The No. 1 Magic Pitch in Reiwa: Akinori Sasaki, Hiroto Takahashi, Tomoyuki Sugano… We look at the secrets of the pitches they know they can’t hit!

Is there a “magic pitch” in the world of Japanese professional baseball?

The fork of Kazuhiro Sasaki, the great god of baseball, the sinker of Tetsuya Ushiozaki, the slider of Tomohito Ito, and the shot of Kenjiro Kawasaki. In the 90-year history of professional baseball in Japan, pitchers have thrown and refined more than 50 different types of pitches. Fans have come to call only a few of them “magic pitches,” the legendary pitches that have made the best of the best of the best in the history of Japanese professional baseball.

Among current pitchers, the “ghost fork” of the Mets’ Kota Senga (31) and the “floating slider” thrown by the Padres’ Yu Darvish (38) might be considered “magic pitches. So, in Reiwa 2024, does the “magic pitch” exist in the world of Japanese professional baseball?　FRIDAY interviewed current and former players and umpires in both the Central and Pacific League.

Nobuhiro Matsuda, who retired last year after an 18-year career with Softbank and the Giants, said, “When I think of a magic pitch, the fork of Rakuten’s Takahiro Norimoto (33) first comes to mind.

Normally, when a pitcher throws a fork, the pitch floats. However, Norimoto’s fork never floats. Right after he swings it, it drops vertically from three meters before home base. Even though I knew it was coming, I couldn’t help but swing at it.

The lifeline of the man who switched to a relief pitcher this season and currently reigns as the Pacific League saves leader is still going strong.

Moving on to the Central League, the name of Hiroshima’s absolute guardian god was mentioned.

Ryoji Kuribayashi, 28, can’t hit that fork. I don’t know how it works, but his pitches all look white. You can’t see the seam. So you can’t tell by the rotation, ‘Here comes the fork! I don’t know how it works, but all his pitches look white. Moreover, it has the same drop-off as that of Katsuhiro Nagakawa, the original “ghost fork” user and current Hiroshima pitching coach, and it almost never drops out and comes in low. We have to wait for him to destroy himself by throwing four dead balls.

The big, falling fork has a strong image of being thrown by a reliever, but it is also the signature pitch of Reiwa’s monster, who pitched a perfect game in 1947.

Akinori Sasaki of the Lotte baseball team (22) has a fork that falls while swinging. Of course, the drop is great, but the trajectory is strange. Even if the pitch is not controlled as low as Norimoto’s or Kuribayashi’s, the bat still flies through the air. Perhaps there is a bit of a gyroscopic component to it,” said Mr. B, a coach for a Pacific League team.

According to simulations conducted by Professor Takayuki Aoki of Tokyo Institute of Technology and his colleagues using the supercomputer “Fugaku,” a fork with a gyroscopic component changes with each revolution under the influence of air currents.

Therefore, Sasaki’s fork, which is located near the ocean, swings and falls at speeds in excess of 150 km/h, taking advantage of the fickle wind direction of the “marine winds” at his home base.

The players of the Central League teams all say that Hiroto Takahashi’s (22) splits have become untouchable since the start of this year.

Until last year, all I had to worry about was his 158 km/h straight ball. The split was easy to identify as a count pitch and a decisive pitch. This year, however, the accuracy of my splits is off the charts. When I go to hit a straight ball, it suddenly drops like it disappears from sight. The velocity of the pitches is over 140 km/h, so it’s hard to tell the difference. That’s why he has the best defensive rating in the Central League,” said Mr. C, an infielder for a Central League team.