Seiichi Uchikawa, who has marked the most active hits in the professional baseball team Yakult, held a press conference and expressed his enthusiasm, saying, "I want to do my best to make another flower bloom."
38-year-old Uchikawa marked a batting average of over 30% in the 2nd army of Softbank this season in his 20th year as a professional player, but he did not have a turn in the 1st army and became a free contract.
After negotiating off, it was decided to join Yakult, and after officially signing a one-year contract on the 11th, we held a press conference at the baseball team office in Tokyo.
Uchikawa, whose jersey number was "7", said, "Honestly, I was relieved. I was worried about what I would be like as a player, but I was asked to help me, and the team needed me. I still have it, so I have to work harder. "
On top of that, "I think Yakult has a sense of family and the players and coaches are heading for victory. Coach Sugimura who was taken care of during the Yokohama era, Aoki on the left and Yamada on the right. One of the factors that decided Yakult was the environment in which the players who served as reference and model were close to us. "
"The first thing to do is to grasp the position that Uchikawa is needed here, and the goal of the numbers is not at the moment. I think Yakult will be the last path as a professional baseball player, so I will do my best to make another flower bloom." Showed enthusiasm.
Uchikawa joined Yokohama at that time in 2001, and in 2008, the eighth year, he recorded the highest batting average of 30%, 7 minutes and 8 minutes as a right-handed batter, and became the top batter.
In the 10th year off, he transferred to Softbank as a free agent and won the top hitter in both the Central League and the Central League, the second in history, with a total of 2171 hits, the most among active players.