As seen in Daily Sports / デイリースポーツのコラム（トレバーの虎場）から
Teruaki Sato. The young man who plays like he’s already in his prime. Does interviews like he’s been there, done that a thousand times before. Brings excitement to the stands (empty though they may be) and the nation like no one has in ages, if ever. Gives dreams of stardom to children throughout Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, the entire Kinki region, heck, all of Japan and beyond!
With all due respect, and I have plenty for our most exciting rookies of the past 10 years, Sato has something that makes him even more attractive than our other players in their freshman seasons: Koji Chikamoto was outstanding, exceeding pretty much everyone’s expectations, but it was a different kind of magic. Shun Takayama looked great and seemed destined for stardom, too… but he was more of a hit-machine than anything. Shintaro Fujinami comes close, but being a starting pitcher, he could only bring the noise once a week at the most.
But let’s face it: Sato is the talk of this town, whether you like the Tigers or not. Whether you follow baseball or not. His name is on the verge of transcending the Hanshin and NPB bubbles and putting him in rarified air. I dare not compare him to others this early into the season (and his career), but hype like this is only being matched right now by Shohei Ohtani and what he is doing in America right now.
All of this reminds me of my own high school years, back in a city halfway around the world from here, and watching a sport so different from baseball that it is hard to even make comparisons. But let’s do it anyways. I was 17 years old when all the buzz in Winnipeg was about a young rookie hockey player named Teemu Selanne. Given the nickname The Finnish Flash, Selanne started scoring goals almost immediately upon his arrival in Canada. At the time, the rookie record for goals scored in a single season was 53 (in 73 games) by Mike Bossy in 1977-78. Fifteen years later, Selanne broke it, nay, shattered it, nay, obliterated it, scoring an unthinkable 76 goals in 84 games! The city was completely electric and fully enamored with Teemu. Jerseys were on everyone’s backs, and he was pretty much all anyone ever talked about. (For the record, no one has scored 76 goals in a season since. I know, different era, different stats, blah blah blah. Still incredible to have done that in his first season in North America.) And for the record, after his magical rookie year, Selanne changed his jersey number from “unlucky” 13 to… yes, the same number as our golden rookie wears, 8.
Let’s move things forward to Sato. He has 8 home runs in his first 30 games as a pro. We cannot possibly accurately project how many more round-trippers he will hit this year, but the current pace has him hitting 38.17 over the course of a 143-game season. The current rookie record is 31, set by Kazuhiro Kiyohara (Seibu Lions, 1986). Whether or not Sato puts himself in NPB’s record books come season’s end, one thing is for sure. No Tigers player has captured the hearts of the fans like this since Tomoaki Kanemoto did from 2003-12. No Tigers draftee has been this hyped and adored since Akinobu Okada in 1980.
Are you on the Sato train? If not, hop aboard. It’s speeding like a bullet, and is heading straight for the Nishinomiya night sky, where he will be the brightest star for years to come. Don’t worry, there is still time to embark on the ride. I hear the train is making frequent stops in the outfield bleachers of stadiums across the nation.