With the advent of the 2021 season, high school baseball has undergone a dramatic evolution in terms of tactics, practices, and training methods. In the midst of all this, the “ High School Baseball in the Showa Era “ There are great generals who continue to stick to the At first glance, their ideas may seem anachronistic, but they have firm convictions that are still relevant today.

Toshihiko Kanzen, Manager, Kyoto Kyoei Gakuen Baseball Club

PL The “salaryman manager” who defeated

It was 40 years ago in 1982, the summer of 1983.

He led Kasugaoka, a public school, from one of the most fiercely contested districts in Japan to the Koshien Tournament by defeating PL Gakuen, the absolute champion, in the quarterfinals of the Osaka Tournament, which was aiming for consecutive spring and summer championships with Kenichiro Enoda (later drafted first overall by Hankyu Corporation) and others.

At the age of 26 at the time, he was usually an office worker. He also worked for a well-known major airline company, which attracted a lot of attention from the media. The young coach has now moved his battlefield to Kyoto, where he continues to take on challenges as the oldest coach in the prefecture.

Toshihiko Kamimae, manager of the Kyoto Kyoei Gakuen baseball team. This spring, he entered his seventh year of living alone, shuttling between the baseball field adjacent to his school and his two-bedroom apartment.

The ground where he works is on a small hill, and the right field is narrow, about 50 meters. Normal batting practice is not possible. At his previous school, the ground was shared with other clubs, and practice time was around one and a half hours. He used to say, ” Public high schools have to change the lack of people, things, and money into something that exists.

Although the school still rents a nearby ballpark twice a week, it started without even a pitching machine when he first arrived. But that is precisely why the know-how he had cultivated was put to full use.

Shohei Otani’s favorite machine

Shohei Otani’s favorite pitching machine.

The scenery of the grounds changed each time I visited. This time, the home base was moved forward, and three “open birdcages” for hitting practice were permanently set up in the space created in front of the back net. When the foldable cages are in full operation, hitting practice can be held at nine different locations on the field. Shohei Otani used to use this machine,” said Kamizen as he looked at the three pitching machines lined up in front of the back net. He said he bought them secondhand from a supplier in Chiba Prefecture that delivers equipment to Nippon Ham, and that they are the same machines Otani used to hit on.

It must lift the players’ spirits to hear that Otani used to hit on this machine,” he said.

The bullpen was also equipped with a speed gun that could measure the velocity of pitches at three different locations at the same time, and the pitcher himself could check the numbers at a glance. The space from behind the bench to first base has always been lined with training equipment in the foul ground, but on this day, the covered walkway in the first base side foul ground was being replaced.

Manager Shinzen stands in front of the bullpen, which has a handmade feel.

‘Just having a roof over my head is enough to keep 70 on a rainy day. All of them can practice behind the back net. Nowadays, we have to treat students equally and give them satisfaction. I thought it was my one duty to create an environment where everyone could practice at any time, without any division, and this is what I did, and this is what happened. For the players, it is a baseball park where they can play baseball to the fullest.

There are things money can’t buy in a playing field.”

And yet – and yet…. Although he does ask for the school’s cooperation in some areas, he still has to take a lot of his own money with him. He occasionally hears voices of concern from those around him, but he laughs it off lightly.

He says, “If I stock up on food at the ‘business supermarket,’ a single person can save up to 3,000 yen a month. The amount of change can be obtained with as little as ¥10,000. Instead of people of the same generation playing golf and buying nice cars and apartments, they are buying used machines, training equipment, and speed guns ……. Above all, there are things on the ground that money can’t buy. You have to think that way.”

During his working years at Kwansei Gakuin University, which he went on to from Kasugaoka, there was a time when he wanted to become a teacher, but he went into the world of businessmen. At Osaka Airport, his first job, he was assigned to check passenger boarding and baggage loading, etc. In the three-shift system, the early shift ended at 2:00 p.m. He was assigned to the first shift at 3:00 p.m., and the second shift at 4:00 p.m. Kamizen, who was strong in the mornings, was often asked by other employees to switch with the late shift, which left him with more time in the afternoons. Then one day, he went to see his alma mater practice for exercise, which decided the course of his life.

At the time, the baseball team at Kasugaoka was close to having no advisor or coach, and the then captain of the team eagerly asked him to sign up for a game. At first, he refused, saying that there was no way he could do it while working, but eventually he was pushed aside by the enthusiasm of the players. After consulting with his immediate supervisor, permission was granted on the three conditions that he “not interfere with his work,” “not get injured,” and “not get paid,” and in August 1980, the salaryman manager was born. It took two years for the team to compete in the Koshien National Championships.

He became enthusiastic about teaching students.

Unexpected change of manager

However, only eight months after the frenzied summer, Jinzen quietly left Kasugaoka. Perhaps the response was so strong that the school’s faculty members began to feel that they should be in charge of club activities, and the then-principal quickly announced that he would be replaced as director.

After that, he worked at branch offices in Osaka and Kyoto, and from the age of 29, he worked at Narita Airport. As a manager, he stood at the check-in counter and served foreign customers. He got married and bought a house in Narita. While his work and personal life were flowing smoothly, he decided not to watch or talk about baseball. He knew that if he touched the game, he would wake up a “sleeping child. However, no matter how much he tried to keep his mind off of it, he eventually began to have uncontrollable thoughts, and at some point, he began to dream frequently of cheering and knocking in the Koshien Stadium.

I was determined to do my job at the company, and I struggled to find something more than the thrill of being on the field with the kids,” he said. In the end, I realized that I couldn’t find anything better anywhere else.

After that, he gave up all patience and went to the stands at the ballpark whenever he could find time to watch baseball games, both pro and amateur.

Once again wearing two pairs of sandals

In the spring of his 40th year, he received a transfer order and moved to Osaka by himself. In July, he was asked by a local TV station to commentate on a game between PL Gakuen and Osaka Toin in the Osaka tournament. In the spring of 1997, he returned to the field as manager of his alma mater, Kasugaoka, with the guidance of those around him. Once again, he was able to wear two hats at the same time.

He was transferred to Okayama, but he arrived in Osaka by bullet train on Friday night and spent Saturdays and Sundays coaching. He survived the hardship by traveling by bullet train for a year and a half, arriving in Osaka on Friday night, teaching on Saturday and Sunday, and returning to Okayama on Sunday night. Of course, he had to pay all his own expenses. He promised himself that he would never let go of baseball, no matter what.

On the other hand, his goal was not to stay on the field, but to win the game, to recreate that summer. He continued to speak passionately to his students.

If you make it to Koshien, it will only be the second time in as many years, and winning is nothing short of a miracle. That’s a school that has been there once.”

In the 2009 summer tournament in Osaka, the team led the previous year’s champion, Toin Osaka, 10-8 by the end of the 8th inning. The team put on a show at key moments, such as getting as many as six more outs. However, at the end of 2014, 18 years after his return to the pitching staff, the day would come when he would leave Kasugaoka again.

60 Starting Over at the Age of 18

Of course, this time it was not what Jingzen had hoped for, but the changeover was still a reminder of the difficulty of external coaching in the changing times. He had already left the company through early retirement and had just made up his mind to spend the rest of his life as a high school baseball coach. As one might expect, his feelings sank, but he quickly looked forward and went to the baseball team at Kwansei Gakuin University, his alma mater, and to Kurayoshi Sogo Sangyo High School in Tottori Prefecture, where he had been in contact with the coach, at a pace of three times a week. While helping with practice as a volunteer, he continued to be involved in baseball, believing that he would return to the field as a coach.

That desire came true in the spring of 2016. He became the manager of Kyoto Kyoei Gakuen in Fukuchiyama, northern Kyoto. The man who had been betting on defeating private schools made a fresh start at the age of 60 as a full-time coach at a private school. Six full years have passed since then. His coaching policy has not changed since the beginning.

The most important thing he asks of the children is that they “have the will to do it.

The most important thing he asks of his children is to “be willing to do whatever it takes to win,” he says. If you think you can win, you will win; if you think you will lose, you will lose. If you think you can win, you will win; if you think you will lose, you will lose. Don’t just say, ‘I want to go to Koshien, and I hope I can make it,’ but say, ‘I will definitely go to Koshien. If you don’t make a declaration, you can’t even get on a train that you can get on. And in order to make the students believe that much, the leaders must have no doubt that they will win. Without this, there is no way to start.

During his time at Kasugaoka, he used his paid time off during the students’ exam periods to visit high schools across Japan that interested him. Komadai Tomakomaki, Saga Kita, Seimine, Konan, and Yaeyama Shoko. …… In addition to the camps of NPB teams, I also went to the U.S. and visited 15 teams at once in major campgrounds in Arizona and Florida in a rented car. And while there, he used a video camera to capture practices that caught his attention. Later, he checked it out with the kids and incorporated what seemed usable into the menu as he went along.

Some people say, “Isn’t this just a copycat, but can you go this far?　Can you get this much material?　My theory is that if you do two things, you are a copycat, but if you do three things, you are an original.

Motivated by “Cheerleader Dan

For the past few years, in February, I have been using my cell phone camera to take videos of the professional baseball teams’ camps, which are broadcast all day long on CS. I send the videos to the players on LINE at night.

The group line of the battery to the “Mere Old Man,” footage of pitching and the catcher’s one-bang catch, and to the fielders, footage of knocking and tee-batting. We also replay the game at night with 5 I was busy changing channels in front of the TV with my phone at the ready, just like walking around the campsite. Well, I don’t know how much of my thoughts and feelings are conveyed to the students.

To unite and motivate the team, all players watch the DVD of “Cheerleader Dan,” which was made into a movie in 2017 (and later dramatized on TV), every year. It is an inspiring story based on the true story of the Fukui Prefectural Fukui Commercial High School Cheerleading Club’s victory at the Cheerleading Championships in the United States, the home of cheerleading.

Yuki Amami, who plays the role of the instructor, comes to the school and says, “I’m going to be the best in the world!” But the students were not happy because they couldn’t even win in Fukui, so what’s the point of being number one in the world? From there, the students complained a lot. How far can we see ourselves in the success story of becoming the world’s No. 1 for two consecutive years? We watched it together again this year on a snowy day.

It is truly a change of hands, change of product. …… That summer’s feat was also the first step for a group of kids who had been enjoying playing baseball with five bats and a dozen torn up balls to believe that they could do it.

Reasons for the close loss to Kyoto International

The two pillars of the actual game instruction are ” baseball that is hard to beat” and “doing exactly what you can do. Among them, he has been focusing on eliminating the “six errors,” the six mistakes.

I often tell the players to clear their entry qualifications,” he said, “especially the six errors of fielding, errors, baserunning mistakes, bunting mistakes, signing mistakes, and allowing stolen bases. As long as you are doing these three things, you will never receive an invitation from Koshien,” he said. Whether you can aim for Koshien or not depends on whether or not you can do the things you take for granted.

In the Kyoto tournament last fall, the team lost 2-4 to Kyoto Kokusai, a Senbatsu participant (who withdrew from the tournament due to a student’s corona infection), but three of the four runs scored were lost due to errors.

The team lost 2-4 to Kyoto Kokusai, a team that competed in the Senbatsu tournament (but withdrew from the tournament due to a student’s corona infection). If we continue to play without making any mistakes, our opponents will be able to get away with things on their own, and we will be able to know when it’s time to make a move late in the game. Once you reach that level, what do you do when you make a mistake? Do you hit the ball back or do you take the next one? We can also enter the stage of how to prevent a point from being scored. But the last two In the past three years, three of the Six Errors were blunders, walks, and bunt misses. We narrowed down our focus to these three We have been trying to have a game where none of the above are This has not been accomplished even once. It’s hard for me to get over this wall.

He lives full-time as a hired baseball coach. Although he no longer has to submit paid leave forms to the company while keeping an eye on the schedule of tournaments, he continues to feel a sense of pressure and occasional feelings of emptiness.

A reliable partner has joined the team.

Long gone are the days when we could be straight with our children and be their big brother. As the children’s temperaments have changed, and the significance of Koshien and the way they think about the competition have changed, there are more and more times when my feelings do not reach them and I feel a sense of emptiness.

The players are not following my thoughts. I often felt like blurting out, “What am I doing alone? But I always feel that if I don’t like it, why don’t I just quit? In a world where most people work to make a living, I am able to do what I love. If I wasn’t directing, I would never watch camp broadcasts at night. I watch it because I have someone to talk to, someone I want to do well for. I am grateful to them for that.

How happy I am to have a place to tell my story and a person to tell it to. I’ve come to really think that way recently. So, as long as I can play baseball, which I love, I will do what I can to keep my dreams and hopes alive, or else I will be punished.

Their best result in six years was a top four finish in the Kyoto Prefecture Tournament in the summer of 2019, and it is the current group of rising third-year students who have seen that battle and have moved on with their spirit. With a sense of the beginning of a big swell, a reliable partner also joined the team for Kamizen in April. Tadahiro Kitani, a long-time coach at Nishiwaki Kogyo, a public school in Hyogo, has taken over as the team’s baseball manager. Kiya also led his team to the Koshien National Championships in the summer of 2013, again in a highly competitive field. Kamizen smiles, “ I never thought two coaches with onewin and oneloss fromleading public schools in Hyogo and Osaka would be competing for the Koshien championship at a private school in Kyoto.

For Kyoto Kyoei Gakuen, it will be their first time, and for Kanzen, their second time in 40 years, to go to the dream stage. The story has begun to move quietly and surely toward this summer.

Kyoto Kyoei Gakuen Baseball Club Got Its Second Chance After 40 years!

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