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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: SEMIS & FINALSMarch 20, 2006Daisuke MatsuzakaSadaharu OhIchiro SuzukiSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA Q. I have two questions, and I'll make them quick and this is for both players. Where does this moment rank in your careers, and what were your emotions like at the end? The second one is do either of you have any suggestions or ideas for making this tournament better when it comes back in three years? ICHIRO SUZUKI: First of all, well, I was always thinking that we would need a good event to decide the world's best in the baseball world, so I believe this whole event was a very meaningful one for that purpose. Apart from the Olympics, I really wanted this WBC tournament to be the event that decides the true world champions, so that's why I participated in this event, and at the end I was able to be on the championship team, and that was probably -- this is probably the biggest moment of my baseball career. At the time we won the championship, I really celebrated with the great teammates who got together just a month ago but became a real good team after practicing and also playing many games through the weeks. So I'm really happy that I could be with these guys. But at the same time, we really have to part from each other today, so it's sort of a sad day, as well. In order to improve this event, I believe there were many issues this time, but a lot of people paid attention to this event and the players' motivations were really good, so I'm sure we can improve a lot of aspects within the three-year time frame until the next event will take place. DAISUKE MATSUZAKA: Well, to me the Olympic games were the only opportunities to decide the world's No. 1 baseball team in the past, and actually I participated in two Olympics, but both times the team I participated in finished short of earning the gold medal. This time I heard about this plan of WBC, and I looked at the list of the players, and I thought at that moment I was probably most excited in my career that I might have a chance to play on the best team ever. We all aimed at winning the championship here, and in the last game with the world championship on the line, I was named as a starter of the game, and I'm really proud of the fact that I was able to start and I also did a decent job to contribute to the win. So I'm really satisfied with that. At the time of winning the championship, like Ichiro said, this will be the end of this great journey with these great teammates, and I've experienced this sadness in the past with the Olympic teams, but still, I feel really hard that we have to part from each other. Throughout this tournament, all the teammates became real good friends and good buddies, and from now on I'd like to be stimulated from each member's great performances and respective teams. And in order to improve this event in the future, I believe this event drew a lot of attention in Japan, and the attention came from people who don't really watch baseball normally. So I believe this became at the end a very good event. There must be a lot of issues that need to be addressed, but I'm sure that can be resolved by the next event in 2009, so I believe we will have much better competition in the event in three years. Q. Ichiro, two questions for you. First of all, can you talk about your emotions? What's going through your heart winning this championship, what it means to you in your heart? And secondly, if we could ask if you're comfortable on this very special night for you and Japanese baseball, might you be able to express a few words in English to us what this means to you? ICHIRO SUZUKI: Well, I've already answered the first question, and I don't really do any comments in English. Q. This is for Manager Oh. A couple days ago you moved Ichiro into the No. 3 spot and went 2-0 with him there. Why didn't you think of that sooner? Also, what did that do to your offense? And was the starting pitcher on a pitch count tonight? SADAHARU OH: Well, I am not really a magician, so I was never able to judge that we would score more with Ichiro at No. 3 spot. But up until the game, the last game against Korea in the second round, our lineup couldn't really score many runs, so it was sort of gambling to put Ichiro at No. 3 spot, but I thought it would be much better if I did something different than nothing. So I really tried that way, but I wasn't really sure if that would work that well. For Matsuzaka being taken out of the game after the 4th inning, he was throwing his pitches harder than ever in first four innings. That was something I haven't really seen in the past. As I saw him at that time, at the pitching change time, I really thought it would be better if I sent another pitcher in. Of course, he might have pitched a little more, he might have been able to pitch some more, but today that was my decision to take him out at that moment and switch him with the other pitcher. Q. I have questions to Ichiro and Matsuzaka. First question is to Ichiro. You played the last two games as hard or even harder, much harder than you've ever played in your career. You looked like you were having -- you looked like you had the turbo engine built in your body, and you showed great concentration in the game. Is it because you were really thinking about winning the championship? Did that drive you? ICHIRO SUZUKI: Yes. Well, the game on Saturday night against Korea, of course we fought our hearts out because our backs were against the wall, and there was so much excitement on the team, of course there was another reason, that we had lost to Korea twice in this tournament. So that really drove us in that game, as well. Today we had a different reason to fire ourselves up. We really wanted to win this championship today, and I didn't even think about the upcoming regular season of 2006. It's not an ideal thing for a player to think, but I didn't really care if I would get injured in this game; that's how much I really wanted to win this one. That's how we were driven to this championship. Q. Second question to Matsuzaka, you seemed to be overpowering the opponent earlier in the game. Even though you gave up a home run early, but were you just trying to fire yourself up and were you determined so much that you would never give up any runs? DAISUKE MATSUZAKA: Well, the day before yesterday I was told by the manager that I would be the starter for this final game, but by rule, (Shunsuke) Watanabe was also available for starting this game. But he selected me as the starting pitcher, and that fired me up, really. As I knew that Watanabe would be available in this game, I never thought about pitch count or anything so that from the beginning I was throwing the hardest pitches possible. This was the first time for me to face the Cuban team since the Athens Olympics, but they always have these intimidating hitters, but to me I didn't really have that kind of vision, that they have a really scary offense. I was never scared to pitch against them, and I also heard that they are really good fastball hitters, and my good pitch is also a fastball, so I really wanted to try my fastball against those great hitters, and I didn't really want to care about the location that I throw to. I wanted to overpower the Cuban hitters. That's how I came into this game and that's how I pitched in the first four innings. Q. This is for Matsuzaka. You've pitched in Japan, you've pitched in the Olympics and now you've pitched here. Do you want to pitch in our major leagues, and if so, how soon? ICHIRO SUZUKI: He's got to go through his agent (pointing to himself). SADAHARU OH: Tell them soon (laughter). DAISUKE MATSUZAKA: Would that be a good enough answer? Q. A little more, please. DAISUKE MATSUZAKA: Well, like I said, after the game against Mexico, I said I believe this Major League Baseball is currently the best league in the whole world, so I would like to try what I can do in this league in the future, and that's what I have in my mind so far.
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