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MikeO said:
The level of competition of those high school kids. Was he a Lebron James type playing a bunch of midgets?? Was the playing field equal???? Was he on one of those high school teams that recruit going up against a bunch of rag tag high school "regular" teams. I mean.........who knows. That is why I take it with a grain of salt.
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Who knows? Do you have any background knowledge of those three games we're talking about?

Obviously not so here's the basic scoop: It was a tournament in Japan to crowd the National High School Champion, so just picture every state champion in high school in the US playing each other to see which team is the best. So obviously it wasn't a bunch of blind kids playing because he pitched in those games in the Quarter, Semis and then Finals. Nor was it an "All Star" Team playing lesser teams just to show off their skills and pad their stats.

Those three games made Matsuzaka a legend in Japan and a national hero. This story has been all over ESPN.com, MLB.com, redsox.com.

Here's a little bit of Jayson Stark's article today on ESPN.com that talks about it:

And in case you just want to read about the tournament here it is:

Koshien isn't a word that registers on the American radar screen. But it was Koshien -- the annual site of Japan's riveting national high school baseball tournament -- that turned Daisuke Matsuzaka into a legend. When he was still just a high school senior.
You might have heard this tale someplace before. But if not, we'll sum up what Matsuzaka did in the final three games of that tournament as succinctly as possible:
A 250-pitch, 17-inning complete game in the quarterfinals. Followed by a save in the semifinals the next day. Followed by a no-hitter in the finals the day after that. All on national TV. Pretty good weekend.
 
Ray Finkle said:
Who knows? Do you have any background knowledge of those three games we're talking about?

Obviously not so here's the basic scoop: It was a tournament in Japan to crowd the National High School Champion, so just picture every state champion in high school in the US playing each other to see which team is the best. So obviously it wasn't a bunch of blind kids playing because he pitched in those games in the Quarter, Semis and then Finals. Nor was it an "All Star" Team playing lesser teams just to show off their skills and pad their stats.

Those three games made Matsuzaka a legend in Japan and a national hero. This story has been all over ESPN.com, MLB.com, redsox.com.

Here's a little bit of Jayson Stark's article today on ESPN.com that talks about it:

And in case you just want to read about the tournament here it is:

Koshien isn't a word that registers on the American radar screen. But it was Koshien -- the annual site of Japan's riveting national high school baseball tournament -- that turned Daisuke Matsuzaka into a legend. When he was still just a high school senior.
You might have heard this tale someplace before. But if not, we'll sum up what Matsuzaka did in the final three games of that tournament as succinctly as possible:
A 250-pitch, 17-inning complete game in the quarterfinals. Followed by a save in the semifinals the next day. Followed by a no-hitter in the finals the day after that. All on national TV. Pretty good weekend.
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I still take those stories out of Japan with a grain of salt. Stop trying to change my mind. You won't!!!! Get over it. Move on!!
 
FinsNYanksFan13 said:
What Matsuzaka did was great but I just want to say that no hitters are thrown in high school all the time (at least in the U.S.). What he did was impressive though, u got to give him props for that. But as I said, no hitters are thrown in high school all the time. My senior year our best pitcher threw 3!
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I don't think the no hitter would be that big of a deal if it didn't come in the Finals of the tournament and/or after the 17 inning complete game and save. If he never did those two things people wouldn't be making that big of a deal of it.
 
MikeO said:
I still take those stories out of Japan with a grain of salt. Stop trying to change my mind. You won't!!!! Get over it. Move on!!
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I'm not trying to change you mind I was just filling it with knowledge because you were clueless on the topic.

Now I'll move on.

[mod]Find a nicer way of expressing yourself, please.[/mod]
 
I wasn't cluless I jus take all of those stories with a grain of salt. And I can read all of the accounts and reports from respected jouralists but Im not going to buy into the hype of the event when I don't know the actual level of competition since I haven't seen it with my own eyes. And so many of these guys with "legendary" stories about them come across the pond and flat out stink!!!!!!!!!!

It's impressive. I'm not knocking the guy.
 
and its tough to take a "league" or "tournament" seriously that has a manager of a team that lets a HIGH SCHOOL kid throw 17 innings in 1 game.

Then uses him the next 2 days. Either he was getting out of innints with only throwing 3 pitches an inning because the talent level sucks so bad. Or, its some bizzaro world league where throwing a high school kid 17 innings isn't looked down upon.

Yeah he did it, but what kind of league/tournament are we really talking about here???? What is the "real" level of competition
 
MikeO said:
and its tough to take a "league" or "tournament" seriously that has a manager of a team that lets a HIGH SCHOOL kid throw 17 innings in 1 game.

Then uses him the next 2 days. Either he was getting out of innints with only throwing 3 pitches an inning because the talent level sucks so bad. Or, its some bizzaro world league where throwing a high school kid 17 innings isn't looked down upon.

Yeah he did it, but what kind of league/tournament are we really talking about here???? What is the "real" level of competition
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Ok this is the last time I'm going to explain this: First of all this "league" is called high school. This "tournament" is to crown the champion out of all the high schools in the country of Japan, it's a yearly event. To the Japanese people this is huge and a very big deal and it's on par with March Madness tournment in the US. It is televised nationally across Japan. So winning the thing is a huge huge deal.

I'm guessing that the reason why the coach let Matsuzaka throw 17 innings is because of the seriousness of the tournament and they were doing whatever it took to win, much like players and coaches do in the playoffs in the MLB so I don't see how this would be any different. Matsuzaka could obviously handle the load and I'll give the coach the benefit of the doubt that he knew what he was doing with him especially since he pitched him in the next two games. He threw 250 pitches in those 17 innings therefore it would be impossible to only throw 3 pitches an inning. And if you're refering to his no-hitter and only throwing 3 pitches an inning let's give the other team a little credit because they were in the finals of the tournament (out of every other high school in Japan) so I'm guessing they weren't the Bad News Bears, they obviously had some talent and weren't some random team, again it was in the finals of the whole tournament.

Obviously no one can judge the "real" level of competition over there in 1998 but those three games turned him into a legend and a hero in Japan so I'm guessing he wasn't facing Little Leaguers or the Japanese High School for the Blind. Was he facing MLB hitters? Of course not but let's not cheapen what he did because he did it when he was only 17 years old and facing other kids his own age.
 
MikeO said:
He should be treated as a hero in Boston till the day he dies, if those fans don't treat him that way it says more about them than it does him.
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What a terrible post.. (thank god I don't read the Yankee thread, I minimize my exposure to garbage like this)

You say this, then compare Foulke's status in Boston to Boone's status in New York. It's funny cause I don't remember Boone being treated like a hero as he was run out of town by fans that wanted his head for his offseason "accident" on the basketball court.

What does that say about Yankee fans? (aside from the common negative generalizations associated with fans of that organization) :lol:

I mean this is a fan base that continually throws their best player under the bus and abuses him every chance they get when it clearly affects his on-the-field performance. I don't understand the logic behind that and never have, but no one ever said Yankee fans were the brightest bunch.
 
FaninPatsyLand said:
What a terrible post.. (thank god I don't read the Yankee thread, I minimize my exposure to garbage like this)

You say this, then compare Foulke's status in Boston to Boone's status in New York. It's funny cause I don't remember Boone being treated like a hero as he was run out of town by fans that wanted his head for his offseason "accident" on the basketball court.

What does that say about Yankee fans? (aside from the common negative generalizations associated with fans of that organization) :lol:

I mean this is a fan base that continually throws their best player under the bus and abuses him every chance they get when it clearly affects his on-the-field performance. I don't understand the logic behind that and never have, but no one ever said Yankee fans were the brightest bunch.
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Oh man, look who's returned. Thank God we'll only have to put up with your posting until August/September when the Red Sox will be out of it and you will be back IN HIDING! :lol: :sidelol:
 
FinsNYanksFan13 said:
Oh man, look who's returned. Thank God we'll only have to put up with your posting until August/September when the Red Sox will be out of it and you will be back IN HIDING! :lol:
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No doubt about it...

Looking forward to another Yankee collapse as well.

How was Johnny Damon's production down the stretch last year? Kudos to Cashman on another PHENOMENAL signing.

Oops, how crazy of me... I'm letting that second city mentality of me show again! :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol: (You get the point)
 
FaninPatsyLand said:
No doubt about it...

Looking forward to another Yankee collapse as well.

How was Johnny Damon's production down the stretch last year? Kudos to Cashman on another PHENOMENAL signing.

Oops, how crazy of me... I'm letting that second city mentality of me show again! :sidelol: :sidelol:(You get the point)
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Yeah but at least when the Yankees collapse, the Yankee fans on this board don't go into HIDING like little girls! :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol:
 
FinsNYanksFan13 said:
Yeah but at least when the Yankees collapse, the Yankee fans on this board don't go into HIDING like little girls! :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol: :sidelol:
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I can hear the excuses already,.......I don't have time to post here (yet he will be posting in other areas of the message board) I have a life.


Typical loud mouth. Run your mouth non-stop, then when proven 100% wrong, just run away and not face the music!!!!:lol: Year after Year, nothing but the same

On the bright side he said he doesn't read (so Im guessing he won't be posting) in the Yankee thread. So, we won't have to put up with him this year!! yeah!!
 
unifiedtheory said:
Good to see Yankee and Red Sox fans are at each other's throats and it is not even March yet...LOL!
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It's gonna be a loooooong year, Uni. What are we going to do?

I have a solution: everybody make nice and support the MARLINS! Yay! :D
 
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