4th grade special feature,《My baseball life》Now, we will ask each of the fourth-year students, who are entering their final season, to look back on their baseball careers thus far.
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《My Baseball Life》 Vol.21 Ryosuke Nahata Student Coach (4th year/Namiki Secondary Education)
The stage is Meiji Jingu Baseball Stadium. The ground attracts the cheers and attention of a large number of spectators.
In the bottom of the 9th inning, 3 runs behind, 2 outs, bases loaded, my batting order came.
“Number 3, shortstop, Nahata-kun. Uniform number 1.”
Swing out the first pitch of the opponent’s ace. A feeling of excitement that I have never felt before.
The ball went straight and flew into the left field stands. Come-from-behind walk-off win. I’m the hero of this match. As he got around first base, he raised his fist high with his right hand.
—it hurts. I woke up to a dull crashing sound and severe pain in my right hand. The raised right hand, as if to symbolize “my baseball life” that would never grow in a brighter direction, was stopped by the wall of the narrow apartment before it could reach its full height.
It’s a strange way to start, but this is a true story that I had experienced many times in the middle of the night until recently.
I kept having dreams that were so incomprehensible and so far from reality.
Still, for me in the past, this kind of scene was never a dream world, but a “goal” that I thought I would eventually reach if I worked hard.
I would like to look back on my baseball career, which has spanned more than 10 years since elementary school.
I’m in the middle of my final season, and I’m feeling emotional about the end of my baseball career, so I think it’s going to be a long time. I would appreciate it if you could take a look at it little by little when you have time.
Elementary school student. What started his baseball career and how he met his mentor.
When I was in third grade, my daily routine was to play catch with my grandfather at the local park.
My grandfather played catch with me every day without making a bad face.
At first, I was scared of the strong balls that my grandfather threw, and as a child I would complain and scruple, but perhaps as a result of my grandfather’s special training, the balls I threw gradually became stronger, and my grandfather said, “Ryosuke.” I started saying things like, “That ball is fast and scary.”
This was the starting point of my baseball career.
Endo, the Tone Phoenix manager, saw me playing catch with my grandfather, acting like a father and son, and invited me to join a youth sports team that mainly plays in local parks. . Although I was reluctant to join the team for a while and was indecisive, Director Endo invited me over and over again. In the end, I succumbed to the pressure, but of my own free will, I joined the Tone Phoenix.
At that time, I was so excited about baseball that when I got home from school every day, I practiced blindly, hitting the wall in front of my house and practicing swinging.
As a result, I was placed in the starting lineup as the shortstop in the rookie game for 4th graders, and from then on, I was often assigned to the A team, which was mainly comprised of 6th graders. After I became a regular on the A team, I feel like I began to have the illusion that baseball was part of my identity.
My seniors and coaches really loved me as a fourth-year student who was one of the sixth-year students to play in the game. The coaching staff is made up of dads from the countryside, so I’m a little harsh on their words, but I received a lot of compliments like “Ryosuke is good at defense” and “Ryosuke is nice!”. I’m the type of person who gets excited as soon as I receive praise, so I practiced even harder and was able to make it to the A team.
Looking back, I think this was the time when I was enjoying baseball the most and giving it my all.
I also left Tone Phoenix when I entered the 6th grade to take the entrance exam for junior high school.
I was able to study well, passed the entrance exam for Namiki Junior High School, and without hesitation, I decided to join the Namiki Junior High Soft Baseball Club without even once observing other clubs.
Middle school students. Facing reality and the danger of ending his baseball career.
I don’t really remember practicing baseball in middle school.
The practice time itself must have been long, but the only things that remain vivid are the memories of being gathered together by the teacher and being scolded for a long time, and the memories of cleaning as punishment every time something happened.
When I was studying for the junior high school entrance exam, I was so excited to join the Namiki Junior High School Baseball Club, thinking that I would be a regular player.The baseball team at Namiki Junior High School was far from what I had imagined.
The three years of junior high school I spent in the Namiki Junior High School Baseball Club were the most meaningless three years I’ve ever played baseball, and I came to hate the sport of baseball itself.
My seniors and classmates were also better than I expected, and I realized that I wasn’t particularly good at baseball, so I couldn’t find my identity in baseball.
Under such circumstances, it was natural for me to announce that I wanted to quit baseball, and I made the decision to quit baseball after the final performance.
When I was the last batter in the city tournament and lost, I remember that I burst into tears, thinking that baseball, which I loved so much in elementary school, was coming to an end.
high school student. Returning to the baseball club and new goals.
Namiki Junior High School’s high school does not have a hardball baseball club, only a softball club, so students who have retired from junior high school baseball almost take an escalator-like approach to practice with their high school softball team, and as a matter of course they join the softball team. It will be a flow that belongs to. My classmates and I were also called by our high school advisor, Mr. Nakajima.
At that moment, Nakajima-sensei said something to the six of us at the same time, saying something along the lines of, “I guess we’ll all continue, yeah, yeah,” and then ran out onto the field.
My plan to escape from the baseball club came to an end in just a few minutes, and I ended up continuing to play softball in high school.
High school softball baseball in Ibaraki Prefecture had a small number of teams, but in my generation and those of my seniors, it was a competitive area filled with powerful schools. Both the teachers and the seniors were practicing enthusiastically in order to survive in the competitive area of Ibaraki. However, my seniors, who had been on the middle school baseball club with me until the previous year, were playing baseball freely in high school.
“Maybe in this environment, I can enjoy baseball again.” With this in mind, I joined the high school practice.
At the summer tournament in our third year, Namiki Junior High School smoothly advanced to the semi-finals, thanks in part to our talented juniors. Their opponent in the semi-finals was another strong private school, and Namiki Junior High School, with only 13 players on the bench, looked clearly out of place. It was a close game, and even though I had an accident where I injured my foot, we managed to win 4-3. Personally, I recorded a strong batting award, and the third and final out batted ball flew to me as I was defending shortstop, and at that moment, I felt like I was really the main character.
In the end, Namiki Junior High School lost in the final match, and it was decided that he would retire on the same day. Despite the heavy rain, many of my classmates came to support me.
That made me very happy, and with the support of so many people, my yearning for playing baseball grew stronger.
I was always someone who was good at studying on campus, so I narrowed my choices down to the University of Tokyo and the University of Tokyo baseball team, and I worked hard on my studies without compromising, imagining myself receiving loud cheers at the shrine.
As a result of my efforts, I was lucky enough to be admitted to the University of Tokyo while still active, and once again I decided to join the baseball team at the athletic meet without looking into any other clubs.
university student. “My baseball life.”
Our generation joined the general practice in August due to the coronavirus pandemic, and what we saw there was the high level of playing technique of our seniors, and the size of the players around us, including not only our seniors but also our classmates. I was overwhelmed.
The world I had imagined for the University of Tokyo baseball team, which always lost in the Tokyo Six Universities baseball tournament, was not at all the kind of world I had imagined.
When I joined the club, I was physically weak at 169 cm and 53 kg, and although I didn’t measure my height by even 1 cm, I added 2 kg to my weight and entered it as 55 kg. It was skinny that I pulled out.
My technical and physical level was low, and I felt a sense of crisis, so I worked on my own practice and training every day.
In the beginning, my starting point was too low, so every day was a day of growth. I could see that I was now able to do it.
The student coaches, Mr. Shu (R4 graduate) and Mr. Yokoi (R4 graduate), who were watching the first-year students at the time, told me that they expected me to play defense, so I got into a good mood and took a lot of knocks. We practiced basics until dusk, trying our best to use our defense as a weapon.
I trained 6 times a week before and after dinner. It was my first time doing serious weight training, so I struggled at first because I didn’t know how to do it, but my peers around me kindly taught me how to do it, and little by little I was able to increase the amount of weight I could handle, and I felt like I was gaining muscle. .
Along with my muscle training, I also ate an amount of food that was unimaginable to me until my high school days, and by the end of the fall season of my first year, I weighed over 60 kg. I am really grateful to Akutsu (R5 graduate) who helped me manage my meals every day.
While I was making these efforts, something happened that shocked me.
When I was working out late at night, the seniors from Team A were training next to me. At that time, I felt strongly that I couldn’t continue like this.
“If the players on the A team who are so good practice until late at night, but I, who am bad at it, don’t practice even more, I will never be able to move up.”
I feel that being stimulated by the high-level environment around me during my first year and being able to motivate myself was an extremely important thing for my college baseball career.
Perhaps as a result of my hard work, by the end of my first season, I was receiving more and more compliments from my seniors and classmates for my defensive growth and weight gain.
I’m the type of person who gets excited when I receive praise, so I decided to practice harder.
“If I keep practicing hard, I might someday find a chance to become a regular at Jingu.”
It was a time when I started to feel like the dream scene in the opening part could become a real goal.
I think this was probably my breakthrough up to this point.
The good run didn’t last long, and the end came suddenly.
One day during winter practice, I got sick on the field.
After that day, I started feeling unwell on the field for several days.
This may have been due to accumulated fatigue from daily practice.
However, at that time, I gradually began to be dominated by the fear of going to the field again and getting sick.
It’s changed from a while ago, and I don’t want to go to the field anymore.
Having said that, I didn’t have the guts to skip club activities, so I went to the field every day, got sick every day, and didn’t want to go again, and so on.
I think it was a mental thing from the beginning. I think the reasons were that I was too focused on getting better and that I dragged myself too long after I felt unwell on the field.
Even now, I regret it and wish I had changed my thinking better and got rid of things like anxiety and fear.
At the time, I wasn’t able to switch my mental state properly, so I wasn’t able to put myself into practice as much as I used to, and I was also attacked by a sense of frustration that my ability was being outclassed by those around me, which only exacerbated my anxiety. I fell into a vicious cycle.
By the time my sophomore season began, I had lost sight of my purpose when I joined the club and the vision of my dream that appeared in the opening chapter.
Getting through practice without getting sick was becoming my only and absolute goal.
I really didn’t know what my goals were or what I needed to do.
I felt like I couldn’t imagine anything about the team’s victory or my own performance.
I felt like my baseball life, which used to be about helping the team win as a regular No. 3 shortstop at Jingu, had completely lost its color.
However, he had a strong feeling that he didn’t want people to think that he wasn’t needed by the team, so he bought out a batting pitcher who was extremely confident at the time, worked harder at cleaning than anyone else, which he trained in junior high school, and actively worked with his juniors. I thought I was doing my best to communicate with others.
I feel like the reason why I ran to be a member of the planning team for Autumn Fresh, which is held after Fresh in the fall of my second year, was because I wanted to have some kind of identity within the team, and I didn’t want to be seen as unnecessary. To do.
Having said that, I simply thought it looked interesting, and I ended up having a lot of fun with it, so I’m glad I did it.
Meanwhile, the end of my second year season is drawing near.
Just as the season was about to end, there was talk of hiring a student coach from our team.
At first, I definitely wanted to continue as a player.
It was a time when my injury and physical condition had finally recovered little by little, and I was back in a state where I could play to my fullest as a player.
Still, when I think about the team as a whole, I think it would be a negative thing for me, who has the lowest ability as a player and has no chance of playing in the league, to continue as a player and deprive other talented players of their careers. I decided to become a student coach and support these promising players.
Of course, being a student coach is a position that comes with a lot of responsibility, so I knew that it was not okay for me to be half-heartedly prepared, but it would be better for the whole team to be prepared and grow as a student coach from scratch. I believed that it would work positively for me, so I decided to do my best.
My experience in the Autumn Fresh planning team encouraged me to support the team behind the scenes.
During the grade meeting, I was very nervous to announce in front of everyone that I was considering becoming a student coach. Even though I thought I was prepared for it in my heart, it was still painful for me to say that I was quitting as a player.
Contrary to my thoughts, these discussions are not always straightforward, and some of my classmates were vehemently opposed to me becoming a student coach, and we had three or four meetings on different days. It was done.
“Ah, the team doesn’t need me not only as a player but also as a staff member…”
It was the situation I feared the most.
“I don’t need it on the team.”
I felt like everything I had done to ensure that I would never feel this way was denied.
Of course, there were many classmates who supported my decision to become a student coach and expressed their opinions, but once I had announced my intention to become a student coach, there was no turning back, and as a result, my career as an athlete came to an end. , began his career as a student coach.
When I was a third year student, I practiced all day six days a week, and it was the toughest time for me both physically and time-wise.
As I mentioned earlier, I had some troubles when I became a student coach, and there was a time when I felt somewhat alienated and lost track of the significance of my existence as a student coach.
At that time, I couldn’t really find any special characteristics in myself as a student coach, and my philosophy was to never refuse any support I was asked for, and I kept thinking that my clumsy knocks would break the skin on my hands. I hit until I hit the ball, and I also played a lot of batting and pitching.
Perhaps it was to distract from the frustration and inferiority complex of not being able to find my own strengths as a student coach. He was already working his butt off, going out to bat at 7 a.m. and helping with the tee batting at night.
When I received a word of “thank you” from my seniors and classmates, I felt happy, thinking that I might have been able to help the team just a little bit.
In particular, I remember one time when Mr. Moriya (R5 graduate) said to me, “You’ve always been great. The only thing you lack is confidence.”
I still think of these words from time to time, and they really save me when I feel like I’m losing confidence. At the time, of course, I felt very saved.
Also, when I was having a really hard time, Ken (4th year/ I am truly grateful to pitcher/Sendai Hajime), Matsuoka (4th year/pitcher/Toho Komaba), Hideshima (4th year/student coach/Tozuki), and manager Ishii (4th year/supervisor/Nada).
Thank you so much for keeping someone like me on this team.
Autumn of third year. Our seniors have retired and we are finally in our senior year.
As a result of the discussion, it was decided that I would not be on the bench for the A team’s league games, but instead would serve as the B team’s chief student coach.
As a student coach for the B team, I have tried to actively communicate with the underclassmen and give them as much technical advice as possible.
Throughout the year, I have always been conscious of creating a good atmosphere among the entire team, including the underclassmen.
It would be a lie if I said that I didn’t have a longing to be on the bench during a league game, but I threw away my ego of wanting to stand in front of the shrine to loud cheers the day I became a student coach, so I’m in the position I’m in now. I’m satisfied. I would like to think that it was the best solution for the team.
Almost a year has already passed since that day.
I wonder if I was able to get close to each person’s baseball life, provide them with advice, and provide them with advice.
Have you been neglecting someone’s baseball career through careless words and actions or incorrect team management?
Were you able to contribute to this team, even if it was in a small way?
I have written at length about my baseball life up to this point, but when I read my classmates’ “My Baseball Life,” I was able to understand the worries, pains, and struggles that each of them went through while continuing to play baseball. I feel that each one of these is an important part of “life” for many people, including the person himself and the people who support him.
We need to be a team where those things are respected and everyone on the team can proudly say to those around them, “My team” is such a good team, and that is the true “team that should win.” I think.
It is easy to create a “group of good players.”
All you have to do is give preferential treatment to talented players and discard those who are not.
Of course it is important to win, but this is something that everyone working in this club understands, and what is really important is that everyone wants the team to win and is involved as if it were their own. I think it depends on whether you are happy or not. I think it’s about whether we have a team where everyone can run in the same direction, regardless of position, grade, or position.
I have been mainly involved in the management of the team for a year, and I have tried to respect the opinions and positions of each person in determining the direction of the team.
Was the team actually managed like that? I don’t know about that myself. It’s impossible to have perfect management for everyone, so I think it would be nice if people from all walks of life could look at it and think, “Well, this is a passing grade for a famous field.”
Please allow me to leave a message to my classmates who are practicing with me this afternoon.
Normally, I have such strong feelings that I would like to write all the memories and words of gratitude with all my classmates, but due to the length, I would like to write about the 4th graders of Team B, who I spent a particularly long time with.
I think the fourth year students were in a particularly difficult position this year. I don’t know if I was able to give enough opportunities to the fourth-year B students, and I feel a lot of pain and regret.
With practice opportunities currently limited, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has been providing analysis and practice support for the University of Tokyo baseball team’s victory in the league this fall, as well as next year and the year after next. I can’t lift my head. thanks so much.
Only one card left, let’s fight as a team.
Let’s all definitely get the winning points.
And then, at the end, let’s retire with everyone on the team laughing until they cry.
Throughout my 14 years of baseball career so far, I have had the support of many people.
My family gave me the opportunity to start playing baseball, and they have supported me in many ways throughout my baseball career, such as picking me up and dropping me off, and bringing me lunch boxes.
Manager Endo of Tone Phoenix, all the coaches, and classmates who made me love baseball.
Mr. Nakajima, my high school advisor, who drew me back to the baseball club and gave me hope to join the University of Tokyo baseball team.
My seniors, juniors, and classmates from my high school baseball team have shared both the good times and the hard times, and have supported me even after I became a university student.
Coach Ide and assistant coach Okubo helped me with my college baseball team. Many seniors, classmates, and juniors.
The people who always warmly support the University of Tokyo baseball team, including the cheering club.
Once I started playing baseball, there was no end to it and I was able to continue playing baseball this far thanks to the support of so many people.
I won’t express my gratitude individually here, but I truly appreciate them from the bottom of my heart.
To all of you who have woven each page of my baseball life together, please run with me for one more week. Let’s definitely grab the winning points.
The end of my baseball career.
The four years of my life spent in baseball in college were my entire life in baseball, and the 14 years I spent in baseball were the entirety of my youth.
I can’t imagine losing something that has been at the center of my life for so long. However, I feel somewhat lonely.
I will retire from baseball without realizing the dream mentioned at the beginning.
This ending may have come as a surprise to me, as I had lived my life believing that my dreams would definitely come true until I entered university.
If the me of four years ago saw me now, he might be angry.
Still, I’m proud from the bottom of my heart that I was able to join the Tokyo University baseball team and stay active until the end, even though my dream of becoming a regular player didn’t come true.
I was blessed with an environment where I was able to devote myself to baseball and was surrounded by people who were always striving to win.
This high-quality environment taught me, as a conceited person and a dreamer, that the world is not easy on me.
I was able to meet irreplaceable friends who share my joys and sorrows and who work towards the same goal of winning.
I don’t think I would have been able to obtain these things if I had not joined the baseball club and spent my four years just mindlessly living as a normal University of Tokyo student. I jumped into the baseball club without hesitation and it was a great decision.
Although I am retiring in a way that I could never have imagined when I first joined the club, I am satisfied and proud of my current position in the baseball club.
Lately, the person mentioned at the beginning, “Nabata-kun, number 3 shortstop and number 1 on the back”, no longer appears in my dreams.
By the way, just before the release of “My Baseball Life”, due to various circumstances, I was on the bench for the league game only for the Hosei game. As I am normally a member of Team B’s Gakuco, there were some parts where I was not used to the A team’s pitcher and the atmosphere of the league game, but I was able to serve as the third coach at Jingu where there was a lot of applause, and Team 2023’s first win was on the bench. I was able to experience it.
Although I didn’t hear my name or my alma mater called at the shrine, it was great to be able to witness the moment of victory from the closest distance. In the four years I’ve been playing college baseball, this was without a doubt the happiest moment.
I ended up writing a long series of useless sentences.
Thank you very much to everyone who has been with us so far.
I know that there are a lot of unsightly points, such as topics jumping from one place to another and some redundant expressions due to a lack of writing skills, but in the end this is what it comes down to.
I was really happy that I played baseball and joined the Tokyo University baseball team.
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The next meeting will be tomorrow, October 14th (Sat), with student coach Ryuji Hideshima.
Please take a look.
2023-10-13 12:26:09
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