Yuichi Ito: What is Required of a BC League Manager

2023/06/07

In March of this year, many Japanese citizens were overjoyed by Japan's performance in the WBC. Through the tournament, where Japan reclaimed the world title for the first time in three tournaments, I felt that the popularity of baseball remains deeply rooted.

I am currently spending my days thinking about and executing ways to contribute to society through baseball. The BC League, which is in its 17th year since its founding as "Hometown Professional Baseball," is based in eight prefectures across Tohoku, Kanto, and Koshinetsu. I want to consider the environment for children to pursue their dreams and the "future of the region" through sports.

The BC League Charter is established as follows:

• Our mission is to raise the children of the region together with the community.

• By always playing with full effort, we give dreams to the region and its children.

• By always playing fair, we give dreams to the region and its children.

• We serve as role models for the region and its children, both inside and outside the baseball stadium.

What is noteworthy is the phrasing "the region" and "the children of the region."

Tetsuji Murayama, the representative who founded the BC League, often says, "The starting point was the desire to create the stage of dreams and excitement I experienced at the baseball stadium as a boy in the place where I was born and raised, to revive the declining popularity of baseball from the regions, and to convey the wonders of authentic baseball to children by expanding that nationwide."

In other words, it is a league that is loved, encouraged, cheered for, and supported by local people even more than the NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) consisting of 12 teams—a league shaped primarily by the "region." And through that stage, it is necessary to remain an existence that gives "dreams" and "inspiration" to the children of the region by having them watch the players' performances up close.

I should mention that after graduating from university, I worked as a director at NHK for 10 years. What I learned in the world of television is also my starting point. I listened to various stories from interviewees and thought about society based on events occurring in the world. It was also a decade where I learned the necessity and methods of leading an organization, and the art of communicating clearly and attractively to the viewers watching the programs.

While the desire to be someone who can have more influence on and contribute to society was growing, at the end of last year, I applied for a "Manager Tryout" that widely recruited talent, including non-baseball people, with no requirements for baseball experience, age, or gender. I received an unofficial offer and became the manager of the BC League's Ibaraki Astro Planets in January of this year.

Although I have baseball experience through high school, I have never been in a professional league nor do I have experience in baseball coaching. So why was I hired? What is required is not teaching the fine techniques of baseball. It is "organizational management," so to speak—uniting experts who excel in various fields, such as position-specific coaches for pitchers and fielders, and trainers, to support the growth of players and lead them to victory.

This "organizational management" has many overlaps with my time as a television director. I propose the direction of the program I want to create and move toward a single goal (program production) while bringing together experts with diverse values, such as camera, audio, editing, and announcers. They may seem like completely different worlds, but the required roles and ways of moving within the organization are the same. There are no model precedents in the baseball world and many difficulties, but I want to utilize my own experience and make this a challenge that makes an impact on the world of professional baseball.

Now, what can I do as a manager for the aforementioned "region" and "children of the region"? I feel that I need to utilize my experience from my previous job here as well. During my time as a director, I had opportunities to depict "regions" and "children" through various programs. What I felt there was that, as a social mechanism, it has become difficult to say that the priority of regions and children is high.

This is my personal view, but I feel that the acceleration of a society that prioritizes immediate profits in recent years has led to extreme concentration in Tokyo, leaving regional areas behind. Furthermore, I feel that prioritizing the opinions and ideas of generations with large populations has made society difficult to live in for the children who will carry Japan's future.

To break through such a situation, we must energize the region and children with the power of baseball. And we must be a team that can provide dreams. I feel that a manager is required not only to focus on wins and losses or player development but also to create a place that can provide opportunities for the region and children.

If the region becomes energetic, the children will become energetic. If the children become energetic, the region will become energetic.

What I want to be conscious of is creating a team that blends into the region and makes the region and children feel proud, as the only professional baseball team in the prefecture. While the number of children who are said to have no dreams is increasing, I want them to feel something through the team's activities. I believe that is what it means to revitalize the region through baseball and think about the future of the region and its children.