For the players of the Japanese baseball team, 37-year-old veteran pitcher Yu Darvish (San Diego Padres) is a ‘legend’ that has been seen on TV. After playing for the Nippon Ham Fighters, he entered the major leagues in 2012 and won 95 wins (75 losses) in 11 years. He has 188 victories in his career in the US and Japan. The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was his last national team, and he has never pitched in Japan since he went to the major leagues.
He was in his mid-to-late 30s스포츠토토, and he had a six-year contract renewal. It means that his playing career is guaranteed until the age of 42. In the meantime, quite a few Japanese players have performed well in the major leagues, but there was no case like Darvish.
He is the winning pitcher in the 2009 WBC match against Korea, which Japan won. He started as a starting pitcher and then took over as a closer later in the tournament. He is the only national team player to have won the championship. 4 hitter Munetaka Murakami (23, Yakult Swallows), who hit 56 home runs last year, said that when he was 9 years old in elementary school, he watched Darvish win the championship on TV. He said that after seeing this, he dreamed of becoming a representative player.
The Japanese national team has undergone a generational change with players in their 20s. Few players have seen Darvish’s ball in person. However, on the 21st, Murakami hit a slider thrown by Darvish and turned it into a home run. It was Darvish’s first live pitching. This home run hit was an exceptional case. The junior who faced Darvish
The batters showed awe with one bite.
Outfielder Kensuke Kondo (30, Softbank Hawks) said, “The two-seam on the inside of the second pitch came into a trajectory that I have never seen before.” He said he was surprised by the two-seam that flew toward the left-handed hitter and flowed into the strike zone.
Infielder Kazuma Okamoto (27 years old, Yomiuri Giants) showed a similar reaction. “I saw it from the plate and from behind, and both the breaking ball and the fastball are amazing,” he said with his tongue out.
Infielder Shugo Maki (25, Yokohama Baystars) was amazed at the slider, which became a third pitch strike, saying, “I felt like it was flying toward my body. I couldn’t use my hands. Two-seam usually falls slightly, but it came right in.”
Catcher Takumi Oshiro (30, Yomiuri) said, “It was over in an instant. I felt that the two-seam was bending rather than falling.” Darvish threw 24 against five.Darvish was the only one of five major league players to participate in training camps. Since he has such a large presence, he has become a ‘nuclear man’ at the center of the issue. According to Japanese media, he is a leader who gives various advice to junior pitchers.