【Buffaloes Inside】
Orix Buffaloes The smile disappeared from Yuma Mune infielder 's face. From the practice, the expression on So's face through the telephoto lens was uncanny.
"My hitting will get better. There are still many things I need to work on. They come up with every at-bat. I'm facing those challenges head-on." He made these remarks after the game against Hiroshima on March 18th (Kyocera Dome), with only three games remaining in the season.
True to his word, in the next three-game series against Hanshin Tigers (same date), he hit triple to left-center field (20th) and a single to center field (21st), and recorded multiple hit in the final game. He finished the open season with 14 At Bat 38 hit, 2 RBI, and a batting average of .368 in 13 games. He missed one game and fell just short of the required number of plate appearances, but he impressed with his comeback at the plate, maintaining the team's highest batting average.
He joined the Orix Buffaloes Buffaloes in 2014 as the second overall pick in the draft from Yokohama Hayato High School, and is now in his 12th year with the team. He is highly regarded for defense skills, known for his quick reflexes to the ball and throw, and has won the Golden Glove Award for three consecutive years. He has also demonstrated his clutch hitting ability, contributing to the team's three consecutive league championships and Japan Series title.
However, his batting declined after 2024, and he failed to reach 100 games played for two consecutive years. His personal belief is, "(To put it extremely) I don't care about defense, it's all about batting. If your batting isn't good you can't play in games, and even if defense is bad, if your batting is good you can play. It's simple, it's easy." He believes that batting is what makes a big contribution to a game, more so than defense. It was precisely because he was a defense master that he felt the importance of batting.
During the offseason, he dedicated time to improving his hitting. At the same time, he focused on himself, as he had said last season: "Everyone's skills are pretty much the same. Whether you can perform well or not depends on your mindset. If you lose at that point, it's all over."
When asked about the reason for his success, So replied, "I'm giving it my all," and then added, "I don't make excuses."
"People always make excuses for things as they go through life. I think everyone has things they just can't help, but often those excuses are just ways of reducing the shock they feel about things they couldn't do. And they don't even realize it themselves. Maybe they do realize it, but they try to cover it up by coming up with reasons like, 'No, but this is what happened.'"
The smile had vanished from So's face because he was strictly disciplining himself. "I'm confronting those excuses myself. I still make excuses sometimes. But if I can truly understand them, then they're no longer excuses."
"Unlike the other players, I'm not a regular, so I'm giving it my all. I'm serious about baseball." Keep an eye on So this year.
Interview and text by Masaki Kitano
