You’re such a loser!” Kiyoshi Nakahata, former Giant, reveals his naked relationship with “Shigeo Nagashima, the spunky Shigeo Nagashima.
Mr. Nagashima was everything in my life. He gave me a lot of guidance during my playing days, and we wore the uniforms of the Japanese national team at the Athens Olympics in 2004. …… The memories of my father are innumerable.
He joined the Giants in 1976 as the third overall pick in the draft and remained a lifelong Giants fan until his retirement. The “man in top form,” who served as president of the Giants’ alumni association and read the eulogy at Mr. Nagashima’s funeral, speaks of his feelings toward his former mentor.
I decided to join the Giants because Mr. Nagashima, whom I had admired since childhood, was the manager. In my fourth year as a professional baseball player, the Giants unexpectedly finished the season in fifth place in the B class. In order to rebirth the team, Nagashima took us to Ito City (Shizuoka Prefecture) for fall training camp in the off-season of that year. This would later become known as the “Ito Camp from Hell.
The camp participants included Toshio Shinozuka, who had joined the team in the same year, Tadashi Matsumoto, who later became a switch hitter, and other fielders, as well as pitchers such as Taku Egawa and Sei Nishimoto. All were young players just starting out, and many of them became the backbone of the Giants in the 1980s.
They appeared before my eyes, bare-chested.
My days at Ito were truly hellish. The manager was still young at the time, and the knocks he would deliver were like living balls, and no matter how hard I dove, I could never reach one more step. No matter how hard I dove, I couldn’t reach the next step. I was not to be outdone. I responded, “You suck at it! I said back to him, “You’re so bad! That individual knock we exchanged was a fight for our lives.
We were covered in mud every day, and the only thing we looked forward to was taking a bath after practice. The bottom of the bathtub was filled with mud and sand that had stuck to everyone’s bodies, but we were able to relax after a hard day’s work without worrying about it. One day, as we were soaking as usual, Mr. Nagashima suddenly appeared in front of us, naked.
He said, “Hello! You guys are working hard.
As well as being the team’s manager, Mr. Nagashima had been my idol since childhood and was like a god to me. Such a superstar, a director who was unapproachable, suddenly spontaneously …….
Of course I was surprised, but I remember that the nakedness of the relationship was a great thing, and my heart was instantly closer to him. Director Nagashima, who was like an ogre on the baseball field, was sweating for our growth. That was the moment I realized that.
Be a fun manager.”
On the last day of the three-week Ito Camp, I was running up a steep hill in Babadaira. I told Shino (Shinozuka), “Let the coach run! I said to Shino (Shinozuka), “Let the coach run! Shino then turned to the director and said, “Don’t look at me with your arms crossed like a big shot! Try running by yourself! He said, “You’re a young man. Mr. Nagashima took the young man’s cheeky challenge with a smile and immediately began to run up the hill. When he finished running, he was already exhausted. Seeing him like that, we players became the Nagashima family in the true sense of the word.
Some time later, in 2012, when I became manager of DeNA, Mr. Nagashima said to me, “Hey, Kiyoji.
Hey, Kiyoshi. Be a cheerful and fun manager.
I think he understood my human nature and conveyed this message with love. I think he understood who I was as a person and conveyed it to me with love. By putting this into practice, I think I was able to repay him a little.
He was our sunshine and the god of baseball. It is still hard to say goodbye, but I feel as if he would say to us, “Don’t look down on things like this; keep looking forward and do your best. Rest in peace.
In the book, ” In Memoriam: Shigeo Nagashima, Number 3,” now on sale (Kodansha), Mr. Nakahata details valuable secret stories, such as the pressure he felt under the heavy pressure that Mr. Nagashima had let on to Mr. Nakahata.
PHOTO： Kyodo News
