
Tsunami Survivor Sasaki Overcame Tragedy To Reach MLB
Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published January 24, 2025 | 12:00 AM

Tokyo, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jan, 2025) Roki Sasaki is Major League Baseball's hottest new star but he had to struggle through adversity to get there, losing his father and grandparents in Japan's deadly 2011 tsunami.
The 23-year-old pitcher, who has agreed to join the Los Angeles Dodgers, is regarded as one of baseball's best young talents and news that he would leave Japan for MLB this winter sparked a bidding frenzy around the league.
His journey to the majors has been a tragic one, starting when his world was turned upside down 14 years ago at the age of nine.
Sasaki's hometown of Rikuzentakata was virtually wiped off the map when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake sent huge waves barrelling towards Japan's coast.
His house was washed away and both of his paternal grandparents and his father, Kota, were killed.
Sasaki, his mother and two brothers lost everything, and they were forced to live temporarily in a nursing home until they moved to a nearby city.
It was there that the family began to pick up the pieces, with Sasaki finding some peace of mind on the pitcher's mound.
"I was happiest when I was playing baseball," he said 10 years after the disaster.
"I could lose myself in the game and fight hard against the tough times. I'm glad I started playing baseball."
Sasaki was at school when the tsunami struck, and he and his classmates survived by climbing to higher ground.
Around 18,500 people around Japan were left dead or missing in the disaster, which also triggered a meltdown at Fukushima nuclear plant.
"You never know when the life you take for granted can disappear, that's the scary thing," Sasaki later said.
Sasaki went on to become a high school star and was taken by the Chiba Lotte Marines as the number one pick in the 2019 Nippon Professional Baseball draft.
Already on MLB clubs' radar, he made the world sit up and take notice when he pitched a perfect game at the age of 20 in April 2022.
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