What are the strengths of the Japanese national team that the US national team does not have in the World Baseball Classic (WBC)? On the surface, the strong starting lineup of Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels), Yu Darvish (San Diego), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix), and Rocky Sasaki (Chiba Lotte) emerged as the differentiated competitiveness of the Japanese national team. However, MLB.com, which focuses on WBC news, put its eyes on a slightly different place.
On the 20th, the media delivered an article titled ‘The play and spirit of Genda Sosuke, who plays a large role in Japan’s success at the WBC’.바카라
Genda Sosuke (30) is a member of the Seibu Lions of the Nippon Professional Baseball and plays as the main shortstop for the WBC national team. The role of Hayato Sakamoto (Yomiuri), who was a regular shortstop for the national team, could not join the tournament due to problems on and off the field, such as sexual scandals and lack of preparation for the season. On the other hand, the position of shortstop in the Japanese national team was also pointed out as a weakness.
What the media paid attention to was Genda’s spirit. The media said, “Genda is not a star playing in the big leagues like Ohtani, Darvish, and Lars Nuthba. He may not be a player who shines the appearance of the Japanese national team like Yamamoto and Murakami Munetaka, but he plays a role like the heart of the Japanese national team.”
After graduating from university, Kenda joined Toyota Motors, a professional baseball club, and was named as the third player by Seibu in 2016 after playing for two years. The reason why his basic resume stands out again is because of his fighting spirit in this tournament. Genda suffered a microfracture in his pinky finger in the first round of the tournament on the 10th. The local media predicted that he would be difficult to play in the remaining games. However, Genda, who missed the next two games, returned to play against Italy in the quarterfinals wearing special gloves, and led the Japanese team to the quarterfinals with 1 hit and 1 RBI in 3 at-bats.
The media introduced Genda’s career a little deeper and said, “There are more surprises.” An anecdote from my high school baseball days at Oita Sang High School. It was one day when Genda suffered a broken tooth during batting practice. Genda bent down to pick up the broken tooth and continued batting training again, despite the injury that anyone would have sought from the hospital.
While the WBC is still unable to establish the value of the tournament due to the correlation between each player’s performance in the regular season, the significance of Japanese players playing for the Japanese national team stands out once again. Japan national team coach Hideki Kuriyama said, “Whether Genda does well or not, his spirit does not change. By running Genda, he can show baseball fans his fighting spirit.”
Genda got 3 walks while going 2-for-7 in 3 games in this tournament. His on-base percentage is 50%.