Yurisbel Gracial is elected as the Most Valuable Player of Japanese Baseball

October 24, 2019

Yurisbel Gracial was chosen this Tuesday as the Most Valuable Player of the 2019 Japan Baseball Series, after winning the title with the Softbank Hawks, for the third consecutive year.

Gracial, 34 years old, hit three home runs and drove in six teammates across home plate in the four games of the finals to leave an offensive average of .375, as right fielder for the Fukuoka roster.

In the last game, which ended with his team's 4-3 victory over the Yomiuri Giants, at the Tokyo Dome, the Matanzas native finished 4-2, with a home run, a run scored, three RBIs and a strikeout.

Softbank took revenge for the last matchup between both franchises in the year 2000, when Yomiuri took the 4-2 victory during the confrontation as managers of the two most important figures in the history of Japanese baseball, Shigeo Nagashima (Giants) and Sadaharu Oh (Yomiuri).

Likewise, it was the third occasion in which the Hawks defeated the Giants in the series finals after victories in 1959 and 2000, with defeats in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1959, 1961, 1965, 1966 and 1973.

The crown was the tenth for the Fukuoka team, which ranks third on the list behind Yomiuri (22), considered the flagship team of that competition, and the Seibu Lions (13).