The day has come to end the year again. What year was 2022? Joys and sorrows, I’m sure many things have happened to you this year as well.
New Year’s Eve is the 9th mound in baseball. I’m Haiko Yamamoto, a big fan of baseball. Thank you for your hard work again this year.
Now, speaking of nine mounds, the closer is generally sent if the lead is within three points. Pitchers, including closers, pitching in the third inning after the seventh inning, defending the lead and leading the team to victory are called the “winning formula.”
Their pitching opportunities are largely fixed, and other pitchers are determined from the pitchers waiting in the bullpen depending on the game situation and pitching intervals before and after.
Of course, it is the director who ultimately sends out the pitcher. However, it is the ′′ pitcher coach ′′ that is responsible for most of the operation.
The biggest news for me this year is that my partner, Tomohiro Kuroki, who has been in charge of the program for 4 years and has met almost every day on weekdays, has been appointed as the first team pitcher coach of the Chiba Lotte Marines. . There must have been many baseball fans who danced involuntarily, thinking, “That ‘Johnny Kuroki’ is coming back to Marin!”
He is a hot-blooded man with a fighting spirit and a passionate mound, and is a personality that can be felt from his polite words in Miyazaki accent, so he has been loved by fans for a long time. To be honest, I feel very lonely that I won’t be able to see you like I used to.
Every time I met Mr. Kuroki, we talked a lot about work, family, delicious food and alcohol… (laughs). Among them, the most memorable one was Mr. Kuroki’s experience as a pitching coach, who worked for Nippon-Ham for five years.
So today, I would like to talk as much as possible about the “style of a pitching coach” taught by Johnny Kuroki.
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about the job of a pitching coach? Basically, each team has two pitching coaches, and they are divided into benches and bullpens during games. We can imagine that they play a major role in the development of pitchers, but we actually see pitching coaches contacting the bullpen from the bench on TV, and going to the mound when a pitcher is in trouble. There is only a figure to go.
But most of a pitching coach’s job is done outside the game.
The first thing that surprised me was that the coaches almost always entered the stadium earlier than anyone else and left later than anyone else on game days. The scope of work seems to be more diverse than expected.
In addition to participating in practice, there is also a lot of desk work. Information sharing with the manager and other coaches, including management of the pitcher’s pitching interval and the number of pitches. I also keep in touch with the 2nd Army coaches and pitching coaches. If there is a starting pitcher on the farm who is about to pitch in the first army, we will adjust the rotation. Since professional baseball now handles an enormous amount of data, it seems that they used calculation software to manage pitcher information.
And above all, I admired his keen eye for observation. Even if my makeup and nails changed a little, Mr. Kuroki immediately asked me, “What’s wrong with you today?” Of course, it is most demonstrated in baseball.
Even when I’m in the studio as a commentator, I notice a number of small changes, such as “the position of the pitcher’s top arm has become a little lower,” and “the batter’s stance has become slightly more open. It seems that the sharp observation eye was largely cultivated during the pitcher coach era.
According to Mr. Kuroki, “The important thing is to see from a bird’s-eye view.” Rather than focusing too much on the details, you can notice changes by looking at the whole thing vaguely. This seems to be an important hint for acquiring observation skills not only in baseball but also in our daily lives.
If you notice any changes, notify the pitcher immediately. Before being a coach and a player, it is important to be human. You have to carefully craft your words while assessing the other person’s personality and mental state at that time.
Having to tell good things and bad things can sometimes be a painful role. In addition to technical matters, it is also a big role to encourage personal growth.
Also, it is important to recognize that the bullpen prepared by the relief is “one team”. Observing, nurturing, summarizing, and building bonds… Pitching coaches may also be required to play a role similar to that of a homeroom teacher at school.
In addition, it is difficult to have to perform these tasks at the same time as daily results are required. The timing of the relief pitching is an important part of the game, so if a pitcher who pitches is hit, some fans will complain.
What is important in pitching is the “type of pitcher”. For example, if you are a fastball starting pitcher, the next relief pitcher is an irregular pitcher. By daring to use pitchers with the opposite characteristics in succession, it seems to have the effect of misleading hitters. That’s why the bullpen needs a variety of pitchers.
This is true not only in relief, but also in the starting rotation. In the 3 consecutive games with the same team, the first game is the right side, the 1st game is the left side, and the 3rd game is the left side. To do.
It might be fun to watch baseball while thinking about appointments from the perspective of a pitching coach like this. I wonder if it’s okay to expose such secrets (laughs).
Thank you for your hard work in 2022 I hope next year will be a wonderful year for everyone!
We often hear the expression “baseball is a pitcher”. When I was a child, I tended to be captivated by flashy batting such as giant home runs, but I’ve gradually come to understand the meaning of those words. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that pitcher power is directly linked to team power.
Pitching coaches have a great responsibility to train, manage, and operate the pitchers, who are such an important position, and to continue to produce results in the games that are held every day. It seems that Mr. Kuroki has also experienced physical damage due to stress, so you can see how heavy the responsibility of a pitching coach is.
Mr. Kuroki decided to take on such a difficult task once again at his old club Lotte. There was a sense of elation. How will Mr. Kuroki, including the great pitcher Aki Sasaki, who is responsible for the future of the baseball world, make the pitchers shine? I would like to see it with warm eyes for a long time while puffing out his chest.
Well, there is another big event that happened to me this year, and that is the start of this series. I was really happy when a reader said, “Reading the serialization reminds me of my passion for baseball.” I want to show off my love for baseball and how I’m perverted (laughs) in this series again next year, and enjoy the feeling of having a hot baseball discussion while drinking beer with everyone.
Happy new year to you all. See you next year!
Haiko Yamamoto (Shuko Yamamoto)
Born October 2, 1996 in Kanagawa Prefecture. free caster. He grew up in a baseball-loving family and before he knew it, he became a baseball freak.
Since 2019, he has been a caster for “Warspo x MLB” (NHK BS1).Her cat’s name is Valentin
★ Haiko Yamamoto’s “6-4-3 wo Waitiwabite” is updated every Saturday morning!
