Tsuyoshi Wada (和田 毅, Wada Tsuyoshi; born February 21, 1981) is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) from 2003 to 2011, and 2016 to 2024 for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He also played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2014 to 2015 for the Chicago Cubs.
Wada pitched in the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as the 2006 World Baseball Classic for the Japanese national team. He set a Tokyo Big6 Baseball League record with 476 strikeouts during his college career at Waseda University and was the Pacific League Most Valuable Rookie in 2003.
Wada was born in Kōnan, Aichi Prefecture. He began playing baseball as a first grader at Kōnan Municipal Fujisato Elementary School for the Kōnan Danchi Baseball team.
In 1991, Wada and his family moved to Izumo, Shimane Prefecture, his father's hometown. Wada enrolled in Shimane Prefectural Hamada High School in Hamada upon graduating from junior high, leading them to the 79th National High School Baseball Championship in the summer of his second year of high school (the equivalent of 11th grade in the United States) in 1997. His team faced Akita Commercial High School, led by Masanori Ishikawa, in the first round, but Wada walked Ishikawa with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning and suffered a walk-off loss.
Wada's team secured a berth in the national tournament again the following summer (1998). They defeated Niigata Prefectural Shibata Agricultural High School, whose battery consisted of right-hander Kazuhiro Togashi (who later played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters) and catcher Ken Katoh, in their first game. They faced Teikyo High School, the East Tokyo champions, in their next game. Though Wada, who was not only the team's ace but also their cleanup hitter, gave up a home run to Hichori Morimoto, Hamada High won 3–2, making it to the quarter-finals. They narrowly lost in the quarter-finals to Toyota Otani High School (led by Katsuaki Furuki) in extra innings.
Though Wada had ruptured his left triceps muscle the previous fall and struggled to even reach 130 km/h (81 mph) with his fastball during the tournament, Teikyo High players remarked after facing Wada that "[his fastball] looked like it was 150 km/h (93 mph)."
As a player who was born in the 1980 Japanese academic year and participated in the 1998 Summer Championship, Wada is considered a member of the "Matsuzaka Generation".
Wada went on to enroll at Waseda University as a human sciences major after graduating from Hamada High. He made his collegiate debut in the fall of his freshman year, pitching in a game against the University of Tokyo on September 12. He rebuilt his pitching mechanics from scratch that year, succeeding in increasing the velocity of his fastball until it consistently hit speeds of 140 km/h (87 mph) and above within a mere two months of joining the team. He became a full-fledged starter for Waseda in the spring of his second year, drawing attention with the furious pace with which he racked up strikeouts.
Taking on the uniform number 18 that had traditionally denoted the team's lefty ace (previously worn by Shugo Fujii), Wada led Waseda to consecutive Tokyo Big6 league titles in the spring and summer seasons of his senior year (2002) for the first time in university history since 1950. He received the league Best Nine Award in both seasons.
That year, Waseda earned a berth in both the 51st All-Japan University Baseball Championship Series as well as the Meiji Jingu Tournament, but the team fell short of a championship in both tournaments, losing to Asia University (whose pitching staff featured right-handers Katsuhiro Nagakawa and Hiroshi Kisanuki, both of whom would later turn professional) in the finals in the former and succumbing to Tohoku Fukushi University in the semi-finals in the latter.
Wada set a new Tokyo Big6 record for career strikeouts that year, surpassing the 443 set by Suguru Egawa (who later pitched for the Yomiuri Giants) and finishing with 476. He also set a new Waseda record in wins for left-handed pitchers, finishing his college career with a 27–13 record and a 1.35 ERA. His dedication and commitment were said to have had a positive influence on younger players on the team like Norichika Aoki, Takashi Toritani, Toshimitsu Higa and Shintaro Yoshida (all of whom later went pro), the core that later led Waseda to four consecutive league titles for the first time in Tokyo Big6 history.
Wada was dubbed the "Dr. K (à la former Major League Baseball pitcher Dwight Gooden) of the Tokyo Big6" during his college years and was one of the most coveted prospects in Japanese college baseball as he entered his senior year. He was signed by the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks as a pre-draft pick along with right-handermdy Nagisa Arakaki of Kyushu Kyoritsu University prior to the 2002 NPB amateur draft that fall and was assigned the uniform number 21.
Fukuoka (Daiei / SoftBank) Hawks
Wada secured a spot in the Hawks' starting rotation from his rookie year (2003), making his professional debut in a regular season game against the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes on April 1 (he gave up five runs in 6+2⁄3 innings). He earned the first win of his career against the Seibu Lions on April 8, pitching six shutout innings, and recorded his first career complete game win (a shutout) against the Chiba Lotte Marines on April 16. Overall, he finished the year with a 14–5 record, 3.38 ERA and 195 strikeouts (second only to young Lions right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka's 215), earning Pacific League Most Valuable Rookie honors. He also played an instrumental role in the Hawks' league title and subsequent Japan Series championship, pitching a complete game win as a rookie for the first time in Japan Series history in Game 7 of the series. He played in the 2003 Asian Baseball Championship (which also functioned as the Asian qualifying tournament for the 2004 Athens Olympics) as a member of the Japanese national team in November, pitching 5+1⁄3 shutout innings against South Korea in the final game of the tournament to clinch a berth in the Olympics.
Wada played in the 2004 Athens Olympics, contributing to Japan's bronze medal finish in the tournament by earning two wins against Canada (one in the preliminary round, the other in the bronze medal game) while holding them to two runs over twelve innings. However, he fell victim to a sophomore slump in the NPB regular season, going 10–6 but racking up a 4.35 ERA and striking out just 115 batters (despite this, his batting average against was a league-best .228).
In 2005, Wada was named the starter for the Hawks' season opener for the first time in his career, taking the mound against the Fighters on March 26 and holding them to one run over 7+2⁄3 innings while striking out eight en route to the win (though he required 135 pitches). He finished the year with a 12–8 record and a much-improved 3.27 ERA, becoming the first pitcher to record double-digit wins in each of his first three seasons in Hawks franchise history since Tadashi Sugiura accomplished the feat in 1960.
On December 10, the Hawks made it public that Wada had married swimsuit model and actress Kasumi Nakane. The couple had their wedding ceremony at Izumo Taisha, a Shinto shrine, on December 14.
Wada was chosen for the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic as a member of the Japanese national team but saw little playing time as a middle reliever, coming on in relief in Japan's second-round match against Mexico and pitching two shutout innings in his first and only appearance of the tournament. (Japan won the game 6–1.)