(Voice actor) Mr.Chris Koprowski

In Nippon Professional Baseball, the award given to the best starting pitcher of the season is called the “Sawamura Award.” The starting pitcher is the first pitcher of the game for the team. It is an important role that one could argue decides the momentum of the game depending on how he performs. The Sawamura Award is an award made in tribute for a certain pitcher. The pitcher’s name was Eiji Sawamura. He was active in the era before World War II. His presence became known nationwide in the 1934 game between the US and Japan. This game was hosted by the Yomiuri Newspaper. All-star caliber players from the Major League were invited. Among them were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, star players who were legends in Major League Baseball. The Japanese team on the other hand had assembled major players from amateur baseball, such as high schools, colleges, and industrial leagues, since professional baseball didn’t exist yet. But there was a big gap in talent and the Japanese team kept losing by a huge margin to the Major League team. But on November 20th, something different happened in the Shizuoka-municipal Kusanagi Stadium. The starting pitcher this day was Eiji Sawamura. He was a young pitcher still in high school. Everybody expected the Major Leaguers to win convincingly like the days leading up. However, Eiji Sawamura, who started the game, struck out one Major Leaguer after the other, such as Babe Ruth, with good fastballs and big curveballs. The Major Leaguers who looked comfortable at first started to become serious. The star players of the MLB could not lose to a high school student from Japan. Their pride would not allow that. But Eiji kept pitching well against the Major League players who were playing seriously. In the bottom of the 7th inning, he allowed a solo homerun to Lou Gehrig and Eiji Sawamura became the losing pitcher due to this run, but Sawamura’s name became known throughout Japan and the US. Eiji Sawamura entered Nippon Professional Baseball which was later founded, and joined the Tokyo Giants (now Yomiuri Giants). In 1935, he achieved great results during a tour to America. In an official Nippon Professional Baseball game that started in 1936, Eiji Sawamura threw the first-ever no-hitter in Japan. And he contributed to the team winning the pennant that year. At the time, Eiji Sawamura was the undisputed No.1 pitcher of Japan. With the end of World War II, professional baseball, which had been suspended during the war, restarted in 1946. But Eiji Sawamura never went back on the mound. What happened to Eiji Sawamura?