Why a Japanese opened “the only batting center” in Thailand?

There is a batting center in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

It may seem hard to believe at first, but it is true as a lie. The name is “Bangkok Batting Center. It takes about 5 minutes from Phrom Phong station to the north by motorcycle cab. It was August 9, 2002, when the owner, Ningo Hahaoka (47), opened the batting center there. It was the first and only batting center in Thailand.

I calculated that if Japanese people in Bangkok, plus people from other countries, would come to the center, it would be a viable business,” he said. However, the opening was four months later than planned. This is a common occurrence for people doing business in Thailand, but the delivery date was definitely delayed by at least that much. I was very anxious for those four months. Not only because I would not receive the income I had planned, but also because I was worried about what I would do if another batting center opened up.　I was very surprised.

I had heard that there were other people thinking of opening batting centers besides me. Especially after I got the land, I was already afraid of seeing construction sites in Bangkok. What if that was a batting center?　I was afraid of that.

Despite Hanaoka’s fears, no other stores were built. He says that immediately after the store opened, customer traffic was brisk.

Sales for the first three months were very good,” Hanaoka said. After that, we were making just enough to support our family of three. But I was told by many people that sales would definitely drop from the first month. So I was prepared for that to some extent, but what I didn’t expect was that the number of non-Japanese customers has been increasing little by little. At first, we thought the ratio of Japanese to non-Japanese would be about 9:1, but now it is about 6:4. We also have an increasing number of customers from countries where baseball is popular, such as the U.S. and Korea, as well as from Thailand.

In Thailand, Japanese cartoons such as “Doraemon” are very popular. I want to play the sports in those cartoons! They come to play with us like, “Oh, I’m so happy to see you. However, they still don’t understand the rules, so some of them stand on the home base. So I tell them the minimum before they play. Otherwise, they might get hurt.

Our maximum speed is 130 km/h, but some Thai players can hit back that speed at first sight. There are people with high physical ability, so I think that if these people had been playing baseball since they were young, they could have become great players. I hope that this batting center will be the starting point for some great players from Thailand to go on to the NPB or MLB, and I hope that baseball will spread in this country. I am very happy to be here. It is like when rock music came to Japan from the U.S. and spread quickly. That is one of my current goals.

The outbreak of the new coronavirus, however, has had a major impact on the Bangkok Batting Center.

The lockdown prevented us from operating as we would have liked, and we had a difficult two years. We received only about 3,000 baht in total in compensation for absence from work. Actually, just before Corona became popular, several other batting centers opened in Bangkok, but they closed soon after.

When ours first went into lockdown, we didn’t know if we would be able to reopen, and the number of Japanese people had decreased, so the thought of folding the business crossed our minds, but we managed to hold on. Now, besides our shop, we only have a leisure corner in a mass retailer. We are going to start offering baseball lessons in earnest, and I would like to promote baseball in Thailand once again.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In the near future, a world-class player may be born from the Bangkok Batting Center.

From the April 15, 2022 issue of FRIDAY