How many young athletes have coaches in the past intentionally or unintentionally ruined so far? This may not be only confined to the field of sports. Many tweeted that the historic perfect game proved that “Manager Yohei Kokubo’s decision to avoid Sasaki’s pitching in 2019 was not a mistake,” or “I’m sure that Kokubo has been rewarded for all the beating he’s taken.” Sasaki’s perfect game reminded me of the bleak realities of gifted kids in Japan. Despite the criticism, Sasaki’s manager made a wise decision to protect the player’s future.” It is terrible if an athlete is put in a difficult situation and suffers a serious injury. Yuto Nagatomo, a member of Japan’s national soccer team tweeted that “I am very much disappointed. Other young Japanese athletes also refuted the view that he should have pitched in the game. Kyodo quoted Yu Darvish, a former Japanese high school standout and now a star in Major League Baseball, as disagreeing with Haritomo, saying that, “Those who say things like asking why Sasaki didn’t pitch are not giving a single thought to the kids’ (well-being).” Many major league teams have guidelines that allow only 100 pitches for starting pitchers in the United States. If he was afraid of Sasaki’s injury, he should quit the sport.
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#Roki sasaki tv#
In Tokyo, Japanese baseball legend Isao Harimoto, infamous for his old-school views, said on TV that “this was the most disappointing thing in sports recently.” He noted that, “The young coach should have let Sasaki pitch …. Should the manager have let Sasaki pitch the final qualification game for the national tournament - which playing in is every Japanese high school baseball player’s ultimate dream - no matter what happened to his arm? Or, did the manager decide to rest Sasaki because he believed his future was much more important than his teammates’ dream of winning the game? His decision not only sparked harsh criticism of himself but also raised serious doubts about the traditional but unscientific way of using players for the purpose of winning at all costs. Ofunato’s manager, Yohei Kokubo, said the reason for not letting Sasaki take the mound that day was to prevent injury.
![roki sasaki roki sasaki](https://live.staticflickr.com/159/431504683_8b0522eaaa.jpg)
The Associated Press reported on July 31, 2019, that the “decision by a high school baseball coach to rest his star pitcher in a crucial qualifying game for the prestigious national tournament has the Japanese sports fraternity up in arms.” The result was, in fact, much more than that. Sasaki’s manager, lo and behold, made a very un-Japanese decision to not pitch him in the most important game Ofunato’s season.Īs many had expected, Ofunato lost the game 12-2. Sasaki’s team was winning in a local tournament and about to qualify for the 2019 national high school baseball tournament.Įverybody expected that Sasaki would pitch in the qualifying and championship game even though he had just thrown 194 pitches a few days earlier and another 129 in Ofunato’s semifinal victory. He eventually began throwing a 101.3-mile-per-hour fastball, which broke Shohei Ohtani’s high school record at the time. He continued playing at his local high school in Ofunato. When he started playing baseball in junior high school, Sasaki could throw a 87.6-mile-per-hour (141 kph) fastball at the age of 15. He was 10 when he lost his father and grandparents to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, with his house being swept away in the disaster. Roki Sasaki was born in Iwate Prefecture. At least, the old ways were never used on Sasaki as he was a local teenage baseball star from northern Japan. What is more exciting, however, is that Japan may be finally finding ways to raise young talent into superstars, stepping back from the decades-old traditions and unscientific methodology that was often seen as destroying such players.
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Even The New York Times reported that “don’t expect to see him in M.L.B. The young phenom also struck out 13 consecutive batters, a new record in Japan, with 19 strikeouts altogether in the game.Īlthough I am not a Marines fan, Sasaki’s perfect game, the first in Japanese baseball since 1994, excited me in two different ways.įirst, I was amazed that the news was so big that MLB.com, the official site of Major League Baseball in the U.S., carried it.
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Roki Sasaki, a 20-year-old right-hander for the Chiba Lotte Marines threw a perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes.
#Roki sasaki professional#
Sunday was truly a historic day for Japanese professional baseball.