 ERA in 18 starts but bounced back to pitch reasonably well the next two years. At age 42 and four months, he became the oldest pitcher to appear in an All Star game for the Pacific League in 2023. He pitched well when healthy last season but staying healthy appears to have been an issue as he missed time with blisters on his fingers and a hip issue. His contract had been renewed for next year despite him not being on the Hawks roster for the Nippon Series but he announced his retirement right after the Series ended.
He made six All Star teams (2003, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2016 and 2023) and pitched in four Nippon Series (2003, 2011, 2019 and 2020). He set a record for longest gap between Nippon Series victories with the 16 years between his 2003 Game Seven and 2019 Game Four wins. He pitched for Japan in two Olympics - 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing - as well as the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
His first baseball card was in the 2003 BBM Rookie Edition set (#63) and he also appeared in BBM's 1st and 2nd Version and Touch The Game sets, their Hawks team set, and their All Star, Nippon Series and Asian Championship box sets that year. He appeared in BBM's 1st and 2nd Version sets every year that he played in Japan except 2018 (only in 1st Version) and 2019. His first Calbee card was #146 in the 2003 Series Two set. Here's a bunch of his cards:
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| 2003 BBM Rookie Edition #63 |
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| 2003 BBM 1st Version #273 |
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| 2003 BBM Nippon Series #04 |
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| 2004 BBM 1st Version #375 |
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| 2005 SCM #51 |
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| 2006 Upper Deck WBC Jersey Collection #WBC-TW |
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| 2008 BBM Japan National Team #JPN12 |
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| 2010 BBM All Stars #A42 |
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| 2011 BBM 1st Version #325 |
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| 2011 BBM Legend Of Tokyo Big Six #083 |
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| 2012 Topps Chrome #185 |
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