Masahiro Tanaka returned to Japan a year ago, ostensibly so he could contribute toward a pennant for the Rakuten Eagles 10 years after the Sendai-based club’s area was ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 with about 2,500 still missing.

And though it didn’t quite pan out that way with the Eagles finishing third and getting eliminated in the first stage of the playoffs, Rakuten did manage to make the playoffs. Carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders in 2011, they finished fifth.

A lot of you know the Tanaka story. A nationally known high school star who was selected by four teams in Nippon Professional Baseball’s 2006 draft. From the middle of the 2012 season through 2013, he won 28 regular season games during which he posted a quality start every time out. The Eagles won the pennant and the Japan Series, despite Tanaka losing his only game in over a year in Japan Series Game 6.

He was a unanimous selection for Pacific League MVP and then moved to New York, on a personally chartered 787, to play for the Yankees.

What you might not have considered, and what his most famous season made me forget, was that 2013 was probably Tanaka’s second best season.