Opening Day 2025: Ten times more fun if you read this! Behind the Benches of Professional Baseball’s Secret Benches that the Reporters Can’t Write About: Pacific League Edition

Protect Uesawa!

It has been 37 years since 1988, the last year of Nankai’s history, since they lost three games in a row in the opening day of the season. It was the first time in 37 years since 1988, the last year of Nankai, that the team lost three consecutive games on its home field in the opening day of the season. SoftBank, which won the Pacific League by a landslide last year, is struggling, as it temporarily finds itself alone in last place. The evening paper’s desk reporter said with a wry smile, “To be honest, I thought it would be impossible to get off to a good start.

I thought it might be the result of having most of the mainstays of the team go out on their own during the spring camp. The players who had been working out on their own joined the team in the middle of the camp, but they didn’t play in the actual games until the open game in March. We had to improve their condition from that point on, so they didn’t play much in the open game. I think I left a little too much leeway.

Speaking of “too much leeway,” let’s take a look at last year’s Japan Series. It is still fresh in our minds that manager Hiroki Kokubo (53) used young players with little experience in pitching and hitting, and that SoftBank lost the series in a landslide when Katsuki Azuma (29) of DeNA protested that he should stop blowing his whistle at the moment of pitching, to which he laughed hysterically.

From this year, recording of interviews with manager Kokubo has been prohibited. If you record everything, you can only talk about one thing at a time. The team explained, “If we record everything, we can’t talk off the record. There is a point to be made, but there are some who say, “Isn’t he traumatized by the ‘tongue twister’ at the Japan Series? Some people are saying, “Maybe he was traumatized by the ‘tongue twister’ at the Japan Series.

As for Naoyuki Uesawa (31), who came to Softbank from Nippon Ham via the majors, “There will be no individual interviews for a while. The SoftBank reporter for a sports paper said, “The whole team is trying to protect him.

Tsuyoshi Shinjo, 53, the manager of Nichi-Ham, was very critical of him, saying that he made a mistake in bringing him up the wrong way, and he has become a heel. However, he says he consulted with Kensuke Kondo (31), a colleague from his days at Nippon Ham, and Hideki Kuriyama, 63, chief baseball officer of Nippon Ham, who gave him the backing he needed to make the move. He tried to apologize in person when the two teams played an open game, and was seen waiting behind the bench. It seems he was stopped by the public relations department,” said Fujimoto.

In an interview, Uesawa analyzed himself about his failure to try out for the majors, saying, “As I tried various things to adapt (to the American baseball world), I lost sight of my strengths. He said that he found that his form was slipping and his pitches were sticking out or floating high. He would like to return the favor by showing his old team that he has matured.

I wonder if he practices this much. ……

Yusuke Torigoe, 53, who took over as head coach of the Seibu team this season, said he was astonished when he met the young players at fall practice.

He said, “Due to the team’s policy of emphasizing compliance, the coach could not use words that could be construed as power harassment against the players. Incidentally, in the toilets of the players’ dormitory where the younger players live, there is a poster from the players’ association at eye level above the urinals that says, ‘If you feel you are being harassed in any way, please talk to us.

As a result, the number of players who have been unable to grow has increased due to the freedom in a bad way. A staff member said, “For example, there are players who ignore our instructions to take videos of their swings with their smartphones and send them to us. They are all around the age of 18 or so. I don’t understand the point of it,” he said, laughing past his anger.

In order to rebuild the team, in addition to Head Coach Torigoe, two other coaches, Toshihisa Hitoshi (53), chief fielder and hitting coach, and Keiji Ohiki (40), infield defense and base running coach, were appointed this season, but they all felt that the team could not do such a “normal” thing. By “natural things,” he means not only the baseball aspects, such as running at full speed and covering the bases, but also the common sense of a member of society, such as greeting people and looking them in the eye and listening to what they have to say.

He said, “That’s not going to make them aware of what they are doing. It doesn’t improve you as a player either.

Head Torigoe ensures that if there is something he notices, he has the players pay attention to it through the coach in charge. The team atmosphere has tightened up considerably. A team official continues.

The team’s severity is also reflected in the fact that Ryusei Sato (28), who overslept and was late for the team meeting, was dropped from the team to the third team. It showed that the team would not tolerate even a hopeful who played a major role in last season’s success.

The team has lost four straight games since the start of the season, but there is hope. The pitching staff’s defensive rating, once the lowest in the league, was the highest among the 12 teams in the opening games. Behind this accomplishment was the tearful efforts of Chief Pitching Coach Kiyoshi Toyoda, 54, who took over in 2008.

Mr. Toyoda steadily corrected the loose atmosphere of the team, saying, “Let’s start with catching the ball carefully,” and “Let’s have everyone be ready and ready at the start of practice so that we can practice right away. In response to the fact that many players were leaving empty plastic bottles in the bullpen and on the bench, a “Pitchers’ Plastic Bottle Committee” was formed. We created an attitude of “taking care of ourselves,” which led to a higher level of performance in games. ……

Was it the famous general Katsuya Nomura who said, “A person with first-rate qualities but a second-rate mindset will never grow? This is why baseball is so interesting.

For the first part, click here ” [The 2025 season opener] Behind the Benches of Professional Baseball’s Secret Benches the Reporters Cannot Write About” (Central League).

From the April 25-May 2, 2025 issue of FRIDAY.