Ikuro Katsuragi: “I started playing baseball because I wanted to play catch with my dad.”
Ikuro Katsuragi (CEO of Katsuragi Co., Ltd., coach of Hotoku Gakuen), who played as a left-handed slugger for Orix and Hanshin, played at Kurashiki Commercial and Ritsumeikan University before joining Orix as the 2nd pick in the 1999 draft using the reverse pick system. . He didn’t have a strong desire to become a professional baseball player since he was a child. “I started playing baseball because I wanted to play catch with my dad.” During his junior high school days, when he was a member of his school’s softball baseball team, he said, “I hated studying, so I worked hard at baseball so that I could enter high school through sports recommendation.”
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Mr. Katsuragi started playing baseball in 1987 when he was a fourth-year elementary school student living in Saga Prefecture. “I play softball baseball at school, but I think of it as a way to have a little contact with my dad.My older brother used to play catch with my dad.My dad was a scary person, so it was an opportunity for us to talk. Or rather…I was a left-handed pitcher, so I was mostly a pitcher, so I asked my dad to play catcher for me.” It seems that he was genuinely happy to have a “conversation” with his father, Tetsuo, through baseball.
“My father was a branch manager at an insurance company and was often transferred.I was born in Oita and grew up in Saga, and when I was in fifth grade I was transferred again, this time to Kurashiki.” The “baseball environment” has also changed. “In Kurashiki, we played softball in town on weekdays and played boys’ league on Saturdays and Sundays.” Furthermore, his days became all about baseball, but “If I were to say that I’ve changed, I’m different, so it’s not like I continued playing baseball because I wanted to become a professional baseball player.”
In middle school, he joined the softball baseball club. He became a softball again. He said, “I wasn’t particular about playing hardball or softball, and I just thought that playing baseball would be fine.” However, he says he put a lot of effort into it during his third year of junior high school. “I had to go to high school.I was an adolescent, so I hated studying and had no intention of taking entrance exams.I was wondering how I could go to high school without taking the entrance exams.I was recommended for sports. That’s why I worked hard at baseball.”
Active as a pitcher in junior high school…Entered Kurashiki Trading School where he was approached.
He started playing baseball just to play catch with his father, but he loved the game itself. “Baseball is different from studying, so I had fun playing it.Some of my seniors went on to high school through sports recommendations, so I thought there was another way to go, so I worked hard to be a good player. I thought that if I could show my strength, they would take it.” As expected, Mr. Katsuragi attracted attention as a left-handed pitcher, and was approached by Kurashiki Trading Co., Ltd.
“We weren’t the kind of team that would go all the way to the Okayama Prefectural Tournament, but at the Kurashiki City tournament we made it to the top and probably stood out.The team that approached us was the manager of Kurashiki Commercial. I think it was the fastest. It was a public school, it was in Kurashiki, and it was a commercial business, so I thought, oh, that’s okay.” One more thing. “When I was in my third year of junior high school (1992), Kurashiki Commercial Team played in Koshien in the summer. I thought they were a strong team. I think that’s why I chose them.”
From this point on, Koshien became a major goal for Katsuragi. “I didn’t really want to go pro, I just played baseball because I wanted to play in Koshien.” However, that dream never came true. Although he became a main player in the fall of his first year, he said with a wry smile, “I never made it to the top four. I never even made it that far.”
(Shinji Yamaguchi)
2023-09-21 22:08:18
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