Uchida sometimes asked Sakamoto of the Giants, who was also his teammate in the Samurai Japan team, for advice on hitting (photo: Kyodo News).Uchida’s answer, “greed,” ultimately comes down to the same thing.  He is always saying, “I want to be able to do this, and I want to be like this.” If I had any doubts, I would immediately ask, and this did not change even after I moved to coach the Giants. One year, even though his batting average was still over 30% late in the season, he called me after a long time and said, ‘I’m thinking of changing my batting’. I guess he was looking ahead and thinking about further improving his game. Even after he became a leading player in baseball, he went to talk to players on different teams, such as Hayato Sakamoto of the Giants.   Suzuki’s ability to stay true to his desires has helped him to become a player who has played in the major leagues. And it seems that this will not change in the future.  When I sent him a line of encouragement on his way to the majors, he replied, “I will evolve further”. I thought that evolution was very typical of him.   Laughing, Uchida explains the source of Suzuki’s insatiable desire to improve. Shohei Otani and Shintaro Fujinami, who were in the same grade, and Hiroki Takahashi, who was the No. 1 pick in his class at Hiroshima, participated in the Koshien National High School Baseball Championships and were selected for the Japanese high school team. But Suzuki did not make it to Koshien and was not a member of that team. There is no doubt that I came here with the desire not to lose to them. He has caught up with and surpassed his generation, and now he will face Otani, the symbol of that generation, on the highest stage of the Majors. The two teams have not played each other in the inter-league this season, so Suzuki’s heart will be even more excited if their first matchup in the majors is the World Series.