February 10, 2024 11:00am Rays’ Kamizawa greeting Nippon-Ham players on the 8th (Photo by Tomoaki Kurokawa)
Pitcher Naoyuki Uesawa (30), who signed a minor league contract with the Rays, will travel to the United States on the 10th.
On the 8th, I watched from the back of the circle as he responded to an interview at the Nippon Ham 1st Army camp in Nago, Okinawa. She felt a little nostalgic.
I’ve probably talked to Uezawa twice. The first was in December 2010. I think the next one was the summer of 2012. He was in charge of amateur baseball at the time. At the end of the year, after the draft for the “Yu-chan generation” was over, he visited Sendai Matsudo in Chiba for a feature on next year’s draft candidates. At the age of 16, Uesawa was already 187 cm tall. He has only been playing baseball for five years. Although he is still learning the fork and changeup, he spoke slowly and calmly, saying, “I want to play at a professional level as soon as possible.”
I believe that the summer of 2012 was when Uesawa, who had just turned professional, came to cheer on his alma mater at the Chiba tournament. Her hair has grown longer and her tone has become more cheerful, and I think her impression has changed quite a bit over the past year and a half. She remembers how refreshingly she responded.
His right-hand man will be crossing the ocean to take on the major challenge. “When I go over there, I’m a rookie. The competition starts from the first day, so I’m both nervous and looking forward to it.” Just like then, he was looking for excitement in the next stage. Even though he was the same height as when I first met him, he seemed really big.
Until last season, I almost never went to the Nippon Ham production site, but this year I will be visiting the Nippon-Ham site from time to time. Yamazaki was in charge of reporting at Nippon University and Meiji University, and Fushimi was in charge at Tokai University. I met Go Kato for the first time at camp, but when he was with the Yankees, he wrote short articles about his appearances every day, so I thought he was the real deal.
I am spending a week in Nago, feeling moved by the reunion after a long time and the first encounter.[Yugun Yoshimi Kamata]
Rays’ Naoyuki Uezawa greeting Nippon-Ham players on the 8th (provided by the team) Rays’ Naoyuki Uezawa greeting Nippon-Ham players on the 8th (photographed by Tomoaki Kurokawa) Rays’ Naoyuki Uezawa shaking hands with Manager Shinjo on the 7th (Photo by Tomoaki Kurokawa) This column has back issues.
2024-02-10 09:43:00
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