The Sand-Covered Master Manager: Katsuya Nomura's 1,140 Days

2022/06/10

"Where did you go to university again?"

"Keio."

"You don't look like it at all."

I remember repeating this exchange at least five times during my four years as a beat reporter for Manager Katsuya Nomura.

Manager Nomura was also a "bestselling author." If you go to a bookstore, many "Nomura books" line the sports book section. It is said that there are more than 200 of them. His themes were not limited to baseball; he also wrote many books from a management perspective.

However, there were three years in Manager Nomura's life that were hardly depicted in those books. A year after resigning as the Hanshin Tigers manager following three consecutive last-place finishes and being hit by his wife's tax evasion scandal, he spent his days leading amateur baseball as the GM and manager of the corporate team, Shidax.

Compared to his time with the Nankai Hawks, where he became the first post-war Triple Crown winner while serving as player-manager; his time with the Yakult Swallows, whom he led to three Japan Series titles; and his time with the Rakuten Eagles, where he graced sports news as a national "grumbling star," there is only a brief mention of his Shidax era on Wikipedia. At this rate, those days will be treated as if they never happened. As the only person who followed those three years at Shidax as a beat reporter, I wrote this book out of a self-imposed sense of duty, thinking, "I can't die without leaving a record of this."

Shidax did not have its own practice field. It was a ground in Chofu City that looked like a vacant lot, with no shade or rain cover, usually used by Little League boys. Manager Nomura was immersed in coaching, his face blackened by clouds of dust. I once accidentally asked, "Are you really practicing in such a terrible place?" I thought he would get angry, but the master manager said with a good expression:

"Baseball is played in a field; that's why it's called baseball."

Manager Nomura later looked back on those three years, which at first glance seemed unfortunate, saying, "That was the most enjoyable time." To unravel the meaning of those words, I interviewed about 20 people and wrote this book.

My only regret is that Manager Nomura, who was an avid reader, could not read this book. The fact that I was able to immerse myself in reporting and writing with such persistence is thanks to the grit I cultivated during my youth at Hiyoshi and Mita.

It turned out to be a passionate and intense book. I'm sure the manager would praise it like this:

"As expected of Keio."

The Sand-Covered Master Manager: Katsuya Nomura's 1,140 Days

Hiroshi Kato

Shinchosha

256 pages, 1,650 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and job titles are as of the time of publication.