“I’ve Become an Old Guy” — SoftBank Slugger Yuki Yanagita Reflects on Age, Growth, and Baseball

“I think professional baseball ultimately comes down to one thing: if you can’t earn money, it’s over. It’s an incredibly simple and straightforward world. That’s what makes it so interesting.”

Yuki Yanagita (37), who has won seven Pacific League championships and eight Japan Series titles with the perennial powerhouse SoftBank Hawks, is entering the final year of the seven-year contract he signed in 2019. At the time, the then-31-year-old committed himself to spending his entire career with the Hawks in a deal reportedly worth 4 billion yen. The franchise icon, whose name is already etched into the team’s history, now finds himself battling the effects of age.

“You know, this job comes with a pretty strange lifestyle. When I was younger, I could eat yakiniku after a night game, drink until morning, sleep until the afternoon, and still play at full intensity every day. But if I tried doing that now, I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep afterward.

So even after night games at home, I make sure to go to bed by midnight, and on road trips, I try to be in bed by one in the morning at the latest.

I’ve also become more conscious of what I eat. I hardly ever eat fried food anymore, and I generally avoid snacks. That said, after a particularly good day, I reward myself with some Häagen-Dazs ice cream after dinner. That goes into a separate stomach!” he said with a laugh.

Yanagita recalls that when he was younger, the amount of time he spent preparing before practice was seriously zero. As the years passed, however, that gradually increased to one hour, then two.

“It’s tough. My body used to move exactly the way I wanted without me doing anything special, but that’s no longer the case. So I’ve increased the amount of training I do to improve my explosiveness and make sure my body performs the way I need it to during games. Everyone on the team is younger than me now, and my three children keep getting bigger every year. It really makes me realize that I’ve become an old guy,” he said with a smile.

Even so, Yanagita still hits the ball farther than anyone else during batting practice before games. On the day this writer visited, he was driving line drives to the opposite field that left younger players speechless. Yet Yanagita merely laughed it off.

“I’m really not anything special. My hits are garbage!”

Fifteen years have passed since he secured a place in the starting lineup in Fukuoka. The Hawks’ slugger, who has accumulated more than 1,600 hits and over 270 home runs, remains remarkably humble.

“But when I was a rookie, I seriously underestimated professional baseball. The person who changed that mindset was Mr. Kurano.”

Yanagita joined SoftBank as the second overall pick in the 2011 draft. During the offseason after his first professional season—which ended with just six appearances for the top team—he spent two months playing in the Puerto Rican Winter League. Accompanying him on that trip was Shinji Kurano (51), the first-team pitching chief coach and head coordinator. Living and working alongside him, Yanagita learned valuable lessons about surviving in professional baseball.

“Apparently, Mr. Kurano asked me, ‘What kind of baseball player do you want to become?’ and I said something ridiculous like, ‘I’m not really sure, but I guess I’ll probably become a regular player in a few years’ (laughs). I wrote my baseball journal every day with that same kind of attitude.

Then Mr. Kurano scolded me, saying, ‘Are you taking this lightly? Stop being spoiled!’ He taught me how important training is and what it means to be a professional baseball player.

Even now, Mr. Kurano and I occasionally talk about those days. Every time we do, I can hardly believe I ever said something like that.”

Gita’s thoughts on knowing when to walk away

After the stern guidance of his mentor awakened a new sense of purpose in him, Yuki Yanagita enjoyed a glorious career throughout his twenties. In 2015, he achieved the rare feat of a Triple Three season and led his team to both the Pacific League title and the Japan Series championship.

His thirties, however, have been marked by injuries. In 2019, he suffered a strain behind his left knee; in 2022, inflammation of the rotator cuff in his left shoulder; and in 2024, a right hamstring injury. Last year, he sustained a bone bruise to his right tibia and, excluding his rookie season, appeared in the fewest games of his career, playing only 20.

Even Yanagita, known as the superhuman of the Hawks, admitted that the years after signing the seven-year contract were tough.

“To be honest, I kept thinking, ‘So I have to devote this much more of my life entirely to baseball.’ It was difficult. That’s why the injuries affected me mentally as well.

And compared with how I recovered in my twenties, healing takes much longer now. The longer I was unable to play, the more often I found myself wondering whether I had finally reached my limit.

But I’m still able to play baseball now. So I’ve stopped dwelling on those thoughts and have come to believe that every experience I’ve had was necessary.

My body may have moved better when I was younger, but now I have the knowledge to improve my training, my workouts, my diet, and my sleep habits, and I can put all of that into practice. I think the player I am now is actually a better baseball player than I was back then.”

The July 10 issue of “FRIDAY,” released on June 25, along with the paid edition “FRIDAY GOLD,” features a more in-depth discussion of the thoughts of the soon-to-be 40-year-old Yanagita, including his views on the right time to step away from the game.

From the July 10, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY”