By Scott Plack

4/1/2013: Charleston, SC – RF Tabito Matsushima stands 6’6” and smiles like a kid every time he steps onto the diamond.  At age 31, Matsushima will be a well-seasoned rookie in the Trendsetter outfield.  While virtually an unknown in PEBA circles, even after his solid year at Palm Springs’ AAA club last year, Matsushima has experienced the mania of rabid fans and pressure-filled games in Japan while playing in the LRS.  In fact, Matsushima has tasted success like few enjoy, but also the bitterness of the immediacy of baseball business, where, “What you have you done for me lately?” rules.  Here is the story how “Sushi” arrived in New Orleans to a new beginning.

The Wonder Years

Matsushima signed on with the Yamato Battleships, the same club his lifelong friend Takashi Agano played for.  The two-year contract totaled almost $2M.  That year, he suffered a strained posterior cruciate ligament.  “My best friend, Takashi Agano, and I were chasing after the same ball.  I called him off but – and don’t let him tell you different – he’s a little deaf, so he didn’t hear me.  I caught the ball but he smashed through my legs in a dive.  I felt the pain the minute he hit; I knew something was wrong,” said Matsushima.

Despite only playing in 98 games that season, Matsushima hit a career high 43 homeruns in 2007.  “My biggest disappointment was not catching and passing Tak up (he notched 47 in 2007), but hey, I played in way less games, so I always used to tell him that technically I was the better hitter.  Tak just pointed to the stats, smiled and then changed the subject.”

Yamato finished fourth despite the outpouring of power from its outfield.  The next two years, however, were a different story, as Yamato took the Neo-Tokyo Cup back-to-back.  Neither Matsushima nor Agano matched their impressive first years, and 2009 was a very down year for Agano.  While Agano belted 30 homeruns, his batting average dropped to .213.

Free agency came up and Yamato passed on resigning Agano, and then the days and months started to creep by.  “Spring training was a tough time for me in 2010.  Agano wasn’t there to joke with and when I called he tried to hide it, but you could tell he was hurt by the lack of interest teams showed in him,” remembers Sushi.  “No one wants to quit playing this game.  It’s fun, not just a job, and it hurts to not be wanted by teams and fans who had cheered for you for so many games, just to forget about you.”

Sushi and his friend had come face to face with the business side of baseball: You are only as good as your last stat line.  Agano was too expensive when younger, cheaper players were clamoring for playing time.  “Was I really an old man at 29?  Had I really fallen that far, that quickly?” wondered Agano.  But the calls never came, the offers never showed up and Agano spent 2010 cheering on his friend Sushi for the newly renamed Kawaguchi organization.  Sushi raised his average a few ticks, but his power was down and Kawaguchi finished fourth again.  During that off-season, he found himself on the move.

The Depths

Sushi was now playing for Neo-Tokyo and things weren’t going well.  They finished the season 35 games back, and while Sushi was probably the best LF in the Shining Star Group, the Akira didn’t bother to resign him.  “It was a dark time for me.  Agano and I would hang out and we tried not to think about the possibilities.  I was pretty angry and arrogant at the time.  I was telling myself I deserved All-Star money and All-Star treatment, but I was swept away as easily as dust under the rug.  I think I wanted to make a statement for Tak… to take something like they took from him.  I would look Tak in the eye and I could see the joy that had faded, that he had endured the long months with no calls, no games to play and no real prospects.  Sometimes, I could see myself mirrored in his thoughts, his words and actions, the inevitable being that someday soon we would sit around drinking coffee and brag about the good old days.”

The dark cloud hung over Sushi from November 29 until the next year in early March.  “I had practiced my retirement speech so many times I probably can still do it in my sleep.  I was going to tell the owners, the directors, the scouts, the managers – everyone I could think of – off; let them know what they were going to be missing out on.  But in reality, I had nowhere else to go, nothing looming on the horizon.  I was sitting, waiting, ‘cause I had nothing better to do.”

It was early March of 2011 when the Palm Springs Codgers contacted Sushi through his agent.  “They offered me a minor league deal.  I guess they saw something and thought I would be low-risk and shot me an offer.  I asked my agent what he thought and his first comment was that their team colors were pink, which didn’t bother me too much because over here in Japan we have some pretty crazy color schemes and unis.  I called Tak and I barely got the news out before he was telling me to go.  Tak had recently retired and he was almost as hungry for me to get a chance to play as I was.”  On March 5, Sushi headed to National City to be a Banker.

Sushi was playing the game he loved again, and not doing too poorly.  In a short stint at A-ball, he hit .339 with 6 HR and 19 RBI.  He was soon promoted to AAA in Provo, Utah.  Just after arriving in Provo, Sushi received the terrible news that Agano had been killed when the small plane he was riding in crashed shortly after takeoff.  “Yeah, it was tough.  I mean Tak was part of the reason I was playing, that I was trying so hard in this strange place, this different culture.  I took a week off, attended the funeral.  I was… I am still pretty bitter about how few of our former players, coaches and team staff made the memorial, but people get busy… things happen, and I have bigger moments to live out here, more memories to make, more goals to accomplish in Tak’s honor.”

Sushi refocused and became something akin to his former self by hitting .291 with 27 home runs in 104 games.  He felt pretty good about his chances to get a real contract with the Codgers organization.  However, it was not to be.

The Codgers have been and continue to be particularly stacked in the OF.  John Gustafson, Michael Smith and Mark Lamb were the three biggest reasons Sushi was allowed to walk after the end of the 2012 season.  “I understood.  I mean, I have been down this road.  I just was hopeful.  It seemed everything was coming together.  I was going to play in the PEBA… and then here I was again, sitting in the free agent market, not sure what was going to happen.”

The American Dream

Sushi found himself in No Man’s Land again in November, this time unsure as to what would come his way.  “I felt pretty sure that I was going to ask for something more than a minor league deal because I knew I was ready and it was probably now or never.  No calls, no interest.  By December, I was making plans to move back to Japan.”

What Sushi found out later was that he wasn’t the Trendsetters first choice.  Originally, New Orleans had tagged Cal Edwards as their next right fielder, but when Claudio Cordova announced his retirement, the Bears aggressively signed Edwards.  The Trendsetters’ eyes turned towards a little-known RF who scouts believed had the ability to hit home runs at a fairly high clip if he could keep it all together.  “Hey, I can be a little slow sometimes, but I have recently discovered OPS is good, and Sushi presented us with some low-cost OPS, or at least the potential for it,” indicated Trendsetter GM Cooper Scott.

“It was easy.  They put on offer on the table, I accepted, and by February I had a place to call home, a team to suit up for and a chance to fulfill my and Tak’s dream of continuing to play baseball professionally.  So yeah, I am always smiling when I am playing this game, because I can remember the times when the future didn’t look too bright, when my chances of being a professional ballplayer seemed so overwhelming.”

Sushi stepped up in spring training with an early showing of what kind of hitter he can be when he is in the groove.  In 24 games, he hit six home runs and just missed hitting several more.  “It only gets tougher from here.  My hands and stomach tingle just thinking about the chance to get out there, to battle against these new pitchers, to make a new name for myself.”

Sushi made one request of the Trendsetters organization; he wanted to throw out the first pitch in Takashi Agano’s honor before New Orleans’ home opener, and the Trendsetters plan to do just that on Friday afternoon.

Rarely is the road that leads us to the dream of what we really want to accomplish and become straight or without rough patches.  For now, fans can watch and cheer on Smilin’ Slamin’ Sushi as he lives out his.