Lotte manager Saburo responded to an interview before the Rakuten Eagles game on the 10th, mourning baseball commentator Isao Harimoto, who passed away at the age of 86 on the 9th.

Mr. Harimoto, who played for Toei, The Giants, Lotte, and other teams, recorded a total of 3,085 hits, the most in Japanese professional baseball. Manager Saburo spoke with a solemn expression, saying, 'Looking at his number of hits, it is an unprecedented amount, and I feel like a batter like that will never appear again. I truly feel that the baseball world has lost a very precious person.'

I still vividly remember the advice I received during my rookie days. 'I once had him teach me a bit about batting. He told me to narrow my step width. That was all he kept saying. He told me that if it's too wide, you can't rotate, so I should narrow it to make the rotation stronger,' he recalled.

He revealed that he had even made a research subject of Mr. Harimoto, who possessed outstanding batting techniques. 'There is no one else who can move their hands into the ball's trajectory the moment they reach the top of their swing. That is difficult—or rather, I think it is extremely logical. He places himself on the line of the ball. That is something an ordinary person simply cannot do. I don't think even a genius could do it. I think you have to be a super-genius to pull that off. I have studied it several times,' he disclosed.