There was zero hesitation when Yuichi Matsumoto accepted his new role after Brazilian baseball officials offered him the chance to manage the country’s national baseball team last summer.
“I had been working as a coach for Yakult for a long time. And I have long wanted to one day become Brazil’s manager,” Matsumoto said.
He bowed out of a Tokyo Yakult Swallows training camp in Okinawa Prefecture just ahead of the 2026 World Baseball Classic preliminaries that start on March 2 in the United States.
Matsumoto is 44 and a third-generation Japanese-Brazilian. He joined the Swallows in 1999 as a baseball exchange student. At the beginning, he was ineligible to be part of the first-squad roster due to the foreign player quota cap.
However, after gaining Japanese citizenship in 2004, he was increasingly put in games and became a first squad player.
“The first three years were tough for me. I also studied Japanese very hard,” he said.
Matsumoto played in 546 games mainly as a reserve fielder until 2015 when he became a coach for the Swallows.
His most recent roles that began last season were outfield defense, baserunning and strategy coach.
In 2013, he served as captain of the Brazilian national team for the WBC. The team lost all three of its games to Japan, Cuba and China—something that stuck with Matsumoto.
“I still feel regretful,” he said.
Brazil was eliminated during the WBC qualifiers two consecutive times after the 2013 tournament.
To claw its way back into the WBC after these two tournaments, Brazil must contend with strong teams, Colombia being one.
Whether or not his team will play in the WBC will have a big impact on baseball’s popularity in the soccer-loving nation.
“I feel pressure, but I’m looking forward to it,” said Matsumoto, who intends to utilize the sport’s detailed skills and tactics he learned in Japan to enhance his leadership.
When Swallows manager Shingo Takatsu came down with COVID-19 in 2022, Matsumoto took charge and managed six games. However, the team only won one of those six.
“I got impatient with my signs,” Matsumoto reflected. “The experience I gained at that time will definitely benefit me in my role as a baseball team manager.”
Takatsu, along with advice on when to change pitchers, kept his sendoff for Matsumoto simple.
“Go, and win at all costs.”
Original Source: This article was originally published on Asahi Sports. Click the link to view the full article.