Shoji Nagano joins the “Fuchu Baseball Club” and participates in the Intercity Baseball Tournament as a reinforcement player of JR East.
The fastest 154km left arm, who left Lotte out of force last year, joined the club team “Zenfuchu Baseball Club” from this year. He has participated as a reinforcement player of JR East in the “93rd Intercity Baseball Tournament”, the highest peak of adult baseball that opened at Tokyo Dome on the 18th. Pitcher Shoji Nagano, 29 years old. His four years of professional life was also a fight against “agoraphobia,” which makes long-distance travel difficult on public transport. He has all the feelings and stands on the stage of a new baseball life.
“I don’t know if it’s a middle reliever or a starting lineup, but I’d like to do my best with the goal of keeping the scenes I’ve been assigned to 0 points,” says Nagano. During the Lotte era, he mainly served as a middle reliever, with a total of 22 games, 0 wins, 1 loss, 3 holds, and an earned run average of 4.30. On December 8th last year after his departure, he participated in a 12-team joint tryout at the Met Life Dome (now Berna Dome) in Saitama Prefecture. With this as a trigger, he joined the group after receiving an offer from all Fuchu, which was founded in 1930 (Showa 5) and boasts one of the best traditions in Japan.
On May 3, this year, he started the game against JR East in the first qualifying round against the city in Tokyo, and made a good throw with no hits and no runs in the third inning. However, he dares to leave this time only. Five days later, on the 8th, the semi-final of the “All Japan Club Championship” Tokyo qualifying, which the team places the highest priority on, was on the way. After leaving Nagano, the team was hit by the rescue team and lost 2-9 cold. However, this good throw was the decisive factor, and Nagano himself was invited by the opponent JR East as a reinforcement player, and he was to face the big stage of the intercity baseball tournament.
Even Fuchu, which has a long history before the war, has never participated in the main battle against the city, and it is the first feat that the players belonging to it participate as reinforcement players. “It was good that I was in a state of being thrown crunchy less than half a year after receiving the tryout,” nods.
In the Lotte era, which boasted the fastest speed of 154km, “I was competing with only two types of sliders, almost straight. In the first and second years, 70% was straight. In the 3rd and 4th years, the straight quality deteriorated, and when I started to rely on sliders, I got more injured. ” The maximum after joining Fuchu is 147 km. In addition to straights and sliders, he uses curves, two seams and recently learned forks.
