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History
| A chronological table of Daisuke Matsuzaka | |
|---|---|
| YEAR | A main event |
| 1980 | He was born on September 13th, the first son of father, Satoru and mother, Yumiko at her hometown of Aomori. His birth weight was 9.5 lbs. He was named after pitcher, Daisuke Araki, who was a Koshien (Japanese High school baseball national championship games) hero in August that year. |
| 1987 | He started Nanyo Elementary School, Koutou ku, Tokyo. |
| 1988 | He was run over by a car when he was playing with his friends. Miraculously, he only had a minor scratch. |
| 1989 | As a third grader, he started playing rubber-ball baseball at "Toyo Phoenix" in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo. He started as a shortstop. |
| 1992 | As a six grader, he became a pitcher for a hardball baseball team, "Edogawa South Little". |
| 1993 | He started Toyo Junior High School, Koutou-ku, Tokyo. He played at "Edogawa South Senior". |
| 1995 | At his ninth grade, his team was a runner-up for the national championship. |
| 1996 | Started Yokohama High School. |
| 1997 | When he was a sophomore, he became the ace pitcher on his team. He won a regional championship in Spring, but his wild pitch caused his team to lose the Kanagawa prefecture semi-final game. Because he then missed a chance to play in Koshien, he cried out loud./td> |
| 1998 Spring | He won a high school national championship game. His fastest pitch was over 93 miles/hour. |
| 1998 Summer | He threw 250 pitches, 17 innings in one game against PL Gakuen's team in the quarterfinals and won the game. After that, he pitched a no-hit no-run game in the final. He conquered Spring and Summer championship games with a top speed of almost 94 miles/hour. |
| 1998Fall | At the draft meeting in November 20th, three pro teams bid for the right to negotiate. Seibu earned the right. |
| 1998 Winter | Initially, he hesitated to play pro baseball, but ultimately took the offer from Seibu for $1.24 million up front with a $107,406/year annual salary. Uniform number is of course "18". |
| 1999 Spring | On April 7th he debuted for Nippon Ham Fighters game at Tokyo Dome. His fastball was over 98 miles/hour. In his first winning game as a pro, he pitched 8 innings, allowed 5 hits and 2 runs. |
| On May 16th, he faced Ichiro (who was playing for Orix at that time) for the first time and struck him out three times. He commented, "My confidence became conviction." | |
| 1999 Summer | He received the most votes from the fan for the All-Star game. He threw three strikeouts in 5 innings in the All-Star game. |
| 1999 Fall | He won 16 games and received the most winning pitcher title, the rookie of the year, the best nine, and G glove awards. |
| 1999 Winter | His annual salary was raised to $578,340. He contracted with 5 companies to do their TV commercials. |
| 2000 Spring | He was chosen to be a starting pitcher as his second year as a pro. |
| 2000 Summer | He played in Sidney Olympic Games, but couldn't receive the medal because Japan ended up in the 4th place. |
| 2000 Fall | He won 14 games this season - the most in the league again. However, he broke a traffic law and the team punished him by ordering him to stay home. |
| 2000 Winter | His annual salary increased to 100 million yen ($826,200) |
| 2001 | He won 15 games and became the most winning pitcher for the third time straight. He also won his first Sawamura award. His annual salary became 140 million yen ($1,156,680) |
| 2002 Spring | He won first 6 games from the beginning of the season. However, at the end of May he retired for the season after feeling some discomfort on his right arm. |
| 2002 Fall | After his team won a league championship, he pitched again for the Nippon Series Championship Game but he was knocked out because he was ineffective. |
| 2002 Winter | Because he finished the season with just 6 wins, his salary was reduced to 115 million yen ($950,130). |
| 2003 | He made a comeback and won 16 games for the season. His salary was increased to 200 million yen ($1,663,200). |
| 2004 Summer | He played at the Olympic Games in Athens and won a bronze medal. |
| 2004 Fall | He won a league championship and the Japanese national championship. |
| 2004 Winter | He married to his wife Tomoyo, a Nippon Television announcer. His salary went up to 250 million yen ($2079,000) |
| 2005 Fall | He was 14 - 13 for the season. |
| 2005 Winter | His first daughter was born in December 8th. His salary was 330 million yen ($2,744,280) |
| 2006 Spring | He won a WBC championship and received a MVP title. |
| 2006 Summer | He won his 100th carreer game on June 16th against Yokohama. |
| 2006 Fall | He ended his season with his personal best record of 17 wins. |
| 2006 Winter | He signed a contract with Boston Red Sox through a Posting System. The bidding price was about $51,110,000 and his 6-year contract was $52,000,000. His Boston uniform number is "18". |
