Japan's World Baseball Classic-winning skipper Hideki Kuriyama revealed Friday that advice from high school and corporate team managers was part of his recipe for success during the tournament in March.
"I listened to and learned from high school and corporate team managers, as their teams mostly play single-elimination tournaments," Kuriyama said at a news conference just days after finishing his term as Samurai Japan manager.
"The most important thing that I learned was not to wait too long (to make pitching or other changes)."
At the WBC, teams played in pools before the single-elimination rounds starting with the quarterfinals. Japan won all seven of its games during the tournament.
Kuriyama — who was Shohei Ohtani's first pro manager and helped develop him as a two-way player during their time together with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters between 2013 and 2017 — guided Japan to an unprecedented third WBC title.
"Things may not always go your way, but I kept telling myself to pull out every possible option during the WBC," he said.
Kuriyama emphasized how his players devoted themselves to the team, adding he believes the strength of Japanese baseball — based on work ethic and training methods — impressed people watching both in Japan and abroad.
"I knew those great parts of Japanese baseball we have inherited from older generations is something we can be proud of," Kuriyama said.
Generally speaking, Japanese baseball is not known for producing power hitters, but in its 3-2 victory in the final against the United States, Japan had solo home runs from Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto.
"The Americans might not have had all their best players, but our guys went after them, playing their usual game, and that included hitting home runs," Kuriyama said.