Takashi Kashiwada (柏田貴史, born May 14, 1971, in

Yatsushiro, Kumamoto is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Geography Located at the geographic center of Kyushu, Yatsushiro City is situated on the aptly named Yatsushiro Sea in between Kumamoto and Ashikita City. Climate Yatsushiro has a humid subtro ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

) is a retired

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

professional baseball player. He played for the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

and the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

. He was a left-handed

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue (medical), fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection (sports), ejection, or for other strategic ...

who wore #18 while with the Mets. He made his

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) debut on May 1, 1997, and pitched in his final MLB game on September 18, 1997. He batted left-handed.

Biography

Kashiwada played baseball at his local high school, and joined the

from outside the draft in 1990. He spent most of his first six seasons on their minor league team. He led the minors in wins in 1995, but was given few opportunities in the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...

. Kashiwada joined the

spring training session in 1997, and started the season with their Triple-A team, the

Norfolk Tides The Norfolk Tides are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. They are located in Norfolk, Virginia, and are named in nautical reference to the city's location on the Chesapea ...

. He was promoted to the major leagues a few weeks into the season, then stayed up for the rest of the season. He had won only 1 game in Japan, but went 3-1 with a 4.31 ERA in 35 games with the Mets. He returned to the Giants the next year, and was used almost exclusively against left-handed hitters from 1999~2001, pitching in over 50 games in 1999 and 2000. The emergence of several other left-handed pitchers in 2002 (including

Hideki Okajima is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. Okajima pitched for the Yomiuri Giants, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball, and the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athle ...

) forced Kashiwada out of his role as a specialist against lefty hitters. He did not pitch a single game in 2005, and announced his retirement at the end of the season. He was re-hired by the

as an international scout after his retirement.

External links

Baseball Almanac
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kashiwada, Takashi 1971 births Japanese expatriate baseball players in the United States Living people Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball players from Japan Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers New York Mets players Norfolk Tides players People from Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Baseball people from Kumamoto Prefecture Yomiuri Giants players