Samurai Japan Director Hideki Kuriyama New Year Special Interview (Part 1)
The 5th WBC (World Baseball Classic) will be held in March 2023. Samurai Japan, which aims to recapture the world’s No. 1, has announced that major teams such as Yu Darvish, Shohei Otani, and Seiya Suzuki will participate in the competition, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix) and Munetaka Murakami (Yakult) are also expected to join the team. Hideki Kuriyama is the leader of Samurai Japan, which is often called the “strongest team in history.” Before the decisive battle finally began, the commander spoke.
Hideki Kuriyama was appointed as manager of Samurai Japan in December last year.
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[Jobs of the Japan national team coach]
── What kind of things have you felt in the past year as the head coach of the Japanese national team?
KuriyamaIt wasn’t a movement called a baseball director. We played two warm-up games against Australia in the fall, but other than that, if you ask me what has moved forward, it is that the players who play in the majors have said that they will participate for Japanese baseball. I think. In other words, 95% of the work of a Japan coach was like a GM (general manager). I am keenly aware that it is also different.
── How did you feel about the difficulty and fun of GM-like work?
KuriyamaI didn’t have time to feel that it was interesting (bitter smile), but I think it’s a big deal that Daru (Yu Darvish), (Ohtani) Shohei, and (Suzuki) Seiya said they would participate. Through talking with them, I was able to learn what I should do when making decisions. Until now, I thought that work should not be left for tomorrow and that decisions should be made today, but there are times when decisions cannot be made. I learned that it is important to connect to tomorrow and not give up until the very end.
── Regarding Ohtani, you had the chance to go to the WBC five years ago when you were playing for the Fighters. Unfortunately, he had to withdraw, but I think I could feel his strong feelings for the WBC at that time as the manager of the Fighters. Since then, Kuriyama has become Japan’s manager, and Ohtani has become a two-way player in the majors. prize.
KuriyamaWell, how far can we talk about that (laughs). First of all, last year when Shohei had such great results in the majors, when I went back to Japan and had dinner, he knew that I had become the manager of Japan, but he didn’t talk about the WBC at all for three hours. (laughs) It’s totally Shohei-like, huh (bitter smile).
However, when he returned to the United States in January (last year), I thought that I had to show respect for him, so I contacted him. Then he said, “I’ll be waiting for you in America.” rice field. I thought that if I didn’t talk face-to-face, I wouldn’t be able to convey my spirit, and I thought I was well aware of the indescribable sense of distance between me and Shohei, so I said, “Okay, the time has come. Let’s go see each other,” I thought.
