French farm players were almost all amateurs. I wondered whether they could play catch well.

*Lecture in Chiba City (February 7, 2012)
*校正協力：ダニエル・ペンソ 

日本語

 

Voice what you want to do

I’m a baseball player, but I wonder if I could say I’m a master of an art. I’m not a Major League player nor a player of NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball). But I’m proud I’ve learned how to make a living in baseball by myself.

I’ll be a playing manager of the first team of a French baseball team and the assistant coach of the French national team this year. I asked my team that I wanted to go along with the national team what my conditions might be before going to France.

In July 2011, my team suggested I join the game as a coach when the American university all-star team came to France. It was beyond my expectation. You don’t think you can be that easily even if you say you want to be a coach many times. Moreover I’m Japanese.

But my work at the farm team of Savigny Lions was recognized and I was hired as a first base coach at the all-star game. It was a really good experience for me! So now my goal is to put together a national team in the European Cup and the elimination of the World Baseball Classics. Also I want my team to win the championship in the league and the cup game. Then many TV stations would come to interview me. I’m kind of kidding, but actually I want to tell people, “This is also a baseball career” “Professional baseball is not only a way to live through baseball”.

 

Like a migrant bird

I’ve played baseball in the US, Germany, the US, Japan, Australia and France. “Japan Samurai Bears” is the first team that I joined and it had no home, so we had no home, either. Everyday we stayed at hotels and traveled by bus during the baseball season. I always brought my own rice cooker when there were expeditions.

In Germany, I played baseball at a stadium while the sun was setting even though there were only 3 spectators watching. If I were you, you would be wistful and fall out of love with baseball. But I thought about how many Japanese had played baseball under such circumstances and came to enjoy it. . In Australia, I played as a closer with the silver medalists at the Athens Olympic Games.

I absorbed each playing style in each country. For example in America, baseball is total entertainment. So if you hit a long ball or throw a fastball, spectators get excited. Not like our baseball which often uses sacrifice bunt in order to advance runners. Also ours seems to put weight on fielding. I’m not sure which is better, because Japanese baseball won the championship twice in WBC, the World Baseball Classic.

 

Basically we sign a year contract with teams abroad, so we can’t play on the same team for 2 years. So we send our resumes to teams of our choices in order to look for the next destination. You may think we cannot concentrate on playing, but we have to do that to continue our careers. That’s what I’ve done so far and I’m going to play in the same team for two years in a row for the first time.

Ethnic makeup varies on my team in France. There are Whites, Blacks, Arabs, Caribbeans… so you cannot hear only French but also English and Spanish. It’s really international, that’s why I can belong. In fact, I didn’t hesitate to be a member of the team thanks to this kind of diverse environment.

Originally the reason why I became a member of Savigny Lions is that I was introduced to a black French player. My friend who was playing in France in 2004 is a teammate of a French player and he worked as a bridge between me & the French team. I was involved in his transfer to a Japanese team recently – I will tell you later.

 

Leading an unskilled team

I became a playing manager for the first time in France. I signed up with Savigny Lions last year as a playing manager of its farm. And I played for the main team after the season of the farm ended. The main team is strong enough to often get into the playoffs. About 6 players became the French national team members. Its ace pitches a 148km/h fastball. The team manager was an American and I played on important occasions.

I wanted to be devoted to play, but they couldn’t increase the number of foreign players anymore. In France, foreign players of both the main team and the farm must be 2. I pondered what I should do, but the team asked me to be a playing manager of its farm for the time being. I said OK without deep thought because the salary they offered was not too bad. Then the day when I went to join their workout for the first time – They were the French farm players – I thought “Terrible!”. They were almost all amateurs. I wondered whether they could play catch well. I am a man who wanted to play in the US again, so I asked myself if I stayed on the course. The gap between the main team and the farm one was severe.

The farm has only 20 games in a year and plays between April and June. Games have 7 innings. My team finished with 1 win and 19 losses in 2010. I wondered how they won the game once and they told me that it was a victory by default. Then I became the first foreign manager of the team. I thought I would have to manage such a terrible team. But on the other hand, I thought I would be able to improve the team in my own way.

I came up with an idea. “How about firing up a team by showing them my play?”. As a result, my team finished with 10 wins and 10 losses. Also I was a successful player who won many league titles such as in batting average, hits, doubles and triples. I got the highest number of hits by a pitcher because I was marked.

I experienced a starting pitcher role for the first time in my baseball career. I won 8 times in the last season even though I was 31 years old. I thought it’s never too late to start something.

I couldn’t improve a team alone. I think every player trusted me and followed me because I showed them lots of tangible results.

 

Sharing the joy of victory with other players

I didn’t care about the players’ results at all. Their batting averages were .100 and something, so I told them not to think about the result. I covered for their unskillfulness instead. The strength of the farm teams are almost the same and there were not so many skilled infielders, so I told them, “Bounce!” and “Run full pelt toward the first base!” So I made them dash many times. Also I made them run when they flied practice. It was a kind of a penalty. They took my advice because I think I showed them good results. Moreover I had face-to-face meetings with them many times and let them think of the reasons why they played baseball.

 

In the result, my team placed 4th in the league in 2011 even though it had always been at the bottom (6th place) until the year before. Also they fought hard several times and won. Players get nervous during close contests because only one mistake spells defeat for the team. Players of my team changed their attitude toward baseball. I was really happy with that.

As for fielding, I felt like they made wonderful plays even if they caught only outfield fly balls. I pumped my fist into the air when they played well as if we had won the game. I believe it’s good for you to pay an extravagant compliment in order to win the game. Then we could experience the joy of victory for the first time.

 

Designated as the main team manager

After the farm season ended, I played for the main team around last July. Teams are really strong and pitchers threw fastballs. Totally different from the farm, but I played as a shortstop until the playoffs. Then Savigny Lions asked me to be a playing manager of its main team in the season of 2012. It was July 2011, still in the last season. So I will play on the same team for the second year in a row for the first time.

But… the players of the farm are not happy with that. They said, “You got hired by the main team because we performed well.”

I am emotionally attached to the farm very much. Main team players are really skillful so they can win the game easily. But I am a man who pull the farm team together. In that sense, I prefer to play with the farm team guys.

 

To be continued to Part2 ☞ Click!

 

 

Daisuke’s link

Savigny Lions (French); http://www.savignybaseball.com/