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9 unusual facts about Daisuke Matsuzaka


Brigham's Ice Cream

Dice-Kream (originally called Reverse the Curse, prior to the 2004 Red Sox World Champions title, then renamed Curse Reversed!, until 2007)—Vanilla with chocolate-coated peanuts and chocolate-coated caramel pieces, loosely mixed with fudge sauce.

Dusty Brown

On June 21, 2009, Brown was called up to the Red Sox after starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka was placed on the disabled list.

Gyroball

In the video game MLB 07: The Show and the more recent The Bigs, only Daisuke Matsuzaka has the ability to throw the gyroball, although the movement of the pitch in the video game differs from the movement of the actual pitch.

Daisuke Matsuzaka: Familiar with the gyroball, Matsuzaka has stated that he can throw the gyroball, however cannot do so on a consistent basis.

A careful computer analysis of Matsuzaka's pitches for the Boston Red Sox for the first half of the 2007 season by Dan Fox of Baseball Prospectus suggests that while Matsuzaka commands a dazzling array of pitches, the gyroball is more myth than reality.

Hsu Ming-Chieh

His outstanding performance with Agan in the 1998 and 1999 seasons has been compared with Daisuke Matsuzaka by the Taiwanese media.

Jikkyō Powerful Pro Yakyū series

The Power Pro series raised some controversy in Japan with its use of the term "Gyroball", a term made popular by Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka when he signed with the Boston Red Sox.

Naoko Funayama

In her first year with NESN, she covered Red Sox pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima.

Yusuke Kamiji

He and Daisuke Matsuzaka played together for one year, and when Matsuzaka joined the club, it was Kamiji who first practiced with him.


High school baseball in Japan

Several professional baseball players first made their mark at Kōshien, including Eiji Bandō, Sadaharu Oh, Koji Ota, Suguru Egawa, Masumi Kuwata, Kazuhiro Kiyohara, Hideki Matsui, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yu Darvish and Masahiro Tanaka.


see also