"Cualquiera que sea mi suerte en lo adelante, mi último suspiro será por mi país".

Simon Bolivar.

Aki Okada

Position: Pitcher and Third Baseman

Favourite Topic: Fast cars & travelling to Japan

Read all about Figueras Yakyuu Academy 2006

“Figueras Baseball Academy 2006 has been launched”野球 (やきゅう; yakyū)野球 (やきゅう; yakyū).

The Batting Team and the Sweet Spot of a Bat. 

A good hitter knows from repeatedly hitting a baseball in training that there is a sweet spot on the bat at the end of the barrel and swinging at the ball when it is in a strike zone will help the batter to make a clean contact with it. Nevertheless, we are blessed with good batting all the way down the batting order and we like nothing more than get a good pitch to hit and put it into flight. Yeah! Perhaps, there is nothing wrong with being selective at home plate but baseball is, in my view, a game where the hitters are meant to swing the bat in order to hit the ball. I am all for hitters swinging at the ball when it is in a strike zone regardless of the count and I would encourage players at every opportunity to swing at a good pitch and try to make connection with the ball but if they are unable to do so they should, at least, make the pitcher aware of their intentions by looking at the direction in which the ball travelled to home plate after the swing has been executed. I think it is fair to say that if a batsman is not conscious of these things, he is at the pitcher's mercy. Nevertheless, a good batsman should have a fairly good idea which pitch he is most likely to hit and which pitch he has trouble with.