Rakuten Eagles Eagles pitcher Kenta Maeda, who previously played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and other teams in Major League Baseball, held his introductory press conference at Rakuten Mobile Park in Sendai on the 16th. He surprised the approximately 70 members of the press who had gathered by presenting them with T-shirts he had drawn of the team's mascot. A message was also attached. "I've seen a lot of introductory press conferences, but I thought it wouldn't be interesting if there wasn't anything special. I'm pretty good at drawing, so I decided to give it a go," he said. The T-shirt also read "I WIIL DO MY BEST."

Despite being a professional baseball player, Maeda has a unique artistic talent, as evidenced by his appearance on TV Asahi's "Ame Talk!" (Thursdays, 11:15 PM) as a "comedian with no artistic talent." He revealed that it "takes less than 5 minutes" to create the artwork, and when the conversation turned to the possibility of the team producing merchandise in the future, he elicited laughter with his signature Maeken style, saying, "We'll have to negotiate with the Rakuten Eagles team. I don't draw easily either (laughs). It wasn't included in the contract, so it will be a negotiation later."

[Message] Thank you for taking the time to attend my press conference today despite your busy schedule. I will be returning to Japanese baseball after 11 years. I hope to see you at the stadium many times in the future, both for those who have not seen me in a long time and those who are meeting me for the first time.

I will do my best to be featured in many media outlets from the February training camp through the regular season. I want to contribute to the team with my heart and soul pitching, so I would be very happy if you would come and watch many The Eagles games.

I drew The Eagles mascot on the T-shirt, so I hope you'll enjoy wearing it as loungewear or even today. Kenta Maeda