There is one American on each of the Korean and Japanese baseball teams in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC).
Infielder Tommy Edman, who boasts one of the best defensive 안전놀이터 skills in the American Major League (MLB), competes in the tournament wearing the Taegeuk mark, and outfield giant prospect Lars Nuthba (above St. Louis Cardinals) will embrace the Japanese flag and enter the WBC.
Thanks to the WBC rules, which allow even a country in which they were not born to participate by choosing one of their parents’ nationalities, they were able to participate in the ‘World Baseball Festival’ that came back after six years.
Edmund’s mother is Korean, and Nutba’s mother is Japanese.
Both players have middle names that have not forgotten their roots.
Edmund’s middle name is ‘Hyeonsu’, and Nuthba writes ‘Taylor Tatsuji’.
Those who are close friends in St. Louis, their team, put aside their friendship for a while and wait for the Korea-Japan match between Korea and Japan in the WBC group stage tomorrow (10th) at Tokyo Dome, Japan.
Nutba declared a ‘temporary break’ with Edman at the WBC official press conference held on the 8th.
“Edman is a good friend and good teammate of mine, but here he wears a different uniform than mine,” Nutba said. “He’s not a friend or a teammate this week.”
Nutba, who joined St. Louis in 2018 and debuted in the big leagues in 2021, hit 14 homers last year.
Even if his batting average is low at 0.228,
Japan, which added destructive power to other lines with the addition of Nutba, is considered the number one candidate for the WBC championship.
In the tournament predictions conducted by MLB.com, 4 out of 11 experts predicted that Japan would win, and all 11 predicted that they would advance to the semifinals.
One expert predicted that Korea would win, and six predicted that they would advance to the semifinals.
Nutba said, “We will beat Korea,” and added, “Even though I don’t have any bad feelings towards Edmund, I wore a Japanese uniform and he wore a Korean uniform.”
Nutba, still a promising player in the big leagues, says he is lucky to be watching Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels) play up close as he joins the Japanese national team.
“I think I’m a fan who is lucky enough to sit in the front row (to see Ohtani). It’s amazing to see him on and off the field,” Nutba said.