I was always pretty lousy at it as a kid - never having picked up a baseball until Grade 5 when I moved to and school and it was the de rigueur at recess (twice) and lunch, not to mention before school.
My parents, after the first night went out and got me a baseball glove and a hat with the letter A on it (for Andrew), though it was, of course, for Atlanta. Anyhow... this was still in the days before Toronto got a Major League baseball team (the Blue Jays, which you might think is a pretty wimpy name for a bird, but Blue Jays are huge birds, and from the backyard, I frequently watch them scare away Cardinals and other birds).
They also got me a baseball bat - wooden thank goodness they guessed right at that - because only university kids use metal bats - and softball players.
So... in Grade 5, at the age of 8 (I was nearly two years ahead of my class mates in school, but behind them in age), I learned to play baseball.
I sucked.
I couldn't hit and couldn't throw.
But, excluding hitting, I practiced throwing and catching everyday, and soon became adept enough not to embarrass myself at the schoolyard.
By the time I was 17, I was about 5-feet tall and under 130 lbs... but baby, by the time I hit 18 years of age, I was 5-11;3/4 inches and 165lbs.
I joined an adult men's baseball league when I was 24 and 25, and suddenly, I could hit. I could hit anything thrown at me. Those two years I batted over .700 and twice led the league in homeruns - nothing massive, just long homeruns that kept going once I got it past the outfielder and onto the roads behind them.
I even played third-base - the hot corner. I could knock-down or catch any ball near me - I was like a vacuum... but... I couldn't make a throw to first-base to save my life. I almost gave back every run I scored with errant throws from third.
But... I could hit.
And so... when I left Toronto at the age of 25 to go to Japan as an AET (assistant English teacher) on the JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching) Programme, I didn't mind bragging to my junior high school students that I played baseball until a few months previous.
My OBOE (Ohtawara Board of Education) office knew I played baseball (it was on my application), and probably heard my boasts from the students, and invited me to play in a baseball tournament against other educational boards.
I was the only gaijin (foreigner) playing in the tournament of 12 teams from the Tochigi-ken (Prefecture of Tochigi), and so was afforded 'superstar' status.
Now, as you may know, the Japanese love baseball. They play it growing up as a 'club activity' in their junior and high schools, and watch it religiously on television (though they do tend to cut away from the game at 8PM when another television show is scheduled to start, so you never knew who won long-running games!) (That sucked!)
Anyhow... in our first tournament, I had four balls hit towards me at third-base, and I missed every one of them, snagging one, but making an errant throw to first base (at least that was par for the course for me).
At bat, I swung at every pitch in the strike zone and missed everything by a country mile, as I was looking to put every pitch into orbit.
I was a disaster for my team.
But... I had an excuse. I had a wonky contact lens that was causing me discomfort - so much so that I scratched a cornea.
I was scratched from the remaining games, and became the only gaijin cheerleader at the tournament.
But, excuses aside, it didn't matter... despite being healthy enough to play the next year, I was not asked to play. It's too bad... I had gone to a batting cage and slugged the crap out of the ball for hours at a time prior to the tourney, but it was like my OBOE had never forgiven me for letting them down at that initial tournament.
I believe they actually got special permission for me - the gaijin - to play in the tourney, and I blew it. I was not allowed to play in any more of their reindeer games.
Anyhow... that photo above... that's representation of me in the 2013 MLB: The Show PS3 baseball game, where I am a 6'-5", 215-lb left-handed pitcher playing for the Jacksonville Suns. You'll notice their logo is a "J" (for Japan) and has a sun on it (as in Land of the Rising Sun). It's an AA-level ball club belonging to the Florida Marlins of MLB's National League.
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| ooooh... a no-hitter. |
Unlike my baseball career in Japan, my video game avatar was a superstar in the making. The next year I moved up to AAA-level and threw another no-hitter. I'm currently in my fourth year with the Miami Marlins, and have won three league MVPs, three Cy Young awards (best pitcher) and one ROY (rookie of the year)m and have three no-hitters, including one perfect game of 27 up and 27 down. To top it off, my pitcher has also become a dominant hitter - now hitting over .500 with 11 homeruns in 22 games.
Despite the video game success, every time I have the player go up to bat, I harken back to those might whiffs I had for real in Japan that day, I wonder 'what if?'
Cheers,
Andrew Joseph
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