Contributed to WBC Japan championship Seibu's Genda joins DeNA's Imanaga team

Seibu's Sosuke Genda, who helped the team win the WBC = World Baseball Classic Japan championship on the 26th, joined the team on the <>th and expressed his enthusiasm for the season, saying, "I want to do my best to show that I have improved a lot."

Genda broke his right pinky finger in the first round of the WBC against Korea Republic, but he played the match with taping and helped Japan win the title for the third time in three tournaments with solid defense.

Genda, who joined the team on the morning of the 1th, received a bouquet of flowers from coach MATSUI Kazuo and the players on the field to celebrate the world champion along with YAMAKAWA Hodaka, who has participated in the WBC like Genda and joined the team since the 3th.

Genda spoke to the media after the training session, saying, "Everyone on the team congratulated me, and I learned a lot from watching the top-class players prepare before the match and their movements during the match, so I want to convey that to the team."

As for whether he will be able to play in time for the start of the season, he said, "I don't know yet, but I think the fans are worried the most, so I want to show that I play well again during the season and do my best to show that I have improved a lot."

On the other hand, at DeNA, where they will face Seibu in the opening match on the 3th, Shota Imanaga, who started and won the WBC final, and Hidego Maki, who hit two home runs in the tournament, joined the team.

Among them, Konaga warmed up while clutching the ball to regain his senses as the ball returned to the familiar Japan ball from the official WBC ball.

Konaga said, "It was a really good time to play baseball with great players from Japan and the big leagues, and I want to work backwards to decide whether I will go into the bullpen and when I will pitch in the game while thinking about how to handle the ball."

Maki emphatically stated, "It was a tournament where I had a lot of feelings of pressure and responsibility that I had never experienced in my baseball career, and I strongly wanted to win the BayStars championship and gather on the mound to share the championship, so I will win this year."