Day Thirty Six: Shigetoshi Hasegawa

In 2000, Kaz Sasaki reinvigorated the closing pitcher role for the Mariners and won the ROY, in 2001 Ichiro Suzuki revolutionized big league hitting and captured the imagination of the world winning the ROY and AL MVP, and then in 2002 the Mariners signed Angels reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa, the third new Japanese-born player signed in each year. Of course, Shiggy was already an established major league reliever with some excellent seasons behind him. So there were no Ichiro sized expectations, but Hasegawa was a very clutch reliever that helped anchor some excellent bullpens in 2002 and 2003. And he is one of the coolest customers you are ever going to run across. Since his days as a pitcher he has become a real estate tycoon in Orange County, California (ok), and authored best-selling books on how to speak English. It has been a very interesting ride I am sure. But for those of us watching the Mariners in the 2010's, the idea of having a middle reliever make an all-star appearance is insane! But Shiggy was that guy!

Hasegawa had some excellent seasons with the Angels prior to arriving in Seattle for the 2002 season. He wasn't going to be asked to do anything groundbreaking he would just need to. compliment Arthur Rhodes and Jeff Nelson. And he did more than compliment that year. Nelson fell apart a bit and injuries pretty much swamped him down the stretch, but Hasegawa became that guy who could go an inning plus and shutem down prior to Rhodes coming in (Rhodes was filthy in 2002), and then of course you had Kazu coming in the 9th. The 2002 Mariners weren't a groundbreaking team like the previous year, they had really spotty starting pithing, and their hitters pretty much all took a step back or morphed into different, less useful players, but the 2002 bullpen was legit. I don't know why, but I really love teams that have glaring holes in other places but have a strong bullpen. They tend to be able to win more games than teams with strengths in other areas and deficient bullpens. There are probably a lot of factors for this, but I don't think it is coincidence that Shigeotshi was brilliant in 2002, ridiculous in 2003 (he had over 3 WAR!), and then just basically falls to shit in 2004 and 2005. That was the course of that entire Mariners squad. When you look at the ages of so many of their key players it needed to happen now, or it wasn't going to happen at all. In the era of the perpetual youth movement, the Mariners (and the Yankees for that matter) of the early 00's were a team stocked with peak performance veterans (peak performance in the midst of the steroid era being well into your 30s. Man, I miss the steroid era.). And in 2002 they were so close to capturing another AL West pennant and keeping that momentum rolling. Hasegawa was a huge part of their success those final two years of 90 plus wins. And he was a pleasure to watch pitch.

In the early summer of 2002, I made a commitment to my 19 year old self that I was not going to drink anymore. It was perfect timing for me, as the summer was one of the most beautiful that I can remember. I rode my bike everywhere that summer. Just jamming around town and still getting into trouble but not destroying my spirit with booze. So where the team in 2001 was helping me to just hang on, the team in 2002 was completely different. I was so present with that team. And I went to a ton of games that year. It was exciting to see childhood hero Ruben Sierra in a Mariners uniform (although he wasn't that goood), and to be able to see Shigetoshi Hasegawa do great work out of the bullpen. As I am writing this, I am thinking that in some ways 2001 was the last Mariners team of my childhood and the 2002 team was the beginning of the Long March to adulthood. Because I wasn't destined to stay sober much longer than the boys played baseball that year and it was right back to the wheel of pain. Lou left the team after the 02 season and things never felt the same in 03. It was a great year, and Shiggy was even better than the year before. The Mariners were one win away from going back to the playoffs in 2003, but you could pretty much tell that it wasn't going to last. And in 2003 my best baseball friend was fighting in a hellish war in Iraq. 9/11 brought the end to childhood for so many of us early millennials, and the war in Iraq just held us in stasis for a long time after that. Those were rough years. But there was always baseball. And when Lossom would come back from a tour we would go up to the VIP lounge and watch a game. And we wouldn't talk about what it had been like over there. We would just watch every minute detail and focus on being present with the craft of baseball on a beautiful summer evening.