It was a little after 8:30 in the morning when I arrived at the baseball stadium of Keio University in Hiyoshi (Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture) for the interview I had requested.
The summer Koshien preliminaries are over, the participating schools are all set, and there are still a few days left until the start. “Industry” is a moment of relief.
As for the university baseball world, it’s just over a month until the autumn league game, even though it’s summer vacation on campus. In the midst of strengthening practice, in a week’s time, the open match will be held every day. The “autumn season” has already started.
Even though it was just before 9:00 in the morning, the pitch had already started to warm up on the blazing hot ground that made it seem as if a flaming firefly could stand on its feet.
And the sporty man in the dugout on the first base side, who is talking with manager Tetsuya Horii, is…
Orix Buffaloes, Shogo Makita Scout. Officially, the deputy director of the organization department.
“It’s been 14 years since I became a Scout at 35.”
For some reason, I happened to meet this person at various “sites” this year.
Local baseball stadiums for Koshien preliminaries, high school grounds, and Shinkansen trains. Since this spring, this has happened 5 or 6 times, so we laughed at each other saying, “I see you often…”.
The dugout isn’t under the roof. Sitting next to him while being exposed to the scorching heat, he continued to talk to Director Horii enthusiastically, and the director listened with a serious expression.
“I heard that practice starts at 8:00, so I woke up at 4:00.”
From my home far away, I cut through Tokyo and came to this ground.
Beads of sweat were pouring out all over my face.
“It’s been 14 years since I became a Scout at the age of 35.”
I was surprised to hear that.
Shizuoka’s Shimada Sho, Aichi Gakuin University, all the time shortstop, 5th year of Nippon Express, a prestigious company baseball team… In the 2001 draft when he was the captain, he was nominated 11th by Orix and became a professional baseball player. proceeded to He played seven years primarily as a third baseman. He joined the front as a scout from the 2009 season.
I thought he had been a scout for about 4 or 5 years, because he had a fresh impression and didn’t feel like he had settled down.
“Are scouts going to such lengths?”
I was surprised to meet Makita Scout again in an unexpected place a few days after I left the Keio University grounds.
