Baseball: Record-setting closer Sarfate wins Shoriki Award

Relief pitcher Dennis Sarfate of the SoftBank Hawks on Thursday became just the second player to win the prestigious Matsutaro Shoriki Award in 16 years and the first foreign-registered player.The award, sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun and named after the man who was the driving force behind Japan's first successful pro baseball league, has since 2001 been nearly an automatic award for the winning manager of the Japan Series."I am honored to win the Matsutaro Shoriki Award," Sarfate said in a post on his Twitter account. "To be the first foreigner is a blessing from God."With a team whose …READ FULL ARTICLE