Classic Players in Earnest
The Japanese team won the WBC game against the Korean team with six to nothing.
The box score was as follows:
000 000 510
It should remind many Japanese fans of Ichiro’s number on uniform “51.”
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Korean people got angry when they were informed that Ichiro insulted them, before the first-round matches of WBC this Feburuary in Tokyo, by saying, “I will teach them a lesson so that they cannot make irreverent behavior toward Japan at least for 30 years.”
On the other hand, there is a report that a young Korean in America two years ago asked Ichiro, in a restaurant with his wife, to write his autograph
on a sheet of paper. When Ichiro returned a signed sheet, the Korean youth tore it apart in Ichiro’s face, in order to give Ichiro a lesson for a certain reason according to words of the youth on the Internet.
However, no Japanese would think that Ichiro issued the above expression for his commitment with in mind the incident of two years ago relating to his autograph.
He had to express his determination to do his best in strong words before the games started. And, everybody knew that Korea had built the strong team with best players, while some Japanese major leaguers, including Ichiro’s juniors, such as Hideki Matsui of the Yankees, avoided to join the Japanese team.
Nowadays Japanese baseball fans know that when Korea sends the best team, Japan cannot easily win unless Japanese players do their best in earnest. It is Ichiro’s determination to make his best against the Korean all-star team.
Ichiro did not persuade others to despise or look down upon Koreans by using those words.
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Ichiro is a more proud person as being somebody that became a MVP player, a leading hitter, a stolen base champion, and a principal player who contributed to Mariners’ all-time most victories (116 wins) in one season of the Major League Baseball, all together in 2001.
What’s more, Ichiro once humbly and cautiously refused to accept some honor the Japanese Government tried to officially present to him for his excellent work in 2004 of breaking the single-season hit record of MLB.
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Cuba and Japan are going to meet in the ball park tomorrow for a crowing victory of the World Baseball Classic games.
As it is a public holiday tomorrow in Japan, many fans will enjoy the game to be broadcast live from California.
The Japanese team and the Cuban team seem to have one thing in common. They have not many players with experiences in the Major League. The Japanese team has two, including Ichiro. The Cuban team has none.
Tomorrow, people might come to think why it is so beyond the outcome of the final match.
“WHO THEN IS THE FAITHFUL SERVANT”