The Japanese baseball team has already lost one ‘main gun’ before finalizing the roster. This is because Softbank captain Yuki Yanagita gave up participating in the WBC in advance.
Yanagita is a complete hitter with a career batting average of 0.315, 238 homers, 158 stolen bases and an OPS of 0.960 for 12 years until last year. He had six consecutive double-digit steals before injury reduced his stolen base attempts in three 20-home run seasons and three 30-home run seasons. Why did such a superstar declare his absence from the WBC?
Summarizing Japanese media reports from last year, Yanagita judged that the regular season could be difficult if he started with 100% in the WBC in early March. He thought that the honor of being selected for the national team and participating in international competitions was important, but this year, as captain, he had to do his best for his team. Most of all, I didn’t like the results of last year’s batting average of 0.275 and 24 home runs. 안전놀이터
Yanagita attributes this sluggishness to his failure to manage his weight. He said that he gained weight when he opened his eyes to the taste of sugar, which he would not normally eat, and because of this, it was difficult to control his condition during the season.
To be exact, it happened after he entered a self-isolation facility after being infected with Corona 19 during his personal training ahead of last season. Since he is not a professional baseball player, special meals are not provided, so his meal was insufficient, and he received food from outside through acquaintances. These foods were, of course, snacks such as cup noodles, fruit sandwiches, and glutinous rice cakes.
Yanagita looked back, saying, “I didn’t exercise and just ate. Originally, I wasn’t the type to enjoy sweets, but I opened my eyes to sweetness. So I gained weight, and even after I came out, my habits changed, so I kept working on sweets.” He said that increasing aerobic exercise, such as cycling, did not return his weight.
Yanagita said, “I usually maintain 90-91kg, but at the opening, I weighed 103kg. I didn’t try to gain weight, I just got fat.” In addition, at the beginning of the season, he fell into a vicious cycle of relieving stress from poor grades with sweets. Softbank, where Yanagita left an unusual performance, lost first place in the regular season with a loss in the last game. He also failed to advance to the Japanese series.
This year, I tried to correct my eating habits by fasting for a week. Yanagita, who said, “I can’t afford to rest if I have a batting average of 2.7,” showed satisfaction by adjusting his weight to 95kg at the start of the camp.