That was a big play for us, one of the keys. Our defense is good. |
That was the mindset of the entire team. We kept pushing hard and our players played with all their might. |
The efforts you make will surely be rewarded. If not, then you are simply not ready to call them efforts. |
The first runs were very important. We yearned for them. Then we had the expected home run. |
The first thing we have to do is win Asia. I want us to do well for the future of Japanese baseball and for Japan. |
The opponents and I are really one. My strength and skills only half of the equation. The other half is theirs. An opponent is someone whose strength joined to yours creates a certain result. |
The players haven't had enough game-like practice yet, so I want our practices to resemble real games as much as possible. |
The players' morale has risen and their body movements have become sharp. |
The style of baseball between Cuba and Japan is very similar. The way they played the game (against the Dominican Republic) was more like the Japanese style than the American style. When we meet them, the game will be played in a very similar way, with a lot of speed and a lot of schemes. |
There are still some decisions to be made. We've decided some of the spots but will save the rest for tomorrow. |
There was a wrong impression of Ichiro that he is sort of selfish. But as people can see, he really committed himself to this team, and he put so much time into this. |
They are playing with energy, under [manager Akira] Ogi this team is far more involved than in the last couple of years, |
They will miss something special, but there is a problem with timing. March is a time most players are preparing for the start of their season. We will have to look at that for next time. |
They've been supporting us so much. That's why we were able to accomplish this. So we'd like to share this great moment with all those fans back home in Japan and also here. |
This could be our last game, so we will go all out and hold nothing back. |