• In grade school, none of Yu’s classmates would play Dodgeball with him. He threw too hard.
• As a high school pitcher, Yu had a 1.10 ERA and struck out more than a batter an inning.
• Yu was just the 12th Japanese pitcher to win his debut after jumping directly from high school to the pros.
• At 21, Yu signed a 200 million yen contract with the Fighters. He was the youngest player ever to reach that salary level. At 23, he was the youngest to reach 300 million yen.
• In 2007, Yu became just the second pitcher in Japanese history to fire back-to-back 14-strikeout games. 
• Yu’s 24 strikeouts in the 2007 Japan Series set a record for a five-game series.
• After the 2007 season, Yu took home the MVP and Samurai Awards, as well as Gold Glove and Best Nine honors.
• Yu was just the third player tow in two Japan League MVP awards in his first five seasons. The first two were Kazuhisa Inao and Ichiro Suzuki.
• In order to compete for Japan in the 2008 Olympics, Yu had to declare himself a full Japanese citizen and renounce his dual Iranian citizenship.
• The first major leaguer Yu struck out was Dustin Ackley. He yielded his first hit to Ichiro.
• In Yu’s third big-league game, he beat Hiroki Kuroda of the New York Yankees. The game was televised live in Japan.
• Yu endorses DyDo Coffee in Japan. He took over as the company’s celebrity spokesman from former teammates Tsuyoshi Shinjo.
• Yu’s father was a Dallas Cowboys fan when he attended school in the U.S.
• In 2007, Yu married TV actress Saeko. They had two sons and divorced in 2012.
• Part of Yu’s warm-up routine is throwing pitches left- and right-handed. He believes this keeps his body in balance.

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