Nobuhiro Matsuda, the “hot man” who “has done it all,” directly asks, “Do you feel like you are giving back to the team that has been so good to you?”
A 17-year SoftBank veteran's "one year with the Giants" and his fateful encounter with the team.
I had to hold back tears during my speech at my retirement game (laughs).
My original goal was to stay active until I was 40. When I finished my 30s in a Giants uniform this past May, I felt a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment that I had never experienced before. Every year a number of players take off their uniforms. Not a few of them retire with regrets that they could have done more. But I have none of that. I want to praise myself for being able to devote so much time to baseball, which I love. I’ve done it all. Even if they had asked me to play one more year, I would have said, ‘I’m full of it, so I’m done with it’ (laughs).
He always gives his all more than anyone else, and his uniform is always covered in mud. On this day, the “hot man” who has maintained such a style, dressed in a beautifully tailored dark blue suit, looked straight into the eyes of the FRIDAY reporter and quietly reflected on his baseball career as if he were chewing on his own words.
Nobuhiro Matsuda (40) entered SoftBank in 2006 through the “desired entry” system of the college and adult draft. He was expected to replace Hiroki Kokubo (52).
He said, “At that time, I never felt that training at Asia University, which was said to be the hardest school, was difficult, but my first year with the Hawks was tough. It was not a physical problem, but I was shocked to realize how high the level of training was. When I saw Koji Mise’s (47) straight ball, which was the first pitch I faced in camp, I was shocked. …… I remember talking with Yuichi Honda (39), who had joined the Hawks the same year, and saying, “I can’t hit a fastball like this.
In his first year, Matsuda’s problems in dealing with professional fastballs were solved by a comment from Koji Akiyama (61), then manager of the second team.
He said, “Let’s put the bat down. Until then, I had been hitting with the bat upright. It took courage to change my form, but I think that decision was a major point in my baseball career.
