By Jim Allen, KYODO NEWS - Nov 16, 2017 - 21:22 | Sports, All

For the first time in a while, the panel that selects the Matsutaro Shoriki Award stepped out of the box when they named SoftBank Hawks closer Dennis Sarfate this year's winner.

In recent years, the award -- for the player, coach, umpire or manager who makes the biggest contribution to Japanese pro baseball -- had been presented to the manager of the Japan Series-winning team. Not surprisingly, Sarfate was unfamiliar with the award but the more the 36-year-old pitcher learned, the more honored he felt.

"When I found out what the (Shoriki) award meant, I went, 'Wow. That's almost better than the MVP,' When you think about the prestige, and that he's the one who started pro baseball in Japan," Sarfate told Kyodo News by telephone on Wednesday.

"As a foreigner in Japan, you sometimes think you don't have the respect of everyone, but to win something like this, (you know) they do respect what you do. It's a tremendous honor."

Sarfate saved a record 54 games and wrapped up the Japan Series MVP Award with a dramatic three-inning relief win in the decisive Game 6.

In announcing the award, Sadaharu Oh, the Hawks chairman and head of the selection committee, said Sarfate provided the signature performances of the 2017 season.

"Mr. Oh, his comments are the ones that blew me away the most," Sarfate said. "Just to have him say how my pitching was and to put it out there at the top of the class for this year. That meant a lot to me."

This was Sarfate's fourth season with the Hawks and his seventh in Nippon Professional Baseball. With his career stalled after spending the 2010 season in the minors with the Baltimore Orioles, his third big league organization, Sarfate joined the Hiroshima Carp in 2011.

The large volume of physical training Japanese players typically undergo in spring training was a challenge Sarfate and then-teammate Bryan Bullington were ready for, although it came at a cost.

"Me and Bullington, when we got there, we said we're not going to let these guys beat us in running and all that," Sarfate said. "So we did everything. It was hard the first two weeks. I was so sore that I didn't want to do anything anymore."

"Once spring training started going and we started getting past the soreness, they started to say, 'Hey. You better slow down or you're going to blow out.' Because they'd never seen foreigners come in and do all the running and do all the throwing and do all that. The first day of camp, I threw a bullpen (session) and they were amazed by that."

"But I always took pride in being ready from Day 1, and being prepared. That's just the way I was in the States. So it didn't bother me that I had to be ready for spring training earlier. I had to be game-ready."

The long spring training and the focus on detail that is sometimes lacking in the States was another big thing for the right-hander, who got to the majors as a hard-throwing "one-pitch pitcher." It gave him the opportunity to raise his game.

"Coming over, you don't even know what to expect. But (in Japanese spring training) you have time to refine your trade," Sarfate said. "In the States in spring training, you just have to come in. You already know what you have to do and they're not sitting there going over and refining their tools. They're just going through the motions."

"But in Japan, you're actually working on things from Day 1. You're in the bullpen working on things, and you're on the field working on things. Because you have that time, you're practicing a lot and you're refining your tools, whether you like it or not."

"One thing for me was just playing catch with a purpose. There are other things I took for granted in the States, but in Japan, they're really focused on those things. That's why pitchers in Japan are so good, because they throw three or four pitches for a strike. They repeat the delivery. In the States, the No. 1 thing that kills guys is walks. When I was in the States, I walked a ton of guys. Now that I'm in Japan, I hardly walk anyone."

It was in Hiroshima that he finally made his curveball a useful tool, and since then he's developed a split-fingered fastball that has seen his save totals increase in each of the five seasons he's been his team's full-time closer.

And everything has gelled in Fukuoka, where he's a bullpen leader on a team filled with leaders -- but not egos.

"The No. 1 thing I love about Japanese baseball is not the play, but in the clubhouse, there are not those egos of guys who are making 20 to 30 million dollars," he said. "We have guys who are making a lot of money on our team, but you never hear about it."

"You show up, you practice hard, you play. I love how we practice before games (in Japan). This is the best shape I've ever been in my life because you do the work before the game."