Interview with Chiba Lotte Marines and Tadahito Iguchi (Part 1)
Last year’s Pacific League ended with the victory of Orix Buffaloes for the first time in 25 years. Chiba Lotte Marines’ slogan for this year is “grab the top.” In 2022, which marks the 30th anniversary of the relocation of Chiba, it finally became serious.
At midnight of the New Year, a special program called “The World of Chiba Lotte You Don’t Know” was broadcast on TV Tokyo, which made me feel something different this year. The official mascot “Mysterious Fish”, which has been pulling the business side, retired and returned to the sea of Makuhari.
Roki Sasaki throws 163 kilometers in the first pitching practice game, and high school student rookie Ko Matsukawa gives off a big presence. A revolution of the expected Japanese cannon, Hisanori Yasuda, Koki Yamaguchi, Kyota Fujiwara, who became number one, and Takashi Ogino, who is not injured.
He set up the Team Strategy Department, pioneered a new baseball horizon that made full use of data, and began to take on the challenge of “Reiwa’s everlasting corps” as a united front and field team. Can Lotte win the long-awaited pennant race this year? We talked to director Tadahito Iguchi, who is burning with the curtain on the history of “Gekokujo”.
Director Lotte Tadahito Iguchi aiming to win the long-cherished wish this year
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Thoughts in the slogan
──The camp in your fifth year in office has also completed the first camp on Ishigaki Island. I heard that Director Iguchi also got up at 5 am and is energetically moving this season, which is expected to come to Makido. Do you feel that the players are different from last year?
“It’s really good. I was really surprised to see how the players finished on February 1. Last year’s autumn practice was good and I was able to do it until the last minute of November, but the off was short and it was good. Maybe. Everyone has cleared the quotas imposed on each player, saying, “Please finish this muscle mass and enter the camp.” After all, I was disappointed just one step away from last year, so what is this year? I feel that everyone has a desire to win anything. “
