FRIDAY, go out of business! Kazuhiro Kiyohara, the “leader of the pack,” howls! Thoughts on the current baseball world and Shohei Otani

The efforts of my two sons give me the strength to live,” he told a FRIDAY reporter.

So says Kazuhiro Kiyohara, 57, to a FRIDAY reporter. In 1923, his second son Katsuji (19), a member of the Keio High School baseball team, participated in the Koshien National Championship, and in ’24, his eldest son Shogo (22) became a professional player of note as the No. 4 hitter at Keio University.

With the support of his family and friends, Kiyohara is steadily regaining a second life. In June 2013, Kiyohara’s student baseball eligibility will be restored, and he will be able to coach high school and college students.

In the second part of the long interview, he talks about his future as an instructor, his thoughts on the current baseball world, and Shohei Otani.

Kazuhiro Kiyohara, the “leader of the pack,” talks about the bond he has with his sons.

I still want to teach high school students.

I would like to start teaching while I am getting in shape. I know that being a professional instructor is a compliance issue, and it is not up to me to decide, so I can’t say for sure.

But I am very grateful that fans and former colleagues say, ‘We want you to come back to professional baseball as a coach.

When I am able to coach amateurs, I would still like to teach high school students. I hope to be able to teach in a way that will improve the skills of the students by identifying the school culture and the culture of its baseball team.

I am from the PL, so I have always put my spirit and guts first in my time (laughs), but I know that the kind of guts I experienced in the PL will not work with today’s high school students. I want to honestly convey what I feel in my own skin. My goal is to raise a hitter who surpasses me with my own hands. Well, I don’t think there will ever be another hitter like me.

My second son, Katsuji, plans to play baseball in college starting next year (’25), so I want to support him in that as well. I haven’t seen him play on the field recently, so I can’t tell you much about him, but I think he has the potential to play an active role.”

If he plays against Otani: ……

As he talks about his two sons, Kiyohara’s eyes show the love he has for them as a father and the pride he takes in being a baseball player. Now that his sons have become his life’s ambition, will Kiyohara’s main battlefield in the future be the amateur baseball world?

I sometimes watch professional baseball,” he said. But I think things have changed since the days when we were playing. There are fewer brawls (laughs). Protests by managers have decreased dramatically since the request system was introduced, and I don’t see managers and players going wild anymore, which makes me a little sad.

I think Okamoto (Kazuma, 28) and Murakami (Munetaka, 24) are outstanding hitters. They will probably go to the Majors, but I think it will be a loss for the Japanese baseball world.

With the presence of Shohei Otani (30), more and more players are crossing the ocean. I think it is a problem that Japanese professional baseball does not come first in any sports news. Well, it’s partly because Otani is just too amazing.