Jul. 18—For the St. Joseph Mustangs, there’s little debate who everyone’s favorite teammate is.
“I’m pretty sure that he’s everybody’s favorite player on the team. Every guy loves him,” Mustangs manager Johnny Coy said. “Ryo is the first international player that we’ve had for the Mustangs, and it’s so much fun. He’s such a great kid.”
From Tokyo, Japan, Ryosuke Tada quickly made an impact with a spirit that’s prevalent in the dugout on summer nights at Phil Welch Stadium.
Coy said, “He makes an error, smiles, makes a play, smiles, strikes out, makes a smile, no matter what he does, he’s just enjoying the game of baseball and that’s contagious to everybody else.”
The Mustangs’ shortstop/second baseman has equally enjoyed his time so far in the United States. His favorite part about St. Joe?
“The food,” Tada said with a laugh. “Hamburger and everything, and people here are so cheerful.”
Coming from the BC League, one of the biggest independent professional baseball leagues in north central region of Japan, Tada’s journey to Missouri started after a spot opened up on the roster.
“We just lost the middle infielder and we had an open spot, and I said, you know what, this is the perfect time, let’s make it happen. I think it’d be really cool for people of St. Joe, it’d be really cool for that player to come here and you know, play in front of great fans,” Coy said.
He’s competed in Mexico before, but the 23-year-old made the 6,000 mile trek to join the Mustangs because he wants to play American baseball.
“I just want to be an MLB player. But in Japan, I have no choice to play in the MLB so I want to get the experience to play in the U.S. here,” Tada said.
With different styles of play between American and Japanese baseball, Tada had to quickly find his groove.
“I was struggling with the U.S. baseball difference between Japanese, but I’m getting better,” Tada said. “In the infield, we don’t have grass, so (after) batting the ball, (it) comes weird for me.”
Playing baseball since he was six-years-old, Tada picked up a few traditions of his own.
One in particular shocked Coy.
“He actually lost his glove and we were all looking for it and he forgot that he put it in the freezer, which that was so funny to me, but he said it’s totally normal back where he’s from and he wants the glove nice and hard but around here in the United States, we want that glove as soft as possible so that it’s a nice little cushion, but that’s one thing that was stood out to me that was very different from the very beginning was how he forms his glove and how he treats his glove is totally different,” Coy said. “But he seems to be making pretty good plays out there so no complaints from me.”
As the MINK League playoffs near, Tada has high hopes for his squad.
“If we can beat Clardina A’s, we’ll be the champions,” Tada said.
Micaela Dea can be reached at micaela.dea@newspressnow.com.
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