Sleep Trainer Secures Injury-Free MLB Challenge for Shintaro Fujinami
The crowd, the score difference, the game difference, the inning, the presence or absence of runners – all these are “drama. What is happening in the world “outside” of you. Fuji, you have only one thing to think about: pitching the ball that has the best chance of keeping the opposing batter at bay. You must get the first strike with a fastball up the middle, which has the lowest batting average of all the pitches you throw. And to make a one-ball, two-strike count on three pitches–that’s what I did.
Shintaro Fujinami, 29, struggled at the beginning of the season with a defensive average in the 10s. The factors that helped him improve his pitching from there to seven wins, the Athletics’ winning lead, were his “mentality”-the American way of thinking, and his “good job! I already mentioned in the previous interview that the reason for the improvement in pitching was the “mentality”-the American way of thinking and the “proactive and positive approach to coaching in the majors,” which praises a pitcher’s “good job!
The topic then shifted to “Japanese and Major League Baseball. When Ichiro (50) and Daisuke Matsuzaka (43) first came over to Japan, people were saying “welcome” and “he is a great player,” but in reality, players and umpires were saying “what can a Japanese person do? In reality, players and umpires looked down on him. They were sometimes harassed by the umpires for their judgments, such as being too harsh in judging strikes. He was not recognized unless he silenced the umpires by dominating the numbers. When I introduced such episodes, Fujinami took back the conversation, saying, “Those were not the days anymore.
When Ichiro, Hideki Matsui (49), and Matsuzaka were playing in Major League Baseball, there may have been discrimination against Asians. Before I came to the U.S., I was prepared to think, ‘There must be a little discrimination. However, there were no discriminatory remarks, nor were there any such actions or behaviors. Thanks to the solid achievements of our seniors, there was respect for the Japanese. There was also zero harassment in terms of people not taking strikes when I was throwing. If anything, I think they were more equal and accurate than the Japanese umpires.”
The only thing that puzzled him was the pitch clock system, which did not exist in Japan. It was difficult,” said Fujinami, “because you couldn’t get a pause, and you had to throw before it settled down.
It was difficult, but the game itself was over very quickly. So the number of spectators increased. The number of stolen bases also increased. I can only check a base twice. It’s tough, but once you get used to it, it’s manageable. Besides, the majors don’t mind stolen bases at all. I have a quickness of 1.1 to 1.2 seconds, but I was told, “Fuji, please don’t do that. In Japan, quickness in the first half of 1.2 seconds is first-team level, and if it exceeds 1.3 seconds, you are beaten to the punch. On the other hand, if your quick is in the 1.1 second range, unless you are very bad at checking, you will not be able to run. Yasutomo Kubo (43, Hamburg), who used to be with Hanshin, was unusually fast, in the 1.0 second range. In the majors, however, he said, “Quick should be in the low 1.3s. Concentrate on throwing properly. I think it’s a great technique, but you don’t need to go that fast.
