|
is a Japanese shortstop with the Yomiuri Giants. In , Sakamoto became the first player in Giants franchise history to start a season opener while under the age of 20 since Hideki Matsui. He is widely regarded as one of the most promising young stars in all of Japanese professional baseball today. ==Early life and high school career== Sakamoto was born in Itami, Hyōgo, and began playing baseball while in the first grade at Koyanosato Elementary School for the Koyanosato Tigers (a Little League team) alongside current Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. Ironically, Sakamoto was the team's ace pitcher, and Tanaka his batterymate on the team. Both Sakamoto and Tanaka went on to attend Itami Municipal Matsuzaki Junior High School, but Sakamoto opted to join Itami Senior, while Tanaka chose to play for the Takarazuka Boys. Upon graduating from junior high, Sakamoto decided to attend Kosei Gakuin High School in northern Aomori Prefecture, a baseball powerhouse in the Tohoku region. He became the team's starting shortstop by the fall of his first year (the equivalent of tenth grade in the United States) at Kosei Gakuin High. Sakamoto was hitting cleanup by the summer of his second year (eleventh grade), and led his team to runners-up in the Tohoku Regional Tournament that fall, earning a berth in the 78th National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament that would be held at Koshien Stadium the following spring. He attracted the attention of scouts when he hit .813 (13-for-16) with four home runs in the Tohoku Regional Tournament later that spring and hit a total of 39 home runs during his high school career. The Yomiuri Giants picked Sakamoto in the compensatory first round of the NPB high school player draft after losing to the Chunichi Dragons in the lottery that was held for fellow shortstop Naomichi Donoue, the most coveted high school position player, and presented Sakamoto the uniform number 61. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hayato Sakamoto」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|