Keio Senior High School Baseball Team—The Eve of the Koshien Appearance— | Hiroyuki Ishida, Dean of the Graduate School of Health Management

2023.10.17

It was no mere coincidence. This past April, in this column , I wrote about the Keio Senior High School baseball team, which had competed in the Spring National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament (Koshien). I concluded by saying, "I want to praise the members of the baseball team who, by sticking to their style of 'Enjoy Baseball,' made it to Koshien and fought on equal terms against powerhouse schools. I also want to express my respect and gratitude to Manager Mori and everyone who has supported Keio Senior High School baseball." Seeing the players fight fearlessly against Sendai Ikuei High School, a favorite to win the championship, and then, despite losing the game, stand tall and proud with no sense of tragedy, I had a feeling that this team was capable of something special. I have a personal friendship with Manager Mori, so I had the opportunity to speak with him at length after the tournament. He spoke passionately about how they had identified various issues, including their strategy in the tie-break, and would apply the lessons from spring to the summer tournament. The result of applying those lessons was "winning the Koshien championship"—there is no better example of someone making good on their word. Truly, he is the right manager for this team. In fact, Manager Mori's comments have been praised in various media, but I was particularly moved by a phrase he used in a post-game victory interview: "We are fighting as representatives of the highly competitive Kanagawa Prefecture. We can't afford to lose so easily." I am sure this sentiment resonated with the players from the rival schools they had fought so hard against in the district tournament.

Now, the Keio Senior High School baseball team's Koshien victory and the related topics have been thoroughly covered in a special feature in the current (October 2023) issue of Mita-hyoron (official monthly journal published by Keio University Press) , so there is little for me to add. However, as a Keio University alumni who has been part of the Juku system since elementary school (Yochisha) and has quietly supported Keio baseball, I would like to reminisce about a time that is not often discussed—an era when Koshien was still a distant dream for the Keio Senior High School baseball team. I'll call it "The Eve of the Koshien Appearance." I was a student at Keio University for 18 years, from 1969 to 1987, and I can state with certainty that back then, no one, not even Nostradamus, could have predicted that "in the summer of 2023, the Keio Senior High School baseball team will win the Koshien championship." That is how distant Koshien was, both for Keio Senior High School baseball and for Keio University alumni. In fact, in the 1985 autumn Tokyo Big6 Baseball League, the university baseball team won the league championship for the first time in 26 seasons and achieved an undefeated championship for the first time in 57 years. However, there was not a single graduate of the Keio Senior High School baseball team on the roster for the Waseda-Keio rivalry games at that time. Far from making it to Koshien, it was a time when it was difficult even for Keio Senior High School graduates to make the university team's bench. But we cheered for our friends. My classmate Osamu Obayashi (now President of Mitsui Fudosan Retail Management), known for his strong arm since his days on the Keio Futsubu School baseball team, switched to pitching at the senior high school. He was a talented player who overcame his natural lack of control through hard work, even pitching a no-hitter in a district qualifier. But even with Obayashi, Koshien remained a distant goal.

The tide began to turn significantly in 1991, when Mr. Makoto Ueda, an English teacher at the senior high school, became the manager. He was the one who instilled the philosophy of "Enjoy Baseball" in the Keio Senior High School baseball team. (His book, " Enjoy Baseball: The Challenge of the Keio Senior High School Baseball Team " (NHK Publishing), was reissued following this year's victory. Incidentally, the person behind the book's publication was my classmate Ari Komai, an alumnus of the Keio University Cheerleading Team). I will leave the details of "Enjoy Baseball" to Mita-hyoron (official monthly journal published by Keio University Press), but in addition to this, I imagine that the understanding and support of Mr. Hajime Yamazaki, who was the principal of the senior high school at the time, were also significant. Mr. Yamazaki was a pioneer of sports medical sciences at the Juku and also my mentor. He has a rare background, having been a member of the Athletic Association rowing club (as it was then called) during his time at the Keio University School of Medicine and competing in the Waseda-Keio rivalry eight-oar race. As principal and later as Vice-President, he has left a major mark on the development of Keio sports. The results of these efforts became tangible in 1995, during the Kanagawa district qualifiers for the summer Koshien tournament. With the two pitchers Daisuke Yoshihara (now President of Palace Hotel) and Tomoaki Sato (formerly of the Seibu Lions), the Keio Senior High School baseball team went on a winning streak and finally reached the final, with a trip to Koshien on the line. Their opponent was the powerhouse Nichidai Fujisawa. Getting ahead of myself, I asked Mr. Yamazaki, "If they make it to Koshien, will the players have to get buzz cuts?" He answered immediately, "Of course not. They'll stay as they are." Considering the environment surrounding high school baseball at the time, this was a revolutionary decision. My next question was, "When they win, will they sing the Juku-ka?" "Of course, it's the Juku-ka," he replied, again without hesitation. Keio Senior High School does have its own official "Keio Senior High School school song," but most students and graduates cannot sing it. He explained that since it was unthinkable for anything other than the Juku-ka to be played at Koshien, they intended to register the Juku-ka as the school song. He also told me that, due to either Japan High School Baseball Federation or broadcasting regulations (I forget which), the on-screen text would display "XX High School School Song," and he advised me to tolerate the slight incongruity. Unfortunately, they lost in the final and their Koshien dream was not realized, but it was the closest the Keio Senior High School baseball team had come to Koshien in (my) recorded history. This was also a time before the current system of admission by recommendation existed. Although they did not make it to Koshien, the events of the summer of 1995 symbolized a dawning era for Keio Senior High School baseball.

The team continued to grow, and in the spring of 2005, with the talented left-handed pitcher Nobuaki Nakabayashi, the Keio Senior High School baseball team set foot on the soil of Koshien for the first time in 45 years. Thinking it would be my first and last trip to Koshien (which turned out not to be the case), I went to the stadium. After a dramatic walk-off victory against Kansai High School, we sang the Juku-ka loudly in the pouring rain, and it was the first time I had ever cried while singing it. Then, 28 years after the summer of 1995, "Enjoy Baseball" came into full bloom, and we finally got to hear the Juku-ka as the last school song of the tournament. I heard some people mockingly ask, "How can so many grown adults gather at Koshien in the middle of a weekday after the Obon holidays?" But that's just the kind of school it is, so it can't be helped. Unfortunately, I had to watch on a screen, but I felt on top of the world. It was like a dream I was watching with my eyes open, and I wished it would never end.