In this season's Japan Series, the Softbank Hawks overwhelmed DeNA with four consecutive wins to achieve their second straight championship. Tomoya Masaki, who hit a walk-off home run, was awarded the MVP. The oldest player in the series at 38 years old, Yuki Yanagita of the Softbank Hawks, was presented with the 'Everyone's Cheers Award' by the series sponsor, SMBC.

Yanagida said, "I received one million yen without doing anything. It's all thanks to the fans," but it appears he was recognized for his game-winning RBI infield single that struck the shortstop in the fourth inning of Game 4.

According to the Sports Hochi record notes, Yanagita also hit a timely hit in the championship-deciding game in 2020, making him the fifth player in history to record two game-winning hits to clinch the title. The previous four players were all from The Giants, making Yanagita's hit a priceless one as he is the first player from another team to achieve this feat.

With this, Yanagita himself has won 8 championships in his 9th Japan Series appearance. He started in all 45 games he played, recording 54 hits in 175 At Bats (5 Home Runs, 22 RBI) for a .309 batting average. Among the 16 hitters with 150 or more career At Bats, he ranks 4th behind Tetsuharu Kawakami (.365), Shigeo Nagashima (.343), and Kaname Yonamine (.311), but what is truly amazing is the winning percentage of the games in which he played.

They boast a winning percentage of .773 with 34 wins, 10 losses, and 1 draw. Out of the 34 wins, the number of game-winning RBI was 4, which may not seem like many, but it was still the highest on the team during that period. Looking at the fact that the number of 'winning runs'—the run that becomes the final home-in—was 11, with Shuto being the next highest at 3, the level of contribution is exceptionally high.

If you calculate the winning percentage of games played for players who have appeared in a total of 45 or more Japan Series games,

77 games, Sadaharu Oh, .623

73 games, Isao Shibata, .658

70 games, Tsutomu Ito, .507

69 games, Masahiko Mori, .632

68 games, Shigeo Nagashima - 632

67 games, Hiromichi Ishige, 591

61 games, Koji Akiyama, 583

60 games, Kazuhiro Kiyohara, 627

58 games, Hatsuhiko Tsuji, 579

57 games, Shozo Doi, .667

45 games, Tatsuro Hirooka, .467

45 games, Toshimitsu Suetsugu, .667

45 games Yuki Yanagita 773

Even among the players of The Giants and Seibu Lions who lived through their golden eras, no one has a winning percentage of over 70%. Even when expanding the scope to 21 players with 40 or more games, it remains the highest winning percentage.

Furthermore, the only person to have appeared in the Japan Series nine or more times without ever losing a series is The Giants' infielder Yukinobu Kuroe. He was on the roster throughout all of The Giants' nine consecutive championships, but his winning percentage over the 43 games he played was .720. This does not reach Yanagita's mark.

*Reference Material: NPB Japan Series Annual Results

Toyoaki Hiruma = Baseball Analyst