<figure id="attachment_302693" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-302693" style="width: 1720px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ffdf2586"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/03/10000000000000091414_20230324151742048271_P220913000137.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-302693" class="wp-caption-text">Yoshio Itoi at his retirement press conference. Can a Pro Baseball Legend Become a Variety Talent Star?</figcaption></figure>
 A new variety talent star may be in the making.
 Former professional baseball player Yoshio Itoi (41), who retired at the end of last season, appeared on the &#8220;Celebrity Ratings Check BASIC ~ 3-hour Spring Special~&#8221; (TV Asahi) broadcast on the 21st. He surprised MC Masanori Hamada (59) and the other performers by being the only one to correctly answer a quartet of checks, and said, &#8220;I&#8217;ve achieved the feat of winning alone! It was as good as saying good-bye to the WBC,&#8221; and it became a hot topic on the Internet. However, it was Itoi&#8217;s &#8220;natural&#8221; comment that made the cast and the Internet even more excited. It started with the first question, which was to guess whether it was red wine or white wine. Hamada,
 How do you like it? Wine.&#8221;
 I asked,
 I&#8217;m not sure,&#8221; he replied smugly, &#8220;white or red.
 He replied with a smug look on his face, &#8220;You say white or red!
 Hamada yelled at him from the very first word, &#8220;You said white or red!
 Hamada yelled at him from the very first word. When Itoi entered the checkroom and saw a glass of water on the table, he said, &#8220;Clear!
 Clear! No, it&#8217;s not, No, it&#8217;s not.
 No,&#8221; he said. He put on a pair of sunglasses so that he could not distinguish the color of the wine, and then turned to the staff,
 I can see you!
 The &#8220;natural&#8221; comment never stopped.
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 In the question of distinguishing between a string quartet, he said, &#8220;We practice in music,
 We practice in the midst of music. I can even hear the yelling while batting,&#8221; he said confidently.
 He was confident in his ability. Hamada was right, and he was the sole winner, so he asked why,
 He said, &#8220;Because I&#8217;m an idiot! Because Itoi is an idiot!
 Hamada had no choice but to exclaim, &#8220;Because he&#8217;s an idiot! In the question to guess the real ingredients among the three types A, B, and C, Hamada held up the B card and explained the reason in a halting tone, &#8220;So, the correct answer is C (in fact, I said B),
 He then said, &#8220;So, the correct answer is C. (Actually, I wanted to say B. (Actually, I meant to say B, which is also correct, by the way.
 (Actually, I meant to say &#8220;B&#8221;. Hamada was not amused by this,
 Hamada, as expected, took his hat off to Itoi, saying, &#8220;That (Itoi&#8217;s quip) is not the stuff of a comedian.
 Hamada took his hat off to Itoi. The Internet also took his hat off,
 I thought he was a stoic worker when he was active, so I didn&#8217;t expect him to be such a character.
 I was surprised by Itoi&#8217;s unique sensibility. Itoi&#8217;s world is in full bloom!
 I was surprised by Itoi&#8217;s unique sensibility.
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;Legend of Itoi&quot;..!"></div>
When he throws, he throws 150 kilometers. When he runs, he can run like an Olympian. He is a legend with a superhuman physical ability, and during his 19 years of active baseball career, he has achieved a total of 1,754 hits, 171 home runs, 765 runs batted in, and 300 stolen bases. However, his &#8220;naturalness&#8221; has been with him since his debut, and it was difficult for him to communicate not only with the players and coaches, but also with us in the press. Or rather, it was just fun to talk with him,&#8221; said a reporter from a sports newspaper.
 Some of Itoi&#8217;s past &#8220;natural&#8221; episodes are introduced below.
 Teppei Komai, former catcher for Nippon Ham, told the following episode about Itoi when he was a pitcher.
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 As soon as a runner reached first base and he took a set position, Itoi froze on the mound. When I asked him about it, he said, &#8216;I don&#8217;t know how to throw anymore&#8230;'&#8221;
 The following year, Itoi switched to fielding.
 The following year, Itoi became a fielder and was selected for the Japan national team for the 3rd WBC in 2001. Itoi was widely known in baseball circles as &#8220;the guy who can&#8217;t remember signs. It was the same with the Samurai Japan team, and the leaders called Itoi up and asked him, &#8220;Do you know the signs?
 The leaders called him up and said, &#8220;You know the signs, don&#8217;t you? This is for stealing a base, and this is for bunting!
 Itoi began to growl, &#8220;Uh-oh, uh-oh,&#8221; and his head started to spin, so an extremely simplified &#8220;Itoi sign&#8221; was developed for Itoi.
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 . In November &#8217;16, he moved to Hanshin. The following year, Itoi stepped into Ginowan Stadium for the first time at the Okinawa camp,
 I knew artificial turf was good,&#8221; he said.
 Itoi said, &#8220;Artificial turf is great. Yutaka Nakamura, outfield defense and base running coach,
 &#8230;&#8230;. Natural grass?
 Itoi then learned for the first time that &#8220;artificial turf&#8221; refers to &#8220;turf that has been touched by human hands.
 He also called Koji Yamamoto, the manager of the WBC, &#8220;Manager-chan&#8221; and continued to call him &#8220;Manager-chan&#8221; even after being warned about it.
 Itoi&#8217;s current title is &#8220;Hanshin Special Ambassador. Itoi&#8217;s current title is &#8220;Hanshin Special Ambassador,&#8221; which means that he advises the team and promotes baseball in a wide range of activities, and appearing on variety shows like this is part of that. Since he received quite a big response this time, it is quite likely that he will be sought out for variety shows and commercials, just like Tsuyoshi Shinjo, the manager of NIHAM. Itoi is a big new variety show talent.
 Keep an eye out for Yoshio Itoi, a big new variety talent.

 Sankei Visual

 Yoshio Itoi may have just become a new star of the variety TV industry. Former professional baseball player Yoshio Itoi (41), who retired at the end of last season, was featured in the "Celebrity Ratings Check BASIC - Spring 3 Hour Special" (TV Asahi) on the 21st.

Yoshio Itoi is expected to make his big breakthrough on variety shows under the cover of the WBC.

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