Pitcher hides his glove with his jersey, breakdown

Mar 14, 2023 2.0M views 5:07

What Happened

During the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Japanese reliever Yuki Takahashi pulled his jersey over his glove before settling into the set position against Australia, and Jomboy noticed it on the broadcast. Takahashi did it deliberately and repeatedly, even requesting baggy jerseys to make the trick work. The video digs into why: by covering the glove's thumb and opening, he hides whether his hand is digging in to change grips, which can tip a pitcher's next offering. Jomboy traced it back through Japanese forums to other Yakult Swallows pitchers doing the same thing, with one pitcher named Ogawa apparently starting the habit.

Why This Matters

Tipping pitches is one of those quiet edges that wins or loses at-bats, and hitters at the WBC level read glove movement and grip changes the way the rest of us read a stop sign. Takahashi's fix is low-tech and clever: drape the jersey over the glove so nobody can watch his thumb flare. There's nothing illegal about it, just gamesmanship. What makes this fun is the trail Jomboy follows, from Japanese-language forums to a commentator's direct question where Takahashi basically admits he's hiding something. The Swallows connection suggests a coaching philosophy, not a one-off quirk. In a tournament Japan went on to win, small details like this are exactly the kind of thing that separates good staffs from great ones.

At 2.0M views this sits at #109 of 1,583 Jomboy breakdowns, putting it in the top 6.9% of the whole catalog.

Key Moments

Who / What Is Involved

Players: Takahashi.

this relief pitcher for Japan in the

World Baseball Classic did something

that I've never seen players do before

he took his jersey and put it over his

glove repeatedly look grabs it very

intentionally puts it over his glove

this breakdown is brought to you by

SeatGeek use code John Boy for 20 off

your tickets and just over and over and

over and over that's what he does to

hide his glove and I thought is this

just because his Jersey's baggy maybe

they gave him too baggy of a jersey but

no it's very intentional his entire

wind-up is very intentional look he's

gonna go up up cranes for a bit hangs

out and then drops the pitch if you want

to see a bunch of them now this is when

there's no Runners on base the Jersey is

over the glove he's looking at the

catcher he bounces a little bit gets the

sign looks straight ahead the left leg

comes up to a nice Tippy Toe showing off

the legs a little bit the ball and glove

both go above his head but they separate

they separate from each other and he

kind of finds the end there like his

hands are fully extended to the point

where he kind of snaps his elbows then

the left leg comes down the right leg

goes up the knee comes all the way up

till he finds the high end of that just

like he did his arms and now he's just

going to hang out in a crane for a

little bit where he balances it okay so

now his balance like a weight pendulum

then he takes the ball smacks it against

the glove maybe that tightens his grip

or just Rhythm and then he drives

forward and releases the pitch kind of

crazy just a lot going on and this is

all after

he hides his glove in his jersey which

is the thing that

is the weirdest thing or the most

unusual so I went back and yeah it's not

just because his Jersey's bag he

intentionally asks for baggy jerseys to

do this this is him with the swallows

his regular team and he's doing it there

too so then I went to the Japanese

forums like have people been asking

questions I was like what's what's

Jersey in in Japanese and then I Googled

that and then I Googled his name in

Japanese and then I was using

translating yeah a lot of people have

been asking about this you know and in

my research found out this isn't just

Takahashi who does this but some of his

other teammates on the swallows also do

this so their pitching coach must have

told them hey here's what we're gonna do

and this guy had a solid lead he said

there's a cat inside and that was voted

as the best answer

and I was like come on guys I'm looking

for actual answers on all these Japanese

forums like what is it uh and agawa I

guess was the first pitcher to do it and

he actually threw a no-hitter when he

changed to this set position and then

maybe more people followed suit and in

2023

professional baseball commentator Yutaka

Tak Kaji that one always trips me up

asked him why are you pulling your

uniform up and do you feel like you're

hiding habits and the translation says

he said it's become routine now but

there's no doubt I'm hiding something

if that's a correct translation and yeah

I mean that's the most obvious reason

why you're doing it he even announced it

himself this tweet says that he said

this season I will be making the gesture

of putting the uniform on the glove when

entering the set you can see the

difference compared to last year I'm

looking forward to pitching

um and then I kind of I've been

consistently hitting the Mounds since

the end of the season so he's been

practicing since the end of the season

I'm guessing so here that's on the right

is how he used to have his glove in the

set position and on the left is where

he's pulling his uniform over it and

what you got to look at is the thumb

the opening of the glove because if he's

digging in there with his hand to change

the grip

the opening might flare up or not flare

up right you know in the thumb area over

here

now you can't see that area because his

Jersey's over it so it makes sense I

just never really

seen a pitcher do this before so I

wanted to look into it and you know

brush up on my Japanese and I found the

answers I was looking for now here's all

three of his pitches in this game

against Australia fastball curveball

slider pretty nice

to have that much going on in your wind

up and be you know pretty consistent and

then make three different pitches not

bad in this game he pitched pretty well

this fastball there a little higher

fastball High fast ball higher fastball

this one's kind of in the zone gets

smoked but caught for an out then

there's the curve nice little loopy

curve induces the ground ball kick save

and a beauty gonna throw it out Japan is

winning seven nothing there's a fastball

ground out if you want to see Team Japan

you can use code John Boy and get 20 off

from SeatGeek because if they're in the

semis uh in the finals

go check them out and you can see this

in person

wears a baggy Jersey on purpose to hide

his glove and I just never seen that

before and I want to thank my dude jarv

from Oz who is watching this sorry about

team Australia losing this game jarv but

he pointed out to me hey have you ever

seen that before and I was like I have

not seen that before and then I dove in

and now everyone's seen it and if you

like these videos and you want to see

more you can subscribe to the channel

because that helps us out and makes me

uh want to keep doing them I appreciate

it thank you very much