Masahiro Tanaka Japanese professional baseball player Date of Birth: 01.11.1998 Country: Japan

1. Masahiro Tanaka: Japanese Baseball Superstar
2. Major League Career
3. NPB Career
4. Early Life and Education
5. Pitching Style
6. Nickname
7. Personal Life

Masahiro Tanaka: Japanese Baseball Superstar

Masahiro Tanaka is a renowned Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He previously played for the Eagles in the NPB from 2007 to 2013.

Major League Career

After the 2013 season, Tanaka was posted by the Eagles to sign with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He signed a seven-year, $155 million contract, the fifth-largest deal ever given to a pitcher at the time. He made his MLB debut in 2014 and remained with the Yankees through the 2020 season before opting to return to Japan.

NPB Career

Tanaka was drafted by the Eagles in the first round of the 2006 NPB amateur player draft. He won 26 consecutive decisions from 2012 to 2013, setting a new NPB record. He was also selected to two NPB All-Star Games.

Early Life and Education

Tanaka was born in Itami, a city in Hyogo, Japan. He began playing baseball in the first grade as a catcher for the Koyanosato Tigers (a Little League team) with current Yomiuri Giants shortstop Hayato Sakamoto, who was the team's ace pitcher and Tanaka's fellow battery mate at the time. Tanaka and Sakamoto batted third and fourth in the lineup, respectively. He continued to play for the Takarazuka Boys while attending Itami Municipal Matsuzakicho Junior High School, where he was used as both a pitcher and a catcher due to his strong throwing arm. He was selected to the Junior High School Japanese West Japan Team in his third year of junior high school, equivalent to the ninth grade in the United States.

Pitching Style

Tanaka is a right-handed pitcher who throws from a high three-quarters arm slot. He throws two fastballs (a four-seam, a two-seam), typically in the low 90s, with a maximum velocity of 97 mph. He also has an 84-88 mph splitter with late downward action, a firm slider that ranges from the low to mid 80s, and an occasional curveball. During his MLB career, Tanaka has added an 80s changeup to his repertoire. After an elbow (ulnar collateral ligament) injury, Tanaka took time to regain his fastball velocity and now favors the two-seam fastball over the four-seam. He also has excellent command, posting a BB/9 (walks per nine innings) of 1.8 and a K/BB (strikeout to walk ratio) of 4.76 for his MLB career.

Nickname

Tanaka is often affectionately called "Ma-kun" by fans and media. The nickname originated from a report Tanaka and Saito gave to the media, stating it was how Tanaka was addressed by the team during a Japan-U.S. high school baseball tournament that followed the national tournament in 2006. Eagles manager Katsuya Nomura also often refers to Tanaka as "Ma-kun" in interviews. While older players on the team generally call Tanaka by his family name, some address him by the shortened nickname "Ma." While with the Yankees, Tanaka wore "Masa" as his nickname on his jersey during Players Weekend in 2017.

Personal Life

Tanaka has expressed that he is an avid fan of Momoiro Clover Z, a popular all-female idol group in Japan. He has attended several of their concerts. During training, he wears custom-made multicolored gloves featuring the five colors of Momoiro Clover Z (pictured), and he plays in official games with gloves embroidered with a clover leaf. When his baseball team gave out "applause goods" to fan club members, the towel with "Tanaka" on it used the same five colors. During the game in which he set a new Japanese professional baseball record of 16 consecutive wins in a season, giveaway signs distributed to the crowd featured the same color scheme. He has used songs by the group as his "at-bat song" (the music played at a baseball game when a batter comes to the plate and performs his at-bat routine). Since joining the Yankees, his at-bat song for home games has been Momoiro Clover Z's "My Dear Fellow." The song was specifically made for Tanaka and was unveiled when he made his Yankee Stadium debut before it was released in Japan. The New York Post reported that "as the rookie hurled his warmups, he did so to the accompaniment of a Japanese pop song—a melody unlike any other ever performed here... Who else comes to town with their own music?" NJ.com said: "Like Tanaka, the act is a Japanese sensation. And like Momoiro Clover Z, Tanaka has made his presence thunderously known in The Bronx."

Tanaka is married to Mai Satoda, a former member and former leader of the idol group Country Musume and a television announcer. They held their wedding ceremony in Hawaii in December 2012. Tanaka's wife gave birth to a baby boy on February 15, 2016. Satoda is also a fan of Momoiro Clover Z.

On January 29, 2020, Tanaka announced on his Twitter that he had created a YouTube channel. In his video, Tanaka stated that he would be uploading videos that give viewers a closer look at him and his daily life.