Author Tsukasa Nakano on “Baseball for the Cultural Crowd: Dissecting ‘Baseball Clubs Are Trash’” The trigger was Matsuko Deluxe On December 1, two third-year students from Koryo High School’s baseball club were referred to the Hiroshima Prefectural Police on suspicion of assault after upperclassmen physically abused underclassmen. The violence issue at Koryo, first revealed via a social media post in July, is still under investigation by a third-party committee set up by the school and is not just a matter of past events. Amid this, the book Baseball for the Cultural Crowd: Dissecting “Baseball Clubs Are Trash”, released in March, has been drawing attention. The author, writer Tsukasa Nakano, reflects on it. “The release coincidentally fell on March 18, the opening day of the Spring Senbatsu Koshien tournament. Some baseball insiders wondered if the release date was deliberately chosen to coincide with the tournament, and friends in baseball circles asked, ‘Why such a title?’ At first, reactions focused more on the timing and the title than on the book’s content. The atmosphere changed after the Koryo issue came to light. Since then, more people have picked up the book, curious about how modern baseball clubs are structured,” Nakano said. We spoke with Nakano, who takes aim at the old-school structure of baseball clubs. Before diving into the main topic, we asked about the fiery, straight-to-the-point title, “Baseball Clubs Are Trash”, wondering if it came from personal grudge. Nakano laughed and denied it. “I’ve been part of baseball clubs in high school and college, and I even coach a middle school baseball team now, so I really like baseball (laughs). The title traces back eight years. In 2017, on a TV program, Matsuko Deluxe said, ‘(People from baseball clubs, common in the media industry) are nine times out of ten trash,’ which went viral on social media. Matsuko’s words might have put into words the discomfort many people already felt. It’s provocative, but I personally think there is some truth to the idea that ‘baseball clubs are trash.’” What is the basis for calling baseball clubs trash? Nakano prefaces that the causes are complex and cannot be summed up in one word, but he points out two major structural problems: the player system and the closeness to private school management. “The player system is the idea of concentrating resources on a small number of chosen players from among many club members to strengthen the team. Baseball, in particular, tends toward this system. Baseball covers a huge field with only nine players. There’s physically no room for everyone, from regulars to beginners, to occupy the field. Practice is one thing, but in a game, the number of players is limited. At top schools, for example, a hundred substitute players may line up in the stands. They support the dozen or so players who actually play in the game and sweat alongside them as teammates. While this phenomenon is often romanticized, there’s little debate about whether a sport where 100 people are relegated to cheering while a dozen play can truly be called a team sport.” If the team wins, all is forgiven. Victory validates the effort, and any doubts vanish. Nakano continues.