New Samurai Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama has spoken about his first games in charge of the Japan Baseball National Team, which will see the Olympic champions play four warm-up games in the next two weeks, saying he is "excited" and "can't wait to take the field, this is just the first step." Kuriyama took over from Atsunori Inaba as national team coach at the end of last year.
World No. 1 Japan will play the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (5 November) and the Tokyo Giants (6 November) of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) at the Tokyo Dome before taking on world No. 10 Australia on 9 and 10 November at the Sapporo Dome.
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Kuriyama said he will use the November games to select the best players for the World Baseball Classic but his player choice has been based on the current condition of most of the players. "It's the end of the season, and you have the consider some players may be tired. I wanted players who could showcase their best baseball. Japan is always looking for strong pitching and strong defence."
"I selected a team to win against Australia and I will use these games to evaluate players who may be part of the World Baseball Classic rosters. After these series, we will work on that roster from scratch."
The rules of the World Baseball Classic will also influence Kuriyama's choices. "The pitch count will force us to add more pitchers. We will need pitchers who can give us innings and other pitchers we can trust with runners on base. We also are looking at a variety of offensive solutions. It will be a short tournament, so you may need to change the course of a game in a hurry."
National Teams will count on Major League Baseball (MLB) players. Does this leave a chance for Samurai Japan?
"I watched a lot of MLB games, and I must admit I was impressed by the speed. The United States will field a very strong team. It won't be easy to beat them. This doesn't change our attitude. We will play our baseball and try not to allow runs."
What challenges do you expect as Japan's manager?
"There are things you won't be sure about until you make the field. My job is to select the best team possible and then get them ready to play. I know these players are at the end of a long season, so I must adjust to this."
What will you tell the players before the first game?
"I want to ensure they understand what wearing the National Team jersey represents. I'm positive some players feel stronger than me on how important representing Japan is. So I expect I won't need to say a lot."
