松坂ＵＰＤＡＴＥ、ESPNの記事 -- Beware of The Monster

Matsuzaka's mother named him for Daisuke (pronounced Dice-K) Araki, a pitcher who dominated the Koshien -- the national summer high school baseball tournament -- in 1980, the year she was pregnant.

"He was born to play baseball," Yomiuri Giants pitching coach Takao Obana says of Matsuzaka. "Very tough. It's inside him from the very beginning." Matsuzaka had major league dreams as far back as elementary school, but it wasn't until Hideo Nomo proved Japanese players could compete in the majors, in 1995, that his countrymen could truly begin to expand their horizons.

Three years later, a 17-year-old Matsuzaka capped off an undefeated, 208-strikeout season for Yokohama High School with a performance at the Koshien that was as brutal as it was brilliant. In a complete-game victory over powerhouse PL Gakuen, he threw 250 pitches over 17 innings in withering heat. The following day, in a semifinal against Meitoku Gijuku, he played eight innings in the outfield before throwing a 15-pitch ninth to get a win. And the next day, in the final, he pitched a title-clinching, 11-strikeout no-hitter vs. Kyoto Seisho.

甲子園で優勝するまで。大輔は Dice-Kとなるのか。なるほど。