From a fresh start to troubles for athletes and their families. ……2022’s “Top 6 sports stories” that caught our attention in 2010 [#6 – #4 edition].
The end of the year 2022 was marked by the success of Japan’s national soccer team in the World Cup, but until then, the sports world had been dominated by the news of baseball players. New beginnings, family troubles, and frictions among players…… introduced the 6th to 4th place in a wide variety of sports news.
No.6 Yuki Saito reveals 15 years of carrying “Prince Handkerchief” on his back and his second life
＜Yuki Saito, 33, retired after pitching in a game against the Orix on October 17, 2009. The story of “Prince Handkerchief,” which began in the summer of 2006 at Koshien, came to an end with a four-ball game. ＞The story of “Handkerchief Prince” came to a close with a fore-ball.
After completing treatment for a torn right elbow ligament, I went to see my parents when the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters gave me a chance to play one more year. It was around December of 2008. I told them, “If I can’t produce results in the ’21 season, I will quit. My father encouraged me, saying, “I am ready, so do your best to contribute to the Fighters as much as you can. He did not look pathetic, but calm. I think my father was more grateful than I was for the many people who supported my son, who was unable to play such an active role.
The ligaments in my right elbow were connected and the pain was gone, but the damage to my right shoulder was out of control.’ In September of ’21, I decided to retire and went to see my parents again.
I am going to retire. Thank you for all the support you have given me.
As soon as I arrived at the table, I told them that I was going to retire. My father said, “I am glad that you have allowed me to play baseball this far,” and my mother said, “Be thankful to all of you and do your best until the end. They seemed somewhat relieved.
Life is a series of choices – there are too many to mention, but the biggest was the change of form in the spring of my senior year of high school.
I participated in the 2006 Spring National Championships, but lost in the quarterfinals against Yokohama High School in a “cold” game (3-13). I was devastated and thought, “If we continue like this, we may make it to the Koshien in the summer, but we will never win the championship. While I was searching for something to change, a senior member of the Waseda University baseball team came to coach me and gave me a video clip of Mr. Satake’s (Katsutoshi, 38, Waseda University → Toyota Motor Corporation) pitching. He bent his legs and sank into his pitching position, which became the model for my later form.
There were videos of other pitchers, and manager Minoru Izumi (60) advised me to learn the sinker, but it was Satake’s form that stuck with me.
The reason that stuck with me was “Why do you pitch with such a unique form? The answer was, “Because I can throw with my hip joints locked in. I didn’t understand the logic behind it, but when I tried it out in the bullpen, it felt good. With almost no time left before the summer tournament, the change in form was a gamble.
Even after the qualifying rounds for the tournament had begun, he was still unable to get used to his new form. In the semifinals of the Koshien Tournament (vs. Kagoshima Takumi, with a score of 5-0), he was finally able to get it right. The score was 5-0), I finally got a feel for it. Until then, my fastball’s maximum velocity was 145 km/h, but I could only get it if I swung my arm as hard as I could. Now I can throw 145 km/h with ease. I was able to throw more than I was swinging my arm at. This was a great discovery. Coach Izumi noticed it from the bench, and after Koshien was over, he said, “That semifinal was probably the best game of the three years.
<On the other hand, we also asked him about “choices that were failures. For example, in the summer of his junior year in high school, when he won the Koshien Championship by defeating Masahiro Tanaka (33, Rakuten), was it right that he chose to go on to Waseda University instead of submitting his application to become a professional baseball player? ＞I don’t know.
Even now, I don’t regret my choice even 1%. When I won the championship at Koshien, the thing I lacked most was confidence. I was hailed as “Prince Handkerchief,” but at the same time I felt that I was “too good” and that life was not that sweet. Even if I had gone pro right after graduating from high school, I might have been able to win for at least one year. However, if he were to continue doing so, he was acutely aware that it would be difficult with the muscle strength and stamina he had at the time. I needed four years of college to study my body more and strengthen it.
Rather, my biggest regret is the choice I made in the last half of the ’12 season. My right shoulder was still tired and I had a bad feeling that my muscles were sore all the time, but I didn’t stop throwing. That year, in my second year as a pro, I was the starting pitcher and won five games. However, in the second half of the season, I lost my form and was not a competitive pitcher. I practiced because I could not get results. But the results still weren’t there, so I practiced again, and repeated the process.
He lied to the trainer, saying, “My shoulder is a little tight, so please loosen it up. If only I had had the courage to report my breakdown and had been able to take care of my shoulder. …… However, if I could go back in time and see me back then, the Saito of ’12 would not listen to me. He was that stubborn or desperate.
＜Saito’s vision for the future was “to win double-digit games for many years in the professional baseball rotation,” but his professional record was 15 wins and 26 losses. His professional record was 15 wins and 26 losses, with a 4.34 earned-run average.
On December 10, he established “Yuki Saito Co. Saito says, “I want to be able to take some action within a year. We have made some suggestions from this magazine on what he should accomplish in his second life. > –Sports caster for the Olympics and other events.
–Sportscaster, such as the Olympics.
It is an option in terms of studying other sports. Some people don’t want to be on the stage after they retire, but I don’t think so. On the contrary, there are places I can’t go and people I can’t meet without the help of TV and other media. I would like to be allowed to use that in a positive way.
–I am a variety entertainer.
I wonder if I can make a witty comment. ……
–Baseball commentator.
Actually, there was an offer. There was, but I turned it down saying, “I don’t have a track record in professional baseball. No matter what I said, it wouldn’t be persuasive, would it? He followed up by saying, “That’s not true,” but it is! (laugh). (Laughs.) I need to study more and be able to explain based on data. There is a belief that people who think about baseball 24 hours a day, whether they are asleep or awake, will make it big in the pros, but I think this is just a result theory. A little kid who takes it seriously should not continue to pitch and lose his baseball career even though he feels uncomfortable like I do. Perhaps there is a key to success in brain science. I would like to collect such hints.
–If you can talk about it with evidence, you might be able to persuade Yuki Saito in 2012.
Yes, I can! (Laughs)
–How do you feel about coaching Waseda?
There may come a time when I would like to try it, but not at this time.
–Producing a yakiniku restaurant.
Huhaha! I can’t afford it, and I don’t have any offers.
–Professional golfer.
Oooh. It’s true that some professional baseball players are good at golf, but I just play it as a hobby.
–I’m just doing it as a hobby.
I think it would be a wonderful job as a youtuber ……, but not at this stage.
<BR>_ Since joining the pro ranks, Saito has not performed as well as he would have liked, and when articles about him appeared on the Internet, they were met with a firestorm of criticism. Whenever an article about Saito appeared on the Internet, it was met with a firestorm of vitriol and eye-rolling invective. Why doesn’t Saito try to distance himself from baseball? >
For the past four or five years, former manager Hideki Kuriyama (60) has said to me whenever something happened.
I know you are going through a hard time right now, but Yuki has a responsibility to show everyone how he works hard and gets covered in mud.
I was so happy to hear that. All my evil thoughts disappeared.
–You must have had a tough baseball life, being burdened with the cross of “Prince Handkerchief.
Everyone says so, but it was certainly difficult because I was desperate to produce results, but I was happy to be able to play baseball, which I love, for such a long time.
From an article published in FRIDAY Digital on January 8, 2022
