About Kodai Senga
Kodai Senga (千賀 滉大, Senga Kōdai; born January 30, 1993) is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2023 and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) debut in 2012 for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He is a three-time NPB All-Star and a one-time MLB All-Star. Internationally, Senga represents the Japanese national team. == Early life == Senga was born in Gamagori, Aichi Prefecture, where he started playing rubber-ball baseball as a third baseman until he graduated from middle school, then switched from third baseman to pitcher due to the manager of Gamagori High School baseball club, who saw the quality of Senga's throwing fitting more as a pitcher. Although Senga and his team never made it to either Japanese High School Baseball Championship or Japanese High School Baseball Invitational Tournament in Koshien Stadium, the owner of a sporting goods store in Nagoya recommended Senga to Kazuo Ogawa, then-the scout manager of Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, as a potential player to be drafted. == Professional career == === Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks === On October 28, 2010, Senga was drafted as a developmental player by the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in the 2010 Nippon Professional Baseball draft with Takuya Kai and Taisei Makihara. ==== 2011–2015 ==== From 2011 to mid-2012, he played in informal matches against the Shikoku Island League Plus's teams, other amateur baseball teams, and played in the Western League of NPB's second league. On April 23, 2012, he signed a 4.4 million yen contract with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks as a registered player under control. On April 30, Senga debuted in the Pacific League against the Chiba Lotte Marines as a starter.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.