Shota Imanaga is the best pitcher in Major League Baseball right now. The 30-year-old lefty signed with the Chicago Cubs during the offseason after playing eight years in his home country of Japan and has been lights out through the first nine starts of his career in the United States.
He might not be where he is without Big Ten West football!
Seriously. Imanaga fell in love with Wrigley Field during an extremely low-scoring game between Iowa and Northwestern back in November.
The Hawkeyes won 10-7. Both teams combined for less than 350 total yards and 14 punts.
Imanaga, a native of Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, was selected in the first round of the 2015 Nippon Professional Baseball Draft out of Komazawa University. He pitched incredibly well during his career with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars and averaged a strikeout per inning. However, it was his performance in the World Baseball Classic that drew the most interest from MLB clubs.
Upon arrival to the United States last October, Imanaga chose to move near his Chicago-based agents. He stayed in a suburb west of Wrigley Field and discovered a Japanese marketplace he liked (among other things) while spending those first few months in his new country as a tourist.
The Cubs were also one of his many suitors.
On Nov. 4, 2023, Imanaga walked over to the Friendly Confines and fell in love with the stadium, as well as Iowa punter Tory Taylor. Northwestern hosted Iowa at Wrigley Field. The international pitcher loved it.
I came here and they were playing football. I saw that home plate was covered. And they said the scoreboard was really old. I liked it.
— Shota Imanaga, via ESPN
If Imanaga was not excited about signing with Chicago before that glorious day in early November, it was the greatest college punter of all-time and a lack of touchdowns that really sold him on his future, obviously.
Not the historic stadium… Not the ballpark dogs…
Shota Imanaga is currently is 6-0 with a league-leading 0.84 ERA as a breakout star for the Cubs because of a college football game that saw 82 rushing attempts, only 25 pass attempts and 17 points. Welcome to America!