Way back in 1997, back before the Red Sox and the Cubs hoopla, a seventeen year-old Josh Beckett in his junior year of high school pitched against a twenty year-old Kosuke Fukudome.

As part of the annual Grand Forks International Baseball Tournament up north of the border in Grand Forks, B.C., the reigning tourney champion Japan national team faced off against the semi-pro Reno Astros out of Reno, Nevada. Fortunately for the Astros, they were able to borrow Beckett from a Texas team just for the tournament. Home Run Derby spoke with Reno Astros' owner/manager Matt Konopisos about that matchup, and he had a few great tidbits to share:

[Beckett] showed up to meet the team while wearing his HS letterman jacket, which had "phenom" written across the back - which had some of the veterans question their manager's sanity about letting him pitch. But he was the real deal.

Current Atlanta Braves' backup catcher Corky Miller was Beckett's batterymate for the game - and he had Beckett twice throw inside on Fukudome, which Fukudome didn't like very much. Fukudome was the big name on Team Japan (he was the top draft pick of the Chunichi Dragons the following year) and came across as a little bit arrogant - hence the inside pitches.

Beckett and the Astros emerged victorious from that faceoff- beating Japan 9-1. Thanks to the Reno Astros' archives, here is video of that matchup-- but be forewarned, it's far from HD quality.

And as a funny little footnote to the video:

Konopisos also [said] that Josh Beckett has seen the video you just saw, and Beckett still feels he got squeezed by the ump on some of those pitches.

Follow after the jump for video of Josh pitching in the second and third innings of that game...

Thanks to Home Run Derby for the story, and the Reno Astros for the video!