The 2026 World Baseball Classic is witnessing a revolution in the managerial choices of Japan’s newest skipper, Hirokazu Ibata, who has quietly moved away from his country’s famous small-ball obsession.
Ibata’s starting lineup through Japan’s first three Pool C games at Tokyo Dome had sluggers everywhere but short and catcher.
In center, Ibata has started Seiya Suzuki, an outstanding defensive right fielder before developing the yips at Wrigley Field and becoming the Cubs’ designated hitter. Masataka Yoshida, another DH in MLB, has been in left, with the fleet-footed Ukyo Shuto and Taisei Makihara on the bench when speed and defense is needed.
Japanese culture is still influenced by the hierarchical neo-Confucian ethics of its feudal era. One is expected to respect one’s predecessors by preserving their teachings, and never ever contradict past masters.
In practice, that means talking incessantly about a style of baseball that is uniquely suited to Japanese players, with lots of bunting and with infields and outfields pulled in at the drop of a hat.
Managers are expected to expound on the spiritual importance of one-run offensive and defensive tactics, on the need for speed, on fundamentally solid defense and the importance of pitching to opponents’ weaknesses.
Those skippers whose teams have the skills to play differently, may do so, but only after paying lip service to tradition and offering up prayers and burning incense at the altar of small baseball, and then apologizing for their sins.
In Japanese, national team players are referred to as national “representatives” and feel pressure to say the right things. When Atsunori Inaba, a cerebral big-hitting outfielder during his career, managed the national team, he once appeared on a TV show with Japan’s first WBC manager, Sadaharu Oh.
When quizzed about his plans, Inaba began spouting Japan’s small-ball dogma until Oh said bluntly that conforming to Japanese style ball just to prove a point would be an inefficient use of the power hitters then at the skipper’s disposal.
Ibata is by nature soft spoken. A golden-glove shortstop whose offensive prowess was masked by playing in Japan’s toughest pitchers’ park, he perhaps didn’t feel the need to publicly kowtow to small ball.
“I have carefully observed international games, especially those in the knockout rounds of the last two WBC tournaments, and noticed how often home runs made the difference, because stringing hits together one after another was difficult,” Ibata said after Tuesday’s Pool C finale.
Ibata’s plan, he said, is for his hitters and pitchers to go with their strengths, rather than probe for opponents’ weaknesses, and “applyjng pressure” by continually bunting runners into scoring position.
“I want batters to make pitchers throw strikes put good swings on the ball. In the Premier 12, I observed how teams were burned by pitching too carefully, walking batters and falling behind in counts only to give up extra-base hits.”
“I want our pitchers to have the confidence to challenge even the best opposing hitters, and not be afraid. If you do that, and give up a walk, I can live with that. But we should work aggressively.”
If Japan’s defensive limitations prove costly in Miami, there is a good chance Ibata will be roasted by the small-ball curmudgeon corps in the media for disregarding their teachings.
If, on the other hand, Japan wins, I expect the old fart brigade to praise the team’s accomplishments despite being handicapped by the skipper’s employing a style “unsuited” to Japanese players.
