Yokohama DeNA BayStars catcher Yasutaka Tobashira (left) and manager Daisuke Miura attend a news conference at The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on November 12, 2024, in Tokyo. (©SANKEI)
Read the full story on SportsLook - [ODDS and EVENS] A Singular Focus Lifted the BayStars to the Top in 2024
"All for the win," was the team slogan of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars during the 2024 NPB season.
It was an apt description of their unified mission, and the BayStars captured their first Japan Series title since 1998 on November 3.
Nine days later, manager Daisuke Miura and catcher Yasutaka Tobashira represented the BayStars organization during a news conference at The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo.
The event was a happy occasion for Miura and Tobashira to look back on the team's success in the playoffs (winning the first and final stages of the Central League Climax Series against the 2023 champion Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants) and then the Japan Series over the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
At the outset of the press gathering, sports reporter Jim Armstrong, a regular contributor to JAPAN Forward and SportsLook, asked Miura to describe the team's mood after it lost the first two games of the Japan Series to the Hawks at Yokohama Stadium.
After dropping Game 2 on October 27, the BayStars had a day off before facing the Hawks again on October 29 at Mizuho PayPay Dome in Fukuoka.
"While practicing, our team members were really looking ahead, looking forward. They were not down at all," Miura recalled of the October 28 practice. "And although I thought maybe I should gather all the players and have a meeting, at that time I heard from [Shugo] Maki, who is our captain, that, yeah, he would like to gather members and have a meeting of the players alone.
"And when I heard that, I thought this is going to be OK because the players are taking the initiative to do something about the situation."
Players-Only Meeting Pays Off for BayStars
Miura, a starting pitcher on the BayStars' 1998 championship team, recognized that the players-only meeting was a positive development. By having that meeting, he said they were able to "change their mindset, so after the two losses the players were not down at all."
A quick reminder: SoftBank triumphed 5-3 in Game 1 and 6-3 in Game 2 before Yokohama began its unforgettable comeback against a team that won 20 more games (an NPB-best 91) in the regular season.
It's also worth pointing out that the BayStars had the lowest winning percentage (.507 ― for their 71-69-3 regular-season record) of any team that's ever appeared in the Japan Series.
Steady leadership helped the BayStars overcome the odds. Miura maintained a positive attitude throughout the playoffs, telling the players, "If you make a mistake, if you make an error, just forget about it immediately."
And the BayStars seized control of the Japan Series with victories in Game 3 (4-1), Game 4 (5-0) and Game 5 (7-0) in Fukuoka on October 29-31.
Continue reading the full story on SportsLook.
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Author: Ed Odeven
Find Ed on JAPAN Forward's dedicated website, SportsLook. Follow his [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.
