Travis Ishikawa’s wife Rochelle Ishikawa must be a proud woman tonight. With the game knotted up in the bottom of the 9th in game 5, Travis Ishikawa sent the San Francisco faithful home happy, belting a three-run home run to send the Giants to the World Series.
Travis Ishikawa’s wife Rochelle hasn’t always enjoyed things like LCS walk off home runs in their relationship. In fact, the couple first met after Travis was hit by a pitch in the mouth. The injury sent him to a dentist’s officer, where he met Rochelle, working as a dental assistant. Travis was playing minor league ball in San Jose, and was only in the city for one day before their first meeting, and admits to being too nervous to talk to Rochelle, especially given his circumstances:
“Not only was my face swollen the first time I went to her office, but the airlines had actually lost my luggage the day before. My baseball stuff made it but my personal bag didn’t make it, so, when I went in there, I was wearing the same shirt I had worn the day before and I had flown all day in it. And from sliding I had cuts on my elbows and blood on my shirt a little bit. But she says she doesn’t remember any of that. She found me attractive, I found her attractive and it worked out.”
Fortunately the less that ideal impression didn’t last, and his nerves calmed when he went in for a follow up two weeks later, when he invited her to a game. The rest as they say is history, when Travis proceeded to hit a home run in said game (I ordered chicken fingers and only one beer on the first date with my wife…. his first date is more impressive). Clearly, chicks dig the long ball, as Rochelle was interested in more, and offered to show Travis around the city.
The rest as they say, is destiny. Travis and Rochelle Ishikawa have three children, ranging in age from 6 to 13. Their first child, a daughter was born on September 25th, 2008, Travis’ 25th birthday.
