<figure id="attachment_301937" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-301937" style="width: 3456px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="59e7c446"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/03/SH112271.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-301937" class="wp-caption-text">Yoshida during his days on the Aoyama Gakuin University hardball team. He was considered a small big hitter even back then.</figcaption></figure>
 The semifinals of WBC 2023 were held at Bone Depot Park in Miami, U.S., with Japan winning 6-5 over Mexico. The final match will be against the previous champion, the United States.
 The semifinal against Mexico was a hard-fought match. The first batter, Akinori Sasaki, hit a three-run homer off Urias with two outs in the 4th inning, scoring three runs. The Samurai bats were held in check by Mexico&#8217;s starting left fielder, Patrick Sandoval, and by the end of the 6th inning, they had given up 5 scattered hits and no runs. With a heavy atmosphere hanging over the Japanese team, Masanao Yoshida (29), who had two hits, was the most popular player in the game.
 Sandoval&#8217;s batting average against left-handed batters in 2010 was only .151. In the first inning, Japan was completely helpless against Sandoval, striking out three batters. However, Yoshida gave up a hit to center field in his first at-bat, and then again in his second at-bat, this time to left field, and it looked like he was gaining some popularity.
 Then, in the bottom of the 7th inning, Yoshida scooped up a difficult ball low on the inside corner from first and second base with two outs. The ball soared high and flew just short of the light pole for a three-run homer. This tying run gave the team momentum for the come-from-behind victory. It was not a hard swing, but it was a home run that was the result of Yoshida&#8217;s mating ability and power from the waist up. At only 173 centimeters tall, Yoshida was a mere 6 feet tall. Where does such power come from in such a small body?&#8217; In October 2003, this magazine conducted an exclusive interview with Yoshida, who at the time was the No. 4 player on the national college team and one of the draft candidates that year. What was the origin of this power hitter?
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<h3> In elementary school, I was not fast, so I just swung the bat.</h3>
 If I had been faster on my feet, I would have become a player who could get a lot of hits. But I wasn&#8217;t fast. I started playing baseball in the first grade of elementary school, and I just swung the bat. I was just swinging the bat. Then, my father took me to a batting center, and the balls I hit started to fly farther and farther. I will never forget that feeling of joy. If you keep swinging the bat, you can actually feel the ball flying farther and farther, little by little. That was fun, and I found myself wanting to make the ball fly farther. I was always small, but I knew that I could catch up once I got to high school and built up my core, so I wasn&#8217;t in any hurry at all.
 He did not think he had to do more weight training or batting practice than the other players because of his small size.
 I ate the food served in the dormitory as usual, and I didn&#8217;t do more weight training than the other players at all. There is no point in just lifting heavy weights or building muscles for show, so I have always been conscious of building the muscles necessary for baseball.
 I have not done any special training for batting practice at all. What I am conscious of, however, is that my ideal is to be able to exert my 10 strengths at the moment of adjusting to the ball without wasting any energy, and I do this while trying all kinds of things. For example, I wonder what would happen if I put more force into hitting the ball from the beginning, or in the case of a breaking ball, I wonder how much it would fly if I put more force into the ball at such and such a time. I think of it as experimenting with my own range.
 While swinging hard, I try out various things, such as the key to impact and the timing for turning the wrist, and I may have thoroughly tried out what I thought was right! I think he has been thoroughly working on what he thought was the right thing to do. You can&#8217;t tell just by swinging a bat. I think it&#8217;s a matter of thoroughly working on the important parts in stages, such as hitting the ball firmly while tee-batting, and then free swinging afterwards.
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
 What is Yoshida&#8217;s ideal vision for the future?
 I don&#8217;t want to be a home run hitter. I am not aiming to hit 30 runs with a .200 batting average, but rather to be a hitter with a .300 batting average who can maintain 20 runs at all times. If I get a good first pitch, I can hit it hard and make it a home run. I want to be the kind of hitter who, when he is cornered, does not take the same swing, but hits the pitcher&#8217;s winning shot and hits it back. I don&#8217;t want to aim for a home run, but rather to catch a sweet pitch without mis-hitting it, and if I catch it, it will go in. That is the kind of feeling I want to emphasize.
 There are only a handful of hitters who can hit .300, so you can only become an active player for a long time if you can do it consistently, not just for a year. Of course, I want to make it my goal from my first year to become a consistent player who can hit consistently.
 Speaking of distractions, what does Yoshida like to do?
 &#8220;I have YouTube, so I watch professional and major league baseball all the time. I don&#8217;t have any other interests. I&#8217;m not interested in comic books or video games. I go out for fun, but I have no hobbies. For me, baseball is also a distraction.&#8221;
 Finally, when asked if he aspires to play in the majors in the future, he responded, &#8220;Of course, I aspire to play in the majors.
 Of course, I have aspirations to play in the majors. I was allowed to go to the Texas Rangers camp this year, and the scale was too big&#8230;. The speed of the ball. The speed of the bat swing. It was totally different. I was amazed at the impact, just like I felt when I was a child. What I am now is nothing like that.
 Yoshida&#8217;s record so far in the WBC is .474 batting average, two home runs, and 13 runs batted in, which puts him at the top of the batting order. Yoshida&#8217;s powerful batting has certainly brought him closer to the world&#8217;s number one position for the first time in 14 years.
<figure id="attachment_301938" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-301938" style="width: 3456px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b7f1c993"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/03/SH112199.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-301938" class="wp-caption-text"> His batting form has hardly changed.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_301939" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-301939" style="width: 3456px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="9afd9e10"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/03/SH112144.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-301939" class="wp-caption-text"> When the photographer asked him to smile, Yoshida beamed, saying, &#8220;I didn&#8217;t get much attention as a student, so I&#8217;m not used to it.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_301947" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-301947" style="width: 5184px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="df26985d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/03/ff7867bf1f0cd8254d4c3a5e09fcfc18.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-301947" class="wp-caption-text"> Yoshida&#8217;s well-trained arms are as thick as an ice skater&#8217;s thighs.&#8217; (Photo taken February 2005)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_301948" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-301948" style="width: 5184px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="920d29fd"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/03/27afbb7aef7b427a64aa87fdfb39772d.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-301948" class="wp-caption-text"> Yoshida&#8217;s quintessential man-swinging full swing. Taken in February &#8217;17.</figcaption></figure>

 Shinji Hamasaki, Hiroyuki Komatsu

 The semifinals of the WBC 2023 were held at the Bourne Depot Park in Miami, U.S., with Japan winning 6-5 over Mexico. The final match will be against the previous champion, the United States. The semifinal against Mexico was a hard-fought match. Akinori Sasaki, the starter.

Masanao Yoshida of Samurai Japan tells of his college days: “I didn’t become a power hitter because I wasn’t fast enough.

Access Ranking