There's a thanklessness to catching in baseball. Catchers do a lot of the dirty work, and their efforts end up being both extremely challenging and easy for the casual observer to accidentally overlook.
A catcher has many jobs, to lead pitchers, know opposing batters' strengths and weaknesses, help set fielders, control the other team's running game and so on. Alex Ramirez, a former hitting maestro who now manages the Yokohama BayStars, used to say he spent as much time, sometimes more, studying catchers as he did pitchers.
Seiji Kobayashi has been the man behind the mask for Samurai Japan during this World Baseball Classic, and in some ways the 27-year old has been Japan's most important player.
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