FORT MYERS, Fla. -- "O say can you see ..."
They are just a few words uttered in the midst of trying to explain exactly why and how Hirokazu Sawamura got this place and to this point. At 31 years old, after a baseball career that had seen the highest of highs and more recently the lowest of lows, the pitcher is wearing a Boston Red Sox uniform.
"It's still a work in progress," Sawamura adds with a smile through translator Yutaro Yamaguch when explaining his quest to memorize the Anthem. "When you’re in Rome, do as the Romans do. If I sing the National Anthem without knowing the words or the meaning behind it, it’s not going to be helpful for me. So I just wanted to learn the meaning of the National Anthem, knowing it was going to help me."
The song. The comeback. The first impression. The opportunity.
Starting with his appearance at JetBlue Park Friday, all of the work -- including going out of his way to learn his new country's signature song -- will be put on display. Sawamura will be proving himself 10 years after first breaking on to the professional baseball scene.
But the path taken to this point really started about six months ago. That's when Sawamura -- a former Rookie of the Year who owned 48 wins, 75 saves and a career 2.77 ERA in Japan -- hit rock bottom.
After all those years serving as a staple in the Yomiuri Giants' rotation and bullpen, Sawamura found himself not only in the lower levels, but in reality the lowest level. Midway through the 2020 season, he had been sent where veterans' careers go to die, the second tier of the NPB's minor leagues.
"I thought my baseball career was going to end like that, staying in the minor leagues," he said. "I felt like I was on the downside of my career and that was how it was going end. I felt that, but I didn’t want to accept that fact."
"Some veteran players go to the minor leagues they will be slacking and not do anything. But I accepted the fact I go to the lowest point and accept where I was at. Since I started having that mentality, that’s when I started going back up."
This certainly wasn't the story Sawamura had envisioned when carrying around that binder baseball-playing icons as a 10-year-old, with the images of former Red Sox' Daisuke Matsuzaka and Koji Uehara right on top for daily reminders.
Sawamura never believed he could come close to the status of either pitcher, but just the idea that he could play at the same level was what drove him.
"They aren’t somebody I can relate to," he said. "They are legendary. I look up to. It’s beyond trying to be like them."
But there was always that dream, the one that included going to the United States at some point to go the route of his heroes. That, however, was becoming less of a reality as August turned into September thanks to his new lot in life as a minor-leaguer.
But then, for whatever reason, the story got back on the rails.
Sawamura was traded from the Giants to the Chiba Lotte Marines. He had his new path. The new environment -- coupled with such adjustments as moving over the pitching rubber and utilizing his split-finger fastball more -- resulted in eye-popping results. In his final 22 games of the season, the righty struck out 29 batters in 21 innings while totaling a 1.71 ERA.
Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, he had firmly implanted himself on the radar of the team his baseball gods had played for -- the Red Sox.
"When he was brought to our attention by our scouts in Asia I was able to see video of him and it was kind of a double-take," said Red Sox vice-president of pro scouting Gus Quattlebaum. "It was impressive at first glance what he was doing with Chiba. We were lucky to get quality video and pitch data, and the pitch data screamed out legitimate stuff. But then we had to figure out what happened. We had to get at what were the changes. The guy was demoted to the minor leagues. But then there was a little ring in the back of our heads: Who else was demoted in the minor leagues there? Brasier. So not necessarily the end of the world, where in the past we may have dismissed him."
"Brasier" was, of course, current Red Sox reliever Ryan Brasier, who also managed to salvage his career after living life in the NPB's minor leagues. The Sox had gone through once before, so they certainly open to giving it another whirl.
Scout Dana LeVangie poured over every pitch Sawamura threw as a member of Chiba, while the rest of the Red Sox organization tapped into every contact they had in the Asian baseball-playing community to find out more about the guy, and what had led to his 2020 roller-coaster.
Finally, on Jan. 4, a call was placed to Sawamura's representatives to express the Red Sox' interest. Two days later plans were put in place for a Zoom call. And on Jan. 12, in a one-hour virtual meeting starting at 7 p.m. Eastern, the courting truly began -- from both the player and the team.
"I wasn’t thinking about the Red Sox showing interest, but when I heard it I was like, ‘Oh my God, the team that Koji and Daisuke played for!’ I was shocked in a way," Sawamura said.
"I think our Zoom call went a long way," Quattlebaum remembered.
The virtual meeting included Red Sox manager Alex Cora, pitching coach Dave Bush, Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom, and trainer Masai Takahashi, among others.
Having experienced an offseason of these sort of Zoom-driven recruiting forays -- including involving some free agents coming from Asia -- the Red Sox had the process pretty well pegged.
Cora, who had broken off from his vacation to participate, elaborated on both his vision for the Red Sox' future, while explaining both his and his team's somewhat uncomfortable last year. Bush helped break down what he had seen in Sawamura and how that potential could translate in the major leagues. And there was the reminder regarding how unique this landing spot would be.
No other team in the big leagues had a trainer, strength coach and masseuse on its major league staff who were all from Japan. ("We're idiots if we didn't sell that," joked Quattlebaum.)
And if there was any question that Boston was a perfect spot for Sawamura to call home, he was offered the reminder that Matsuzaka liked the area so much he and his family still lived there.
"It just came out that this guy is not afraid," Quattlebaum said. "He’s accountable. We asked him to touch on the differences and what happened with the trade and he took for accountability in how he struggled with the Giants and how he rediscovered himself when he was with Chiba. We came away thinking this guy is confident himself. He tried to say, ‘Hello,’ on the call and that showed guts. I was also impressed with he was throwing with a MLB ball. It was just a good chemistry. Even with the language barrier, it was great."
But through it all, there was one question and answer that was going to define Sawamura's interest.
"I wanted to ask them how they were going to use me to get back from last-place in the AL East," the pitcher said.
"The first thing I really told them was that I wanted to play in America. And then I asked them if they were trying to win the World Series or if they rebuilding. If their answer was that they were in the process of rebuilding that wasn’t something I was looking for. I was looking for a team that was trying to win the World Series."
The Red Sox said what Sawamura wanted to hear, and visa versa.
"Masai said after the meeting, ‘Gus, I think this guy could fit in well with us.’ He saw the same thing we saw, but in the native tongue," Quattlebum recalled.
Uehara would call to help the recruitment process, offering as a separator against suitors such as the Blue Jays and Dodgers. And there were some final hurdles to jump through -- such as convincing Sawamura the acquisition of reliever Adam Ottavino hadn't changed their view of his role.
But after that Zoom call, it seemed inevitable from both sides that the pitcher had found his American landing spot. That was punctuated via a two-year, $3 million contract with Boston.
It's different, no doubt about it. And there is still plenty of work to be done, including with those final few phrases of the National Anthem. But for Sawamura, the changes have been welcomed.
Here in America they really focus on your strength instead of your weaknesses. But in Japan, unlike America, they really focus on your weakness and you try and work on your weaknesses and make them your strength. But here they don’t care about your weaknesses. They focus on the strength and make the strength more of a strength and build up your confidence. The coaches in Japan would always say, ‘Don’t walk the guy.’ That was something that would bother me. I had a meeting with the pitching coach here and he said it was OK to walk a guy, but just try and minimize the damage.
"It was something I was looking for."
Now comes the second act of a story the player and the team never saw coming.
