Premier stopper put an early close to his career with Mariners

Before his personal life unraveled, necessitating him to opt out of the final year of his lucrative contract with the Seattle Mariners after the 2003 season, Kazuhiro Sasaki left his mark as one of baseball's elite closers over a four-year stretch.

Making his major league debut April 5, 2000 against the Red Sox, he finished the season as the American League Rookie of the Year with 37 saves. He saved 45 games on a Seattle team that won 116 games in 2001, his deceptive brilliance and power endearing him to fans, teammates, and manager Lou Piniella.

"He was money," Piniella said. "Bring him in and the game's over. You win that many games because you have a guy at the end who can save the close ones. He could save the close ones."

Sasaki had come to Seattle as a free agent after a storied 10-year career with the Yokohama BayStars -- he was the Central League MVP in 1998 (45 saves, 0.64 ERA). After being limited by an elbow injury in 1999, Sasaki was ready for a change.

He amassed 129 saves in four seasons in Seattle. But in 2003, the 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pound righthander went 1-2 with a 4.05 ERA and 10 saves in an injury-plagued season, during which he suspiciously cracked some ribs (he claims to have fallen down a staircase).

"He was something to watch," said former Mariners starter Joel Pineiro, who was a teammate of Sasaki's for three seasons. "He was very big and he had that mean look on his face. Very imposing. He had a good, strong work ethic. He had that thing where right before he threw the ball he screamed something in Japanese. I loved to watch him."

Sasaki, who paved the way for other Japanese relievers such as Akinori Otsuka and Takashi Saito, walked away from $8.5 million of Seattle's money in 2004 to re-sign with the BayStars, saying he missed his wife and children who had stayed behind in Japan.

"We were all surprised that he walked away from $8 million," Pineiro said. "It just seemed like it came out of the blue. I was mostly a starting pitcher then and I was concentrating on that. But he's someone you definitely could learn from if you were going to be a closer or a setup man because he really had a unique way about him which was perfect for a closer. Just the way he presented himself and prepared to enter the game with the adrenaline flowing. You've seen guys like that over the years, like Rob Dibble or Troy Percival. They just had that something special. Sasaki was like that."

Not long after he returned to his homeland, he divorced his wife and began living with Japanese TV starlet Kanako Enomoto, whom he eventually married. But the former all-time save leader in Nippon Professional Baseball was never quite the same on the mound, battling injuries that eventually ended his career in 2005.

Upon announcing his retirement, he told his fans, "I have no regrets, but I feel sorry for my fans. I failed to produce any results over the past few years, especially Yokohama, due to injuries."