SENDAI (Kyodo) Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma, who will aim to sign with a major league team via the posting system, said on Thursday the experience he gained playing in the World Baseball Classic is his main impetus for making a move overseas.
"The main catalyst for wanting to play over there was the WBC. The mound and the ballparks over there are different than what I feel in Japan," said Iwakuma, who started for Japan in the final of the 2009 WBC and has gained recognition among major league scouts.
The 29-year-old appeared before the media for the first time since Rakuten said on Monday it will allow him to be posted to the highest bidder this winter.