Hirokazu Hashiguchi: Corporate Baseball and the Juku Baseball Club

2018/12/21

40 years, first championship, gratitude. This summer, the Osaka Gas Baseball Club, where I have served as manager since January, achieved its long-held ambition at the 89th Intercity Baseball Tournament held at the Tokyo Dome. While not as mainstream as high school baseball, the corporate baseball world has two major tournaments: the Intercity Baseball Tournament in the summer and the Social Intercity Baseball Championship in the autumn, held at the Tokyo Dome and Kyocera Dome, respectively. Having never won either tournament but finishing as runner-up five times, our company's baseball club had earned the nickname "Silver Collector."

Wearing a uniform for the first time in over 20 years, I committed to a style of baseball that respects the autonomy and initiative of the players. Despite the passage of about 30 years, I practiced "Maeda-ism," including the "Enjoy Baseball" philosophy passed down at Keio that I learned from the late manager Yukichi Maeda during my university days. The baseball that was ingrained in my body was revived without any struggle. Corporate baseball players are gathered through scouting from various universities and high schools. Like the Juku, the baseball clubs of each school have long histories and cultures. These are weightier than the 40-year history of our Osaka Gas Baseball Club. Getting those players to unite as one is a daunting task. The players' philosophies, even regarding a single strategy, were varied, and the team's policies were diverse.

In that environment, I wanted to instill the "Maeda-ism" I believe in, but it was not easily understood. Such days passed. Shigeta, a current Osaka Gas player who served as captain of the baseball club during his Juku days, acted as my interpreter. It seems that after my poorly explained meetings, the players' questions were concentrated on him. The manager he learned from during his Juku days was Hideaki Okubo (the current Juku Baseball Club manager), who served as captain at the Juku immediately after me. It goes without saying that, like me, he learned from the late manager Maeda. As the policy gradually began to lead to results and we achieved this first championship, the players began to think of it as their own baseball.

I am now working to ensure that this is passed down as a tradition of the Osaka Gas Baseball Club even after I leave. It is difficult to talk about this in regular interviews, but since I was given the opportunity to write this piece, I have ventured to mention it. With this victory, I have once again realized that the traditions of the Juku Baseball Club are wonderful. Even so, it is interesting that three consecutive generations of Juku Baseball Club captains who learned baseball under the late manager Yukichi Maeda—starting with me, followed by Okubo (former ENEOS manager), and then Yorihiko Inden (former Toshiba manager)—have all become championship-winning managers at the Intercity Baseball Tournament.