Japan's WBC and Nippon-Ham representative, Hiromi Ito pitcher (28), entered the spring training camp in Nago, Okinawa, for the second bullpen time on August 8. He threw 22 pitches, including a straight ball, a curveball, a slider, splitter, and others. The first thing to do is to make sure that you have a good idea of what you're getting into and what you're not getting into.

On this day, he practiced more pitch by standing up left-handed hitter to prepare for the WBC ball, which is said to be more slippery than the NPB ball. I have an image that the ball is slippery, so I end up gripping it too much. To prevent that from happening, I threw a straight ball inside the left side (hitter) with care.

Curves, slider and other breaking ball that curve more require more care, and he said, "I have a preconceived notion that they will slide, but I don't think that's the case. That makes me grip the ball in a weird way, so I actually find that I can throw them more naturally when I'm not thinking about anything. I think I need to close that gap between my sense of it and my actual feeling. I think if I threw it the same way as an NPB ball, it might not go as well."

At the end of bullpen, he tried change-up with catcher standing, and commented, "There's still a difference between when I throw it hard and when I throw it lightly, so I feel like I still have something different, and I want to get rid of that. I don't want to increase the number of pitches I throw when I play catch, so I want to throw a few more at times like this, so that I can become friends with the ball." Just like the famous line from the hugely popular soccer manga "Captain Tsubasa," he will continue to hone his sense for the WBC ball.