When it comes to an athlete, fans often think of his achievements first. If you can get favor from All-Stars, Gold Gloves, Silver Stick Awards, even Cy Young Awards, and MVPs, it will be easily remembered by the world.
On the other hand, compared to short-term outbreaks, long-term hard work is not so easy to attract attention. Some players perform stably, but have never had a particularly top-notch season, so they may suffer in their image.
Among the Asian players who competed for MLB, there is a pitcher who particularly meets this description. He started 211 games in seven seasons, with 1,319.0 innings, an ERA of 3.45 and strikeouts of 986 times.
At first glance do you think the grades are pretty good? Next, has accumulated 20.88 win contributions . Among all Asian players, only Suzuki Ichiro , Aki Nobuyuki, Darbi Shuyu, Matsui Hideki, and Noshiro Hero are higher than him. In terms of the number of innings, only Nomatsu and Park Zanho were more than him, and Darbishu and Tanaka were more than him in strikeouts. The winning numbers were tied for Asia with Darbishu, and html lost only to Nomatsu in 9 games after 15 games.
But if you tell you that this pitching career, which is comparable to many star-studded Asian players, has never entered the All-Star career, nor has you received even a Cy Young vote, are you going to fall out of your glasses?
He is Hiroki Kuroda, who once served as the backbone pitcher in the Los Angeles Dodges and the New York Yankee . He has never been treated as a trump card like Yemao, Darbishu or Liu Xianzhen. In fact, he has never been able to reach the strict ace level in any year. But when we look back at the transcripts left by Kuroda, anyone will be amazed that he has achieved such outstanding achievements.
975 was born in Osaka . His father Ichihiro Kuroda was a NPB player. In high school, Kuroda studied at the baseball school and went to the high school. The training environment was almost hell, but his grades were not outstanding. Even so, Kuroda did not give up. He took the poem "Narrow Snow Plum Blossom" by the Restorative Patriarch Saigo Takamori as his motto, and firmly believed that as long as he persevered, he would get rewards.
After graduating from high school, Kuroda entered the junior college of the Todo University Baseball League. At that time, NPB Hiroshima Toyo Carp scout Wanda Satoshi often went to the training ground for colleges with inconvenient transportation to observe Kuroda . He believed that Kuroda worked diligently and did not admit defeat, and had the potential to be a professional baseball player. With Wantian's encouragement, Kuroda's football skills have become more and more sophisticated, with the ball speed reaching 150 kilometers.
Later, scouts from other teams also began to pay attention to Kuroda, but Kuroda, who was grateful, could not forget Wanda, the first Wanda who believed in him. After graduating from university, he expressed his willingness to join Carp , saying, "It is impossible to imagine wearing the uniforms of other teams, standing in Hiroshima Citizen Stadium, , and pitching in front of Carp fans and players."
in the first three years of his career base, Kuroda experienced a shocking education, only achieved 12 wins and 21 losses, and had a bleak record of 5.55 in his ERA. At the end of 1999, he represented Japan in the 14th Intercontinental Cup International Baseball Championship, which became a watershed in his career, and then he entered the ascending channel. In 2003, he served as Hiroshima's opening pitcher, won the winning bidder in 2005, and won the winning bidder in 2006, and officially ranked first-tier pitchers in Japan.
Kuroda Hiroki kicked off for his old club Carp team in 2018
008, Kuroda Yuanshi Chongyang joined the Dodge. At that time, the Seattle sailor was willing to give him a four-year contract, but Kuroda was still thinking about returning to Hiroshima after realizing his major league dream in the United States, and only accepted a three-year contract.
The biggest difficulties most pitchers in the United States encounter are adapting to higher game intensity and the other is injury.Kuroda was more inclined to speedball during the NPB period, while MLB's overall ball speed was faster. Some pitchers who relied on ball speed in Japan may not be able to pitch in the major leagues.
Fortunately, Kurota's ball types are very complete, and there are different weapons for left and right shots. can be used. His ace ball type is a two-seater speed ball called "shuuto" in Japanese (also translated as "squirt ball"). His four-seater straight ball, slip ball, , finger-propelled ball and occasional matched curve ball are also very effective. When playing against the right, Kuroda uses a lot of shuuto (the second-seater speed ball mentioned above), slide ball and finger fork. After obtaining two good balls, he can use the low-slide ball on the outer corner to trick the hitter into a swing, or he can use shuto to force the hitter to hit the unnutritious roll.
And when playing on the upper left, Kuroda will use a changeable finger-propelled ball. He can not only throw a trajectory with a large drop amplitude, but also create significant side displacement of the bowler (for playing on the left, it is floating towards the outer corner). MLB In seven years, he shot a total of 3,405 finger-forks, with a hit rate of only .193 and a hit rate of .270. Only 10 were blown out, creating 463 swings and hit strikeouts, almost half of all of them.
Kuroda's other major advantage is precise ball control . He only walks 2.0 in every nine innings in MLB, forcing hitters to chase and hit his pitching often, making it difficult to adopt the ball selection strategy. Therefore, even though Kuroda was already 33 years old when he went to the United States, his last season was 39 years old, and his ball speed was no longer at its peak, he could still lure the batsmen.
Kuroda is even more a miracle in terms of injuries. except for his rest for a few months in the Dodgers' second season (34 years old), he has been able to stay healthy for almost a long time in the other six years, with 30 starts. With such high work intensity, no matter which country the pitcher is, if he can do it between the ages of 23 and 29, he can praise him "really be patient". Asian pitchers often give people the impression of "many sick numbers", but Kuroda, a Japanese uncle, is so "durable", it is really hard to find a suitable description.
Unfortunately, although Kuroda performed well every year, he was extremely unsatisfied in the line. The team he played for has achieved positive results in the past seven years, but his average firepower support per game in his career was less than 4 points, so he only achieved such a mediocre victory or defeat in his major league career, such as 79 wins and 79 losses.
Kuroda's playoff luck is also very bad. He shot 5 games in total, and 4 of them were high-quality starters. Only one of them was beaten or affected by injuries. It can be said that he has a big scene and a big heart. Unfortunately, the team didn't go far, so Kuroda failed to show his skills in the World Championship.
In terms of personal honors, Kuroda does not have the particularly impressive single-season performances like Darbishu, Iwakuma Kuji, Park Zanho and Yoo Hyun-jin have achieved. It is difficult to get an All-Star position as a starting pitcher in a strong team like Dodges and Yankee.
However, the honest operations of the general managers of the major leagues can illustrate some problems. After the end of the 2014 season, Kuroda, who is about to enter 40, still received a contract offer of 18 million yuan a year. Kuroda has never been able to play in a lineup that can compete for the championship, but in any championship lineup, such a starting pitcher with a three-digit self-report rate, a 200-innings, and a stable playoff performance, is eager to win talents.
However, Kuroda declined the invitation. He kept thinking about returning to Hiroshima and ending his career there. 2016 NPB season, Kuroda led the carp to the Japan finals, infinitely close to his dream of winning the professional baseball championship. Unfortunately, the opponent is the Hokkaido Japanese ham fighter with Shohei Otani . The carp lost all his efforts and lost 2-4.
Kuroda's entire professional baseball career, whether in Japan or the United States, seems to be not closely related to good luck.Perhaps because of his hard training in his youth, His baseball values seem very old-fashioned: "When pitching, there is no enjoyment or happiness, all he has is responsibility." No matter what, he has always been able to practice his philosophy, be loyal to his team, and make low-key and solid results.
If there is any pitcher who is "invisible ace", it is probably like Hiroki Kuroda.
How do you evaluate Hiroki Kuroda's baseball career? Post your opinion in the comment section!
