Hideki Okajima

Hideki Okajima 岡島 秀樹
Boston Red Sox – No. 37
Relief pitcher
Bats: Left Throws: Left
debut
April 2, 2007, for the Boston Red Sox
Career statistics (through 2007)
Win-Loss	3-2
Earned run average	2.22
Strikeouts	63
Stats at Baseball Reference
Teams
Yomiuri Giants (1994-2005) Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (2006) Boston Red Sox (2007–present)

Hideki Okajima (岡島 秀樹, Okajima Hideki, born December 25, 1975) is a Japanese left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. He was elected to the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game as a first time All-Star via the Monster All-Star Final Vote.

Biography

Okajima was born in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan attended Higashiyama High School and pitched in the 1994 Koshien National High School Tournament. He was drafted in the third round in 1993 by the Yomiuri Giants of the Nippon Professional Baseball League. Okajima pitched mostly as a setup man, but sometimes played the role of a starter till 1999. On 31 August 1999, Okajima pitched 9 IP with 0 ER as a reliever after his team's starter pitched zero innings and was injured with two runners on base.

He became the team's closer in 2000–2001, before returning to his setup role in 2002. He was traded to the Nippon Ham Fighters right before the start of the 2006 season for two position players, and was a valuable lefty setup man for the team, pitching in 55 games, with a 2.14 ERA. The Fighters won the championship that year. In Japan, Okajima had a career record of 34–32 with a 3.36 ERA.

Okajima became a free agent in 2006, and signed a two-year, $2,500,000 deal with the Boston Red Sox. The deal included a $1.75m club option for a third year.

At the start of the 2007 Red Sox season, injuries and poor performances limited the effectiveness of anticipated setup relievers Mike Timlin and Joel Piñeiro. Okajima stepped into the role of primary setup man for closer Jonathan Papelbon and quickly became one of the dominant relievers in the major leagues. Okajima earned his first MLB save on April 20, 2007 against the New York Yankees. His sparkling performances against the arch-rival Yankees in all three games of the teams' first series made Okajima an instant fan favorite.

Okajima has trained during the off-season with Masumi Kuwata, who was his teammate on the Yomiuri Giants (Kuwata now plays with the Pittsburgh Pirates). Okajima's wife is sports announcer Yuka Kurihara (栗原 由佳, Kurihara Yuka), with whom he has a son and a daughter. He met his wife during a champagne/beer celebration after his Yomiuri Giants won the 2000 Japan Series.

Pitching style

Okajima has a distinctive pitching form in which he turns his head downwards just before he releases the ball, and after release jerks it hard towards third base. These extra movements appear to give Okajima some added velocity to his pitches as it torques his body towards homeplate, and reportedly disguises his pitches and causes batters to swing early. In Japan, this pitching form has been dubbed "Looking the Other Way", after a local version of the rock-paper-scissors game, but many of the country's pro baseball veterans, like Senichi Hoshino, insist that young players never try to emulate it. Former Red Sox teammate, J.C. Romero, describes Okajima as always being on "autopilot". Okajima is said to have mimicked his pitching form after a pitcher in Yoichi Takahashi's manga Ace! who torqued his head so much after every pitch that it always caused his hat to come flying off. Apparently, Okajima thought that this would be cool to try and emulate.^{[citation needed]}

Okajima's unorthodox delivery, showing him looking down at the ground towards 3rd base as the ball is released.

Initially, in Japan, numerous coaches attempted to change Okajima's pitching form throughout his baseball career. This all stopped, however, when revered pitching coach Yoshitaka Katori of the Yomiuri Giants stated in 1999 that "since Okajima has been pitching this way ever since he threw rocks as a kid, there is nothing anybody can ever do to change the way he throws a baseball."

Okajima is a junkball pitcher who does not have overpowering stuff, so he has concentrated on developing a more consistent release point to better control his pitches. Okajima’s fastball is usually in the 85-89 mph range, rarely ever reaching 90 mph. His out pitch in Japan was his sharp rainbow curveball in the 70-75 mph range, which left-handed hitters find hard to hit, and he also occasionally throws a slider, a splitter in the 80-84 mph range and changeup usually 82-84 mph. Okajima enjoyed success in Japan with his curveball, however the pitch has not been particularly effective when he used the balls of the Major Leagues but on occasion has been one of his better pitches. Okajima did have blazing success with his changeup, as many consider it to be one of his best pitches in the Major Leagues. He has said that he attributes this to differences in baseballs between Japan and the U.S., with the cover material being different.

In the past, Okajima was prone to bouts of wildness—even being booed in his home park for his poor control. After 2005 season, Okajima was traded to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and then he changed his pitching form so that he re-established good control. After joining the Red Sox, Okajima has displayed such pinpoint accuracy that Hideki Matsui, former teammate, of the New York Yankees was amazed that that since his time with Okajima in Japan, he never believed Okajima could gain such "great control". Okajima's success in the major leagues against multiple batters was a departure from his time in Japan, where he was known as a situational lefty brought in to face one left-handed batter in key late-game situations.

During an April 15 rainout in 2007, Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell tweaked Okajima's changeup delivery. The result was a devastating changeup with screwball motion dubbed the "Okie-Dokie" by bullpen coach Gary Tuck. As of May 10, 2007, the Okie-Dokie has been thrown for strikes 79% of the time with hitters swinging through the pitch 14 out of 30 times.

Detroit Tigers slugger Gary Sheffield declared Okajima "one of the most impressive lefties I've ever seen" with "stuff I have never seen before from anybody." Former Yankees manager Joe Torre called Okajima "unhittable".

2007 season

Okajima allowed a home run to John Buck on his very first pitch in the major leagues. Okajima then proceeded to hold opponents scoreless for nearly two months until the Yankees scored a run off of him via a fielder's choice on May 22. The run came on a controversial play, as Alex Rodriguez belatedly popped up from his slide and crashed backward into Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, slowing down Pedroia's double-play relay throw and allowing a runner to score on a safe call at first base. Through the first two months of the season, Okajima cemented himself as the top setup man in the Red Sox bullpen, garnering the American League Rookie of the Month for April. Okajima made the All-Star team as the winner of the final vote but did not play in the game; he is the third Red Sox player to make the team this way.

Following the All-Star break, Okajima continued to pitch solid and reliable relief innings, occasionally closing games for the Sox as they held their place at the top of the AL East. However, the rigors of the MLB season began to catch up with Okajima in the later stages of the season and he began to struggle, culminating into a career-high four-run meltdown in a game against the Yankees on September 14, 2007. Red Sox management decided to shut him down following this outing to allow Okajima to relieve the physical and mental fatigue of the longer American season. On his return during the final stages of the regular season, Okajima regained his sharp early season form, pitching scoreless frames to establish himself again as an integral part of the dominant Red Sox bullpen as they headed into the post-season.

He was selected to the 2007 Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team. The selection was the result of the 49th annual Topps balloting of Major League managers.

Okajima's return culminated with his performance in Game 2 of the World Series against the Colorado Rockies, in which he pitched 2⅓ perfect innings in relief of Curt Schilling, striking out four and exiting to a standing ovation at Fenway Park. He became the first Japanese born pitcher to play in the World Series.

Pitching stats

Japanese Professional Leagues

• 439 Games
• 34 Wins
• 32 Losses
• 41 Saves
• 3.36 ERA
• 681 Strikeouts

Major Leagues

• 3 Wins, 2 Losses
• 5/7 On saves
• 69.0 Innings Pitched
• Hits Surrendered: 50
• Runs Surrendered: 17
• 63 Strikeouts.
• 2.22 E.R.A.

Awards and recognition

• Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Game 2000, 2001, 2002.

• Japan Series Champion (2000, 2002 Yomiuri Giants and 2005 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters).

• Asia Series Champion (2005 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters).

• Okajima was awarded Rookie of the Month of the American League for April 2007.

• American League All-Star (2007).

• World Series Champion (2007 Boston Red Sox).

Trivia

• Okajima was the last pitcher on the mound when the Giants won their 2000 championship, thus also becoming the last pitcher in an official pro game in Japan during the 20th Century.

• Okajima's first experience facing major league hitters came in 2000 during an exhibition game between the Yomiuri Giants and New York Mets. The Mets were in Japan at the time to open the major leagues season with a two-game series against the Chicago Cubs. As was usual for him at the time, Okajima had very poor control during his outing.

• Okajima gave up a home run on his very first pitch in the major leagues. He became the 7th pitcher in MLB history to have given up a home run on his first pitch.

• In Japan, Okajima was not known for having a sense of humor, and described baseball as being nothing more than a "job or temporary occupation".

• During spring training in 2007, Okajima was asked what he felt about being relatively anonymous while his teammate and countryman Daisuke Matsuzaka's every move was scrutinized. Okajima famously stated, "I'm willing to be a hero in the dark."

• When he played with the Giants in Japan, Okajima chose to go by the nickname "Okaji" instead of Hideki, out of respect for Hideki Matsui, who preceded him on the Giants.

• Okajima has revealed more of his humorous side in the United States. Okajima faced the heart of the Detroit Tigers order for the second time in one day to earn his second major league save. When Japanese reporters asked him about facing the same three batters in both games of the doubleheader, he answered with a smile, "I did?"

• Okajima's favorite movies are romances including Ghost, Pretty Woman, and Autumn in New York.

• Okajima's entrance song with the Giants was the Dixie Chicks' version of The Supremes' hit, "You Can't Hurry Love."

• Okajima's scoreless streak from April to May of 2007 was the longest by a Red Sox left-hander since Bruce Hurst 20 years prior.

• For all of his early success, Okajima remained relatively anonymous in his forays around Boston. While Okajima was taking a cab ride with his wife to a local restaurant, his cab driver gushed about the amazing performance of the Red Sox's newly acquired lefty without knowing that the reliever was in the cab with him.

• After getting a save in his first appearance during a Red Sox–Yankees series, Okajima compared the experience to winning the pennant.

See also

• List of players from Japan in Major League Baseball

External links

• Career statistics from MLB · ESPN · Baseball Reference · Fangraphs · Baseball Reference (Minors)  · Retrosheet
• Template:Ja icon Hideki Okajima Official Home Page
• Japanese league stats - Hideki Okajima
• Frank's Field of Dreams - Hideki Okajima