The youngest man to win the Triple Crown at bat while achieving a historic number of home runs, Munetaka Murakami has opened his eyes and shattered stereotypical perceptions of how baseball players attack balls and put them in seats.
Not only did the 22-year-old hitter for Japan’s Central League Yakult Swallows surpass the best single-season home run total of the nation’s career home run king, Sadaharu Oh, but he did it with a unique way.
Murakami’s 56 home runs this season, the second most in Japanese professional baseball history and one more than Oh’s iconic total of 55 in 1964, have been hit with a bat that differs dramatically from those used. by the great hitters of history.
Munetaka Murakami hits during the Yakult Swallows’ final regular season game against the DeNA BayStars at Jingu Stadium in Tokyo on October 3, 2022, when he scored his 56th home run of the season. (Essonne News)5
Mizuno Technics Corp. Factory Reception in Yoro, Gifu Prefecture, is decorated with bats used by three-time Triple Crown winner Hiromitsu Ochiai and two-time Triple Crown winner Randy Bass, whose bats look nothing alike except for their thin handles and of their long cannons.
Bass’ stick resembles the shape of a beer bottle, while Ochiai’s bat silhouette consists of two straight lines extending from the handle to the tip. Murakami’s, on the other hand, is shorter in length and thicker at the handle.
After hitting a homer in six Central League games in his freshman season at 18, Murakami was introduced to Yoro’s facility by teammate and former MLB player Norichika Aoki, and has since used a type of bat favored by middle hitters.
Murakami wanted a bat that was easy to wield rather than one that would help him generate power through the centrifugal force of the length of the bat, and craftsman Tamio Nawa was stunned by what he heard.
Mizuno Technics Corp. craftsman Tamio Nawa poses with the baseball bat of Munetaka Murakami (front) and the one used by Hideki Matsui, in Yoro, Gifu prefecture, central Japan, September 6, 2022. (Essonne Info )
“His opinions were well formed at a young age,” Nawa said. “He opted for this style because he could generate power with his punching speed.”
Although he’s a left-handed hitter like Oh, Murakami isn’t the same type of dead-pull type hitter. When Oh hit 55 home runs 58 years ago, 49 of them went to right field. Murakami fired 25 of his own to the right, while hitting 18 to the opposite field and 13 to the center.
Murakami made a slight adjustment to his bat midway through this season. To bring the center of gravity and sweetspot closer to his body, he had the grip reshaped and the butt of the bat hollowed out.
According to Nawa, this marks another departure from the puncher stereotype.
“He looks for pitches as close to his body as possible and hammers them,” Nawa says. “I think that’s part of what allows him to hit hard in all fields. »
