Description
Koji Uehara, born on April 3, 1975, is a professional baseball player from Neyagawa Osaka, currently playing for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. During his high school days he didn’t have many opportunities to step on the mound, because he was backup to future Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters pitcher Yoshinori Tateyama, and thus Uehara was very much a nameless pitcher.
In his third year in the Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences, he helped his team win the Hanshin University League championship as the main pitcher and he got the attention of pro scouts. He was the center of attention, along with Daisuke Matsuzaka from Yokohama High School in 1998 draft meeting. Several clubs, as well as 4 MLB teams, were interested in acquiring Uehara, but in the end he decided to join the Yomiuri Giants in the first round.
Uehara requested no. 19 as his jersey number, so he wouldn’t forget the year of hardship he went through at the age of 19 when he flunked his university entrance exams, waiting for another change to enter a university. After that he played for 5 different teams, but always under the same number.
In 1999, while he was a rookie, he suddenly produced 20 wins. Along with seizing titles from the 4 main pitching categories – most wins at 20 – 4, best ERA at 2.09, highest number of strikeouts at 179, highest win rate at .833 – his spectacular debut year was also decorated with the Rookie of the Year award and the Eiji Sawamura Award.
His performance saw a decline during his 2nd and 3rd year due to injury and because of the scandal that occurred when he had a car accident. Although, in the following year, in 2002, he managed to pitch in 200 innings and again demonstrated his might by achieving the most wins for the second time with a score of 17-5 and earning the Eiji Sawamura Award and the Best Eleven Award.
In 2003 and 2004, he achieved 2 figure wins and produced stable results. On top of that, during his 6th year in professional baseball, his annual salary reached 300 million yen, which was the record fastest. Meanwhile, before the 2006 season opening game, he was selected for the Japanese national team for first WBC tournament in March, where he helped lead his country to victory with 2 wins in 3 matches as the team’s ace.
Uehara, who had earned all the main team and personal titles, earned the right to become a free agent on April 4, 2008, and announced he would test his might in MLB, which had been a dream of his since his university days.
On January 6, 2009, he signed a basic agreement with the Baltimore Orioles and became the first Japanese player in their team. On April 8, in the match against the New York Yankees, he had his first match as an MLB starting pitcher and he achieved his first victory. After that, he had to withdraw from several matches due to injury, and on his second year he was used as a setup pitcher and a closer.
After his time with the Texas Rangers, he transferred to the Boston Red Sox, where he was suddenly named the team’s closer in June, 2013. Despite being switched to a closer mid season, he recorded 21 saves and helped lead the team becoming the American League East champions.
Moreover, in the league championship series against the previous year’s American League king, the Detroit Tigers, he produced overwhelming stats with 1 win and 0 losses, 3 saves, allowed 4 hits, 9 strike outs, no walks and no points given up. He was selected for the League Championship Series MVP. In the following World Series, he became the first Japanese player to close out the match with a perfect ninth inning.
In the 2014 season, he established himself as the Red Sox’s closer, and marked down 26 saves that year. When he became 40 years old the following year, in 2015, he reached 100 combined saves from the NPB and MLB, but his season was cut short by a wrist fracture. He was changed to setup pitcher from 2016, and when he became a free agent in the off-season, he transferred to the Chicago Cubs.
His contract with the Cubs ends in 2017, and right-handed closer returned to his former Japanese team, signning a one-year contract with the Yomiuri Giants shortly before the 2018 season starts.
