NEW: Follow us on Twitter!

Japan Ready to Assume Role as Pool A Host and Victor

by Andy Liakos
2/28/06

After two years on the drawing board and now less than two days to go, come Thursday night the iinaugural and much anticipated 2006 World Baseball classic will be underway. Japan will play host to the Asian nations of Pool A, where Korea will face off with Chinese Taipei for the opening game in Japan’s Tokyo Dome. Playing the role of Skipper is Japanese national hero and the world’s homerun champion, Sadaharu Oh with an astounding 868 long-balls under his belt. Since the advent of baseball as a medal event in the Olympic Games, Japan has made it through every qualifier while taking home the silver medal in 1996 and the bronze in 1992 and 2004.

Japan will certainly miss the strength of “Godzilla” (Hideki Matsui) as he and fellow big-leager Tadahito Iguchi have opted not play in the classic. It seems as though the team has moved on and this is no longer an issue, while they have openly expressed a great deal of faith in the world-class talents of their leader, Ichiro Suzuki. In an effort to prove to world that they are championship contenders, they plan on taking it one pitch at a time, just like the fundamentals of traditional, methodical Japanese baseball. Expect to watch Japan play Japanese ball, a more strategic offensive approach combined with a much slower and meticulous discipline to pitching than we are used to here in the States. You’ll get a chance to see their style, where pitchers really like to work the counts and are used to throwing several hundred pitches per week.

"Stealing bases, bunting, hit and run -- those are not strange in our baseball," says shortstop Munenori Kawasaki . "I don't like that they call it 'small ball.' That's our best way of playing, so in that respect, it's big." What’s big is Japan’s chances of surviving the victor of the Pool A and potentially becoming a sizeable threat in the later rounds of the tournament. Team Japan seems very optimistic about their upcoming performance on a world stage and is eager take on China at home. Motivation seems to be the current theme at camp as we are told by third baseman, Akinori Iwamura. "This is totally different, such a motivating tournament for us. We have to win every game. I feel that way."