2020 Olympic Games awarded to Tokyo, Japan

The 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games were awarded to Tokyo, Japan on Sept. 7 after the city beat out bids from Madrid, Spain and Istanbul, Turkey. Tokyo previously held the event in 1964. The voting for the Games took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tokyo won the first round of voting with Madrid and Istanbul being tied for second. A tie-breaking vote was Istanbul beat Madrid by four votes and this set up a head-to-head vote between Tokyo and Istanbul. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge then announced that Tokyo had won the deciding vote by a score of 60 to 36.

Junichi Tazawa could be the ace the Red Sox have been searching for

If you look closely to the Red Sox pitching staff you could find one hidden gem, without much fanfare.
26 year old Junichi Tazawa is now three years removed from Tommy John surgery, and maybe he is the ace the Sox have been searching for.

Back in 2007 Craig Shipley and Jon Dibble of the Red Sox were the first scouts to see Tazawa in an industrial league in Japan. One game  they saw him strike out 19 with no walks and throwing 95 consistently.

Boston signed the 22 year old Tazawa in the fall of 2008 and less than a year later, at age 23,  he was starting in Fenway.

Tazawa missed all of 2010 following surgery, and when he came back in 2011 his fastball was at 89-91.

In 2012 his velocity jumped up to 96-97, with a great split and slider.

Tazawa only pitched 44 innings in 2012 in Boston with 45 strikeouts. In Pawtucket last season he hurled 42.1 innings with 56 strikeouts. 91 strikeouts for 2012.

The Red Sox probably feel pressure to keep him in his middle inning role, mainly because Daniel Bard was such a failure at the same move last year.

But Tazawa is not Bard, his control separates him from any comparison.

Anyone that throws strikes all the time in the mid nineties, with two other dominate pitches, should be in the rotation if they are healthy.

When you step back and just look at the talent alone, Tazawa deserves a chance to be the ace of this rotation.

Hideki Matsui retires after stellar 20-year baseball career

Major League veteran Hideki Matsui of Japan announced on Dec. 28 that he was hanging up his glove after 20 years of professional baseball. The 38-year-old has suffered through several injuries over the past few years and decided it was time to say goodbye. He leaves the game as one of the best

Japanese-born players ever and takes home an MVP award from the 2009 World Series when he was a member of the New York Yankees. The slugger was affectionately known as Godzilla in his homeland for the way he attacked the ball at the plate.

However, Matsui’s skills were slowly starting to fade over the past couple of seasons and he no longer struck fear into opposing pitchers. Matsui was already a 10-year veteran of Japanese baseball when he moved across the Pacific Ocean to New York back in 2003. He left the Yomiuri Giants behind and signed a $21 million three-year contract with the Yankees. Matsui enjoyed seven seasons with the Yankees, helping them to the World Series title in 2009 with six RBIs in the sixth and deciding game against the Philadelphia Phillies. He was named an all star on two occasions with New York and his debut at Yankee Stadium in 2003 will never be forgotten as he blasted a grand slam.

Matsui went 8 for 13 in the 2009 World Series and belted three home runs. Those numbers were good enough to see him become the first player born in Japan to be honored with a World Series MVP award.

Chicago Cubs Sign Coveted Japanese Pitcher Kyuji Fujikawa to Two-Year Contract

The Cubs have reportedly made their biggest splash of the offseason, picking up Kyuji Fujikawa. Though no statement from the team has been released, Ken Rosenthal, among other reports the deal is done.

Fujikawa has spent his 12-year career with the Hanshin Tigers, racking up 220 saves and a miniscule 1.77 ERA. The new closer will bring stability to a position which has plagued the team over the past few seasons, as Carlos Marmol has struggled to get the job done. 

The deal is worth $9.5 million over two seasons. 

Angels stepping up pursuit for Japanese releiver Kyuju Fujikawa

The Los Angeles Angels are stepping up their pursuit of Kyuju Fujikawa. A handful of teams are known to have spoken or plan to speak the to 32-year-old. The Japanese born reliever is a free agent and thus is not subject to the posting system.

It was reported last week that the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks had met with Fujikawa.

Fujikawa will meet with the Los Angeles Dodgers soon while the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers have shown interested as well though no official meeting has been announced.

There Will Be MMA This New Year's Eve

For at least one more year, there will be MMA on New Year's Eve in the country of Japan.

It was announced last week that Dream will have a revival for one night at least, and that night will be one of the more important dates in MMA: December 31^st. It was announced as a mixed martial arts and kickboxing card, co-promoted by Real Entertainment Co. Ltd. and Glory Sports International. The card appears to be ten MMA fights with three kickboxing matches, and the recent tradition of MMA fighters competing in kickboxing and vice versa will continue this year as well.

Participants are still to be announced, but three Japanese fighters that were present at the press conference announcing the event were Hiroyuki Takaya, Dream's featherweight champion as of their last event, Tatsuya Kawajiri, and Satoru Kitaoka. Expect those three to be in fights on the card.

As for the kickboxing matches and potential kickboxers in MMA fights, look to Glory's kickboxing card in Japan at the beginning of December. On December 4, Glory is holding a one-night sixteen man kickboxing tournament and because Glory was able to get first crack at the kickboxing free agent market before the new K-1, this tournament is stacked with names. Entrants in Glory's one night tournament on December 4 include Semmy Schilt, Remy Bonjasky, Peter Aerts, Jerome LeBanner, Sergei Kharitonov, and Errol Zimmerman. All of these men have at least one or two fights in MMA, though for a few of them that's about it.

Out of those names, only Schilt was any kind of star in MMA as he made a decent mark in UFC and Pride before achieving even more success in K-1, winning the World Grand Prix four times. LeBanner is still a big name in Japan and that was proven when he was matched against Satoshi Ishii in an MMA fight back on the last day of 2010. It was agreed that LeBanner was a big name opponent for Ishii, but then during the fight it was LeBanner getting all of the cheers from the crowd instead of Ishii in his home country.

In addition to the fights scheduled, it wouldn't surprise this writer if Antonio Inoki's IGF pro wrestling promotion contributed to the card with a few pro wrestling matches involving MMA fighters and kickboxers. If that were to happen, figure on Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata to make another appearance as a tag-team (they wrestled on last year's Dream New Year's Eve card) as well as Kazuyuki Fujita (a former MMA fighter) and LeBanner being on the card in that format.

For the sport of MMA in Japan, it's a good thing that the New Year's Eve tradition is being continued this year. As of this moment, this may be more of a good-bye to the sport than a re-introduction. Dream is still basically dead as the co-promotion with GSI is mainly what is making this card possible. Any kind of continued running of Dream by Real Entertainment would likely have to be in co-promotion with GSI unless Real Entertainment somehow could get some money coming in to produce MMA cards. But the sport itself is in a grave depression in the country, having gone almost practically back to the days when it was a brand new sport, and the chance of any promotion becoming a long-running promotion that isn't a small Independent like Pancrase isn't good at all.

If the sport of MMA in Japan is destined to only be on the biggest stage once a year then so be it. It won't last that way forever. At some point the sport will begin to achieve new-found popularity, but because nobody can see into the future it's unknown when that time will come. But if MMA is guaranteed to be on national television in Japan on the one day of the year guaranteed to have more potential viewers than any other day of the year, it's not a bad day to be the sport's one big day of the year.

Dan Benton

Be sure to check out other great articles at Sports Media 101.