Koji Aoyama is active as an academy coach of the Rakuten baseball team in the 9th series “Restart-Restart from out-of-force notification”.
Professional baseball is a pioneer of professional sports in Japan and boasts a long history and popularity. While some players earn hundreds of millions of yen in annual salary and are in the spotlight, there are also many “former professional baseball players” who have finished their active lives and will be active in the next stage. “Restart” is a serialization of “THE ANSWER” that focuses on their second career and puts the spotlight on the alumni of the ball world who are struggling in their second life. The 9th is Koji Aoyama who played for Rakuten Eagles for 15 years.
Recorded a total of 625 pitches, which is the number one pitcher in the history of the team. He also served as a restraint under Senichi Hoshino, and pitched in 60 games in 2013, when the Rakuten Eagles won the number one spot in Japan for the first time. He retired only in 2020 and is currently teaching baseball to children in the six Tohoku prefectures as an academy coach of the Rakuten Baseball Team. He was taught how he was giving back his knowledge of his active days when he had a hobby of throwing. (Sentence = THE ANSWER editorial department, Hiroya Miyauchi)
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“I’m glad I was pursuing throwing while I was active. It’s not” absolute pitch “, but I sometimes feel a little strange in the form of a child. If I use my body in a well-balanced manner, it will prevent future injuries. So it’s pretty fun to be able to teach it. “
Currently, Mr. Aoyama travels to 6 prefectures in Tohoku and teaches from the age of 6 to the third year of junior high school. After 15 years of professional life, he has passed on his skills to children who enjoy pure baseball.
It teaches basic things such as hitting and defense as well as pitching. “I value replies and greetings, but after all the replies are straightforward,’Yes!’. Besides, children will get better as soon as they teach a little.” The growth of my students is the joy of retirement.
Play until 2020 with the Rakuten Eagles. What changed his professional baseball life significantly was that he was appointed as a stopper when Mr. Hoshino, who died in 2018, was the director.
When I was consulted, I once responded with a bitter smile, saying, “I can’t do it.” He pitched in 51 games in 2011, the first year of the Hoshino administration, but he wasn’t confident yet. He was immediately scolded by the warlord.
“Don’t you want to make money?”
Although I was angry, I answered “I want to earn!” And left the guardian deity as it was. An important role that may erase the winning star of the starting batter and the final hit of the ally batter. He worked hard, feeling like he was going to vomit, and recorded 22 saves in 2012. In the following 13 years, he showed great success with 11 saves and 17 holds, and although he could not get out of the Japan Series due to a breakdown, he also enjoyed the league championship and the joy of being the best in Japan.
“I was shaken by various leaders, but the biggest thing in my life as a baseball player was the experience of restraint. What I had been doing on my own was a little broader. I’m really grateful to have been entrusted with that. “
From 2006, the first year of joining the team, he pitched in 42 games, playing all roles such as starting lineup, middle reliever, and closer. The number of pitches he has accumulated is 625, which is the highest number of pitchers in the team.
Although he has exceeded 600 pitches in total, with only 43 players in the history of professional baseball, he has been fighting shoulder pain since the fifth year.
“I was looking for a form that wouldn’t hurt and wouldn’t reduce output, but for the last couple of years I was taking (painkiller) medicine every day.”
I was able to play for 15 years, partly because of my insatiable quest. He admits that he enjoys playing baseball and throwing, and the only thing he does on holidays is to enjoy playing games. At his home, he casually held the ball in his hand and spent a lot of time thinking.
