Hideki Kuriyama, who led Japan's national baseball team, Samurai Japan, to the world championship, will appear on TV Asahi's news and information program "Udo Times" (Sundays at 8:56 PM), which will be broadcast on March 1st. He will appear as a guest in the "Legends & Stars" interview segment hosted by MC and Caster Yumiko Udo, and will talk about the beliefs he developed over his 10 years as a manager, the struggles he faced as a player, and behind-the-scenes stories from the WBC (World Baseball Classic).
Kuriyama joined the Yakult Swallows as a non-draft pick in 1983. After retiring as a player at age 29, he worked as a Caster and university professor. In 2012, he became the manager of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. Despite having no prior coaching experience, he led the team to a league championship in his first year. He also helped Shohei Ohtani's talent blossom, helping the team to become the best in Japan. As manager, he led Japan to its first world championship in approximately 14 years in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and in January of this year he was inducted into the Professional Baseball Hall of Fame.
In the program, a blackboard was prepared, in reference to Kuriyama's past as a teacher. During the interview, he wrote down what he had learned in various aspects of life. When asked what he learned from his 10 years as a coach, Kuriyama wrote, "There is no such thing as being right."
"There are many different ways to manage a team and use players. There is definitely no one way," he said. "Gaining experience may increase the chances of getting good results, but that doesn't mean it's 100% correct."
He even posed a question to the reporter, "Was Otani's dual-wielding the right choice? Udo-san... I still don't know." To the unexpected question from the "father of dual-wielding,"Caster Udo was surprised, saying, "What?! Not yet?!" What did he really mean?
He also looked back on his time as a Caster and baseball commentator, and spoke of his memories with Hiroshi Kume, who passed away in January of this year. After retiring from active competition, he was in charge of the sports corner of "News Station," and he said that Kume, the main Caster, taught him the important things to be "communicator" and sometimes spoke harsh words to him.
A special edition of "Udo Times" will also be broadcast from 6:04 pm on the same day. The episode will be titled "Samurai Japan's World Championship History: A Reveal of Secret Footage!" and will delve deeper into the WBC, which begins on the 5th.
