As Motonobu Tanishige heads into his 27th year as a pro baseball player and his second as manager of the Chunichi Dragons, the 44-year-old catcher has his eye on breaking Japan’s record for games played.

Tanishige regularly sneaks away during the team’s lunch break at spring training camp to take his cuts against a pitching machine. But after working up a sweat with about 200 swings, Tanishige is back on the field wearing his manager’s face.

The skipper needs 26 more games to reach Hall of Famer Katsuya Nomura’s record of 3,017, so he’s well placed to break the record this season, even though his playing time is rapidly declining.

“No one can do it but me,” said Tanishige, who is now the only active player with 2,000 games under his belt. “If a player continues to be necessary, the numbers will naturally add up.”

That being said, Tanishige played in only 91 games last season, when he debuted as Dragons manager. He extended his streak of consecutive seasons with a home run to 26, but managed just one dinger in 226 at-bats, and batted just .195. This year Tanishige’s title has changed from “player-manager” to “manager-player.” The change was made to reflect the reality that he is becoming more manager than player.

The change was noticeable by Tanishige’s absence from full-squad activities during the first two phases of this year’s camp. Instead, he was fully occupied working with pitchers in the bullpen and observing young players taking extra BP. He has also spent time drilling Masato Matsui, who is battling to inherit the catching job Tanishige has owned in Nagoya for 13 seasons.

“In my first year, I learned how to flip the switch between being the manager and being a player,” Tanishige said. “Right now, my thoughts are really well arranged.”