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PrintBRADENTON, Fla. -- Ah, yes, Aki Iwamura remembers it well.
This pair of Pirates spring-training teammates faced each other before, in another hemisphere, another time.
"2001," Iwamura said emphatically in English. "In Japan Series."
There probably aren't too many other major league clubhouses where a 6-foot-5 pitcher and onetime Montreal Expo can not only speak (a little) Japanese with him but relive memories from the same Nippon Professional League as a 5-9 Gold Glove infielder from Uwajima, Japan. Sort of.
"Aki doesn't remember, but I faced him in spring training '05," Jeremy Powell said. "I struck him out once on a changeup. He got a hit off me, too ... a single."
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PG VideoBut '01? "Oh, yeah. That's right. That's right. I don't remember facing him then, but I surely did," added the starter of Games 1 and 5 in Japan's championship series that year.
Iwamura smiled at the thought. "We won," he said of his Yakult Swallows drubbing by four games to one Powell's Kintetsu Buffaloes, the losingest franchise in the Japanese league with a history of penny-pinching and nary a league championship. "A long time ago. Almost 10 years ago."
Nearly a decade later, they are reunited in the Pirate City clubhouse. "I was surprised [to find Powell there]," said Iwamura, 31, who came to the United States three years ago as a key import for Tampa Bay.
Powell, 33, is somewhat astonished that he is back on his native soil, too.
After seven years with the Expos, spending just 35 games in the majors, Powell had five months with San Diego's Class AAA club before moving to Kintetsu in Osaka, south-central Japan. It was a good move.
"The whole Japan thing was a great experience," Powell said before throwing live batting practice Sunday, with Lastings Milledge complimenting him "nice pitch, good pitch" after one jammed him. "I had a good run over there for five or six years. I was able to see my family a lot more than I see them over there. The teams and players over there, there are just no egos, regardless of who you are or what you're getting paid. Zero egos. ... Really enjoyed it over there."
Powell went 57-48 with a 3.93 ERA with Kintetsu and, after their merger, Orix. In a hitter-rich league, where Iwamura hit 30-plus homers each of the three years before he came to America, Powell topped the Pacific division in 2002 with 182 strikeouts and 17 victories. He became the first American player, or gaijin, to win 10-plus games for three different teams.
Yet, after two injury-riddled seasons, there came a dispute in which Orix and SoftBank both claimed to own his contract, and suddenly, Powell said, nobody in Japan would hire him. He telephoned Jim Benedict, a Pirates special assistant to the general manager and an old friend from the Expos, and he wound up Pirates property. He pitched a spring training inning with the Pirates -- his first such action since 2000 -- but spent last year with Class AAA Indianapolis, going 4-7 with a 3.74 ERA in 34 games, 10 of them starts.
In Japan, the starting pitcher is deactivated for games he isn't throwing, so he basically is sent home. That and the low-rent housing and the plenty of yen made for a good situation for Powell.
"It enabled me to be able to financially take care of myself and my family. Really, at the end of the day, that's what it's about: Our careers are short. I didn't think I'd stay over there as long as I did, I had a really solid, second year [2002]. After that I really realized, 'The money's good here, I enjoy it here, my family loves it here. Why don't I just stay here?'" Powell said.
"I still would love to finish my career over there [Japan]. Obviously, I'd love to be in the big leagues and finish my career in the big leagues. Again, I'm realistic about the situation, you know. But I'm healthy again. Just try to take the opportunity that I have left."
Manager John Russell warned against counting the days to try to calculate an opening-day starter, but here is the rotation to open Grapefruit League play this week:
In the exhibition opener Tuesday in the usual match with the Manatees of what is now the State College of Florida, these pitchers are scheduled: Bryan Morris, Donnie Veal, Ronald Uviedo, Justin Thomas, Ramon Aguero, Jeff Sues and Anthony Claggett.
Wednesday at the New York Yankees -- Paul Maholm and Ross Ohlendorf will each work an inning, followed in some order by Brian Bass, D.J. Carrasco, Chris Jakubauskas, Jack Taschner, Steven Jackson and Jean Machi.
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