Nippon-Ham pitcher Hiromi Ito opened up his training session to the public at his home stadium, ESCON, on the 9th. The ace pitcher, who has been selected to pitch in the opening game of the WBC in March and against Softbank Hawks on March 27th (at Mizuho PayPay Dome), is continuing his usual ultra-energy training routine to get himself in top condition. "It's really difficult to choose the right words, but I'm not really thinking about the WBC or anything like that. If I spend February as usual, I think I'll be in a state where I can pitch in March. This is a time when you don't really need to push yourself like that, so I want to break the conventional wisdom that someone else has created." He intends to create a new conventional wisdom with his own play.
In last season's spring camp, he pitched a total of 4 bullpen pitches with about 110 pitches. The quality and perfection of each ball were improved, and as a result, the burden on the body was reduced by ultra-energy-saving adjustment. Last season's innings pitched marked 196 2/3 innings, the most in both leagues, and won the Sawamura Award. With the intention of continuing this season as well, he said, "I think it's okay to keep as few pitches as possible, or rather, the bare minimum, and I will do my best to aim for the minimum number of pitches."
This will be his second consecutive appearance on the big stage, following the 2011 WBC. Learning from his mistakes from the last tournament, he will stick to his own pace. "I don't want to focus too much on that (WBC) and then have a bad season. Last time, I was moved to relief, so I changed a lot of things (in my preparations). In order to avoid having to change those things, I will work in January and February, making sure that 'if I can do this training, I'll be fine for the game,'" he said, not being swayed by those around him and sticking to his own pace.
On this day, he appeared on ground at around 11:00 a.m. and played catch with about 20 WBC balls over a distance of about 20 meters, then ran about 50 meters, working up a sweat with juniors such as Kanemura and Hosono. "It's no different from usual. There's no point in doing something different just in January, so I'm working hard to review the base I'll be working on throughout the year, and to review the base that will allow me to fight all year without injury. Of course, the WBC is extremely important, but I think this will be an extremely important year for The Fighters as well. We just want to win. Personal things don't matter. I want to take responsibility and do my best," he declared.
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