Ace hurler Yu Darvish is determined to prove that he is top class when he leads defending champions Japan at the World Baseball Classic this week.
Although he was scouted by the Los Angeles Angels, Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets in 2004, Davrish chose to play for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters while other players moved to the US Major League.
While he stayed put, national teammates like star outfielder Ichiro Suzuki joined Seattle Mariners in 2001 and has clocked 200 hits every year since then, equalling the record set by Willie Keeler more than 100 years ago.
Meanwhile, pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka has been successful with 33 wins and 15 losses for Boston Red Sox in the past two years, while catcher Kenji Jojima also joined Ichiro at the Mariners in 2006.
“I will quit baseball if I have to go to the Major League,” said a defiant Darvish.
“It is not good at all for the Japanese children. Japanese baseball needs some top players to attract children. I have no interest at all [in playing in the Major League],” he said.
Born to an Iranian father Farzad and Japanese mother Ikuyo in 1986, Darvish suffered racial discrimination when he was a boy as a “foreigner,” which eventually intensified his feeling as a “Japanese.”
He is determined to make his mark at the Classic this year after blowing his chance in 2006 when he lost a humiliating seven runs in the first two innings in a tune-up game to be dropped from the national squad.
The experience made him a better pitcher, marking an earned-run average of 1.82 in 207.2 innings in 2007 and 1.88 in 200.2 innings last season in the Pacific League.
His overall record in the past four years stands at 2.33 in 652.1 innings with 48 wins and 19 losses, allowing 39 homers.
Darvish first represented Japan at the Olympic Games in Beijing last year, where he lost four runs in four innings to become a losing pitcher in the first game against eventual silver medallists Cuba.
He pitched only as a relief in the last qualifying game and a third-place playoff, both against the US.
“It will be a big challenge for me,” Darvish said of his second chance in the up-coming 16-team competition. “So far, I’m tuning up all right without any injuries. I’ve been pitching better than I had expected.”
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