Softbank Hawks On April 19, Yuki Yanagita outfielder opened his training session in Saiki City, Oita, Japan. He talked about his enthusiasm for his 16th year as a professional baseball player, in which 26 will be the final year of his seven-year contract. I have a sense of crisis. （If I can't make it for three years, it will be the end," the 37-year-old said with grim determination.
However, he is a veteran who boasts the highest career batting average (over 4,000 At Bat) among active players and the seventh-best in history at .312. "I'm confident I can hit if I play in a game, so I'll just try not to get injured," he said, confident that as long as he stays injury-free, he can compete with younger players. During his voluntary training, he showed lively movements, leading his juniors at Softbank Hawks, Yoshiyasu Sasakawa, Nippon-Ham-Ham Fighters' Kotaro Kiyomiya, Lotte Marines' Naonori Yasuda, DeNA's Takaki Kajiwara, and female professional golfers Hana Wakimoto and Shin Nakamura.
In the 25-year Japan Series, he sat at No. 1 in all five games and batted .450. In Game 5, he scored the tying run on a two-run shot from Daichi Ishii, and was a key contributor to Japan's first national championship in five years. He said, "Hitting No. 1 toward the end of the season, I thought it was really easy to play with. There are a lot of players like Shuto, but I want to appeal to them so that we can win. The first time in his 16 years as a professional that he will sit at No. 1 on the opening day of a season opener. The team will also need to be mobile batting order. home run The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that the first time you see a new player in a game, he or she is going to be the first one to win it. I saw an article saying that Kiyomiya is No. 1, so I want to appeal so that I can be No. 1, too," said the Yanagida School pupil, who also has a competitive streak.
He is in the S group and has been entrusted with the task of adjusting during the camp, but he has no intention of taking it easy. "If I don't hit, I won't be able to play in the game. I feel a sense of urgency that I have to hit from the very beginning," he said, looking ahead to the opening game on March 27th, intending to get off to a flying start.
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