Yu Darvish and Samurai Japan's 26 domestically based players gave the more than 18,000 fans on hand something to cheer about as the national team's training camp was opened on Friday.
Japan, seeking its third World Baseball Classic championship, is without four of its five MLB players, two-way star Shohei Ohtani and outfielders Masataka Yoshida, Seiya Suzuki and Lars Nootbaar, until the beginning of March. Darvish, however, was given the green light to skip the San Diego Padres' spring training in Arizona.
Roki Sasaki, the 21-year-old who became the youngest pitcher to throw a perfect game in Japan last season and is best known for his high-velocity fastball and big splitter, got some advice on his slider from the 36-year-old Darvish, the team's elder statesman.
"He taught me many things, and I'm grateful to him," Sasaki said.
Although manager Hideki Kuriyama's team is pitching-rich, it also boasts the three biggest power hitters playing in Japan.
Munetaka Murakami, Hotaka Yamakawa and Kazuma Okamoto hit in the same batting practice group and put on a show.
Murakami, who became Japan's youngest Triple Crown hitter last season, denied he was trying to compete with his fellow sluggers.
"I was completely focused on working on my own swing," the 23-year-old Yakult Swallows star said. "It was great practice."
Yamakawa, the Pacific League's pre-eminent home run hitter, was impressed with his Central League rivals.
"I thought, 'how amazing they are,' as I watched. I half didn't want to be outslugged by them," said the Seibu Lions first baseman, who was encouraged to take big swings in games from Kuriyama.
"He said I could decide games with one swing, and that even if I'd made three outs up to that point, he wanted me to put everything I had into the last one when I could turn the game around."
Japan will open its WBC on March 9, at Tokyo Dome in Pool B against China. The pool also includes Australia and the Czech Republic.
Before that, Japan will play warm-up games against the SoftBank Hawks in Miyazaki on Feb. 25 and 26, and against the Chunichi Dragons in Nagoya on March 3 and 4.
After the rest of the MLB contingent arrives, Japan has official WBC exhibitions at Kyocera Dome Osaka against the CL's Hanshin Tigers and the PL's Japan Series champion Orix Buffaloes on March 6 and 7, respectively.
