Samurai Japan is determined to recapture the title at next spring's World Baseball Classic. But the national team will have to endure a tougher challenge to accomplish than goal than before as other countries have now gotten more eager to win as well.
Mexico and the Netherlands, who flew from their countries to play against Japan for an exhibition series dubbed the 2016 Samurai Japan Challenge at Tokyo Dome this week, are displaying serious attitudes, trying to take advantage of the occasion to develop their teams leading up to the WBC just like Japan.
"Any game we play, we have to take it seriously because it's for our country," Mexico manager Edgar Gonzalez said before Friday's game against Japan. "It's something for representing the whole country, I think my responsibility as manager — kantoku — is to be take it seriously, because the whole country doesn't want to see (its players) just go and do it, (but) you want to see them win."