It's really more about his heart than where we are in the season. |
It's unfortunate the play was overruled. It's just unimaginable this could have happened, this did happen, in the United States, where baseball is very famous and very popular. |
It's unimaginable that this could happen in the United States, where baseball was born and is very popular. All four umpires should have the right to equally judge a play. And it's a pity it was overruled. |
Mentally, he's always stable. Psychologically, he's calm. He can let runners get to third base but not to home plate. |
My baseball career was a long, long initiation into a single secret: At the heart of all things is love. |
My players showed me a fantastic performance tonight. I know they're doing it for Japan. |
No. That is not an issue. It is no problem. If we were playing this [the WBC] in the summer, he would be on the team. |
Nobody expected that. Not Uehara, not me, not our players, not the fans, not even their players. But I think it turned on a switch for us, woke us up. |
On the 15th, I want revenge. |
Once the stage is set, I think I need to make sure everything is put in place in order to produce a decent result. It's not an Olympics but it is a tournament with national pride at stake. |
One thing I can tell for sure is that we can show a great performance in Monday's game against the Cuban team. Whether we win or lose, we will play the game with a lot of heart and a lot of pride that we came to the final game of this [World Baseball Classic]. |
Our games were very close games. I believe either team could have won either game. We would like to show our best performance this time. |
Personally, I think Japan is the strongest team in Asia and we want to finish Pool A as the top team in the group. |
Since it is named the World Baseball Classic, I would like to see Cuba, too. But I don't know much about the details of the politics. |
Since Korea won two games, we felt we had to win tonight's game. And Tamura's three-run home run in the first inning took off the pressure. |