Japanese legends Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka play exhibition baseball game with Girls' High School selection
Japan runs the most successful women's baseball programme in the world. Daisuke Matsuzaka (pictured) helped Japan to an Olympic baseball bronze medal at Athens 2004.
Retired Japanese baseball stars Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka put on an exhibition game against a Girls High School selection at the Tokyo Dome as part of an initiative to motivate girls to play baseball.
Suzuki is currently the leader of an amateur team named Kobe Chiben. He organized an exhibition against 20 selected high school female players on Tuesday. It marked the second time Ichiro has advocated women's baseball after his retirement. Kobe Chiben played another exhibition game in December 2021.
Ichiro, who combined 4,367 career hits at the Major League Baseball (MLB) and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) levels, batted ninth and didn't get a hit.
He still found a way to shine. Suzuki, 49, took the mound as a pitcher. He threw a complete game, striking out 14 and allowing only two hits. His fastball clocked 134 kilometres (83.75 miles) per hour.
"I'm physically wrecked," he said to the Asahi Shimbun. "I pushed myself to my limit. It felt good."
One of the two hits was a triple by An Morisaki of Fukuchiyama Seibi High School in Kyoto Prefecture.
"I was watching Ichiro's pre-game batting practice and I tried to imitate him."
Daisuke Matsusaka (43), who was nicknamed Dice-K in his playing days, helped Japan to an Olympic baseball bronze medal at Athens 2004. He combined 2,130 strikeouts in his NPB and MLB careers. This time, he started at shortstop and batted cleanup, going 3-for-4.
Kobe Chiben won the game, 7-1, in front of 16,000 fans.
"I am full of emotion being able to return here like this," commented Suzuki, who hadn't played at the Tokyo Dome since 2019.
"We still have areas to improve," said former Women's Baseball World Cup MVP and a silver medallist at the inaugural Baseball5 World Cup Ayako Rokkaku. "The main problem is what to do after high school. Girls who want to play baseball do not have a lot of options yet."
