沢村栄治賞
Major League pitcher Bill Gullickson played for the Giants in 1988–1989, and befriended Kuwata. Gullickson named his son Craig Kuwata Gullickson after Kuwata, and gave much advice to the Japanese pitcher. Kuwata has said his dream of playing in the Major Leagues came from Gullickson. However, many obstacles kept him from realizing this dream — including his great success in Nippon Professional Baseball. He won the Eiji Sawamura Award (the Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young Award) the same year, and won over ten games for six consecutive seasons starting in 1992.