adminMajor League ‘Legend’ Mike Piazza, Italy’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) national team coach, poured out ‘extreme praise’ towards ‘Baseball Genius’ Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels).
Piazza is a familiar figure to baseball fans as he has worked with Park Chan-ho, the ‘Korean Express’, in the past while eating rice together. In 1988, after being nominated by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the 1390th overall pick in the 62nd round of the rookie draft, he started his professional life and stepped on the major league stage in 1992. And in 1993, he played in 149 games and recorded 174 hits, 35 home runs, 112 RBIs, 81 runs, and a batting average of 0.318 OPS and 0.931.베팅룸 토토
Afterwards, Piazza played for the New York Mets, San Diego Padres, and Oakland Athletic, winning 12 All-Stars (1993-2002, 2004, 2005) and 10 Silver Sluggers (1993-2002), playing in 1912 games and hitting 2127 hits over 16 seasons. 427 home runs, 1335 runs batted in, 1048 runs scored, batting average of 0.308, OPS of 0.922. And the number 31, which was used during the New York Mets, was designated as a ‘permanent missing number’ by the Mets, and was inducted into the ‘Hall of Fame’ with 83% of the vote in 2016.
In this WBC, Piazza, who was in charge of Italy’s command tower, wrote a ‘miracle’ in Group A with Cuba, the Netherlands, Panama and Taiwan. Italy created a sensation by winning 6-3 against Cuba in the first match of the Group A group stage. After 7-11 to Taiwan,
Italy, which succeeded in advancing to the quarterfinals amidst twists and turns, will face the Japanese national team on the 16th at the Tokyo Dome. First of all, in Japan, Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels), the “unanimous MVP” in the 2021 season, will be on the mound as a starting pitcher. In an interview after completing official training on the 15th, Ohtani made up his mind, saying, “There will be a burden of losing, but if everyone works together, we will be able to overcome it.”
Director Piazza, who held a press conference that day, gave Ohtani a thumbs up. It is because of Ohtani’s ‘double sword’ performance in the major leagues. Piazza has been working with many pitchers as he is one of the best ‘catcher’ legends in the major leagues. Of course, Ohtani’s performance is bound to come more to the eye.
Piazza said, “I think Ohtani is the best player since Babe Ruth in all major league history. Even when I was a pitcher, there were a few players who were good at hitting. But there were no players who could hit like that full-time.” He praised Ohtani’s performance.
While praising Ohtani, coach Piazza showed caution as the confrontation was decided. The command tower said, “As a pitcher, Ohtani won’t have many balls that our hitters can hit.” I will be able to do it,” he said, expressing his anticipation for the confrontation with Japan.