1Y8M 早実優勝の余韻… My love to baseball

緑色のグローブ。小学校６年生の時の父からの誕生日プレゼント。当時の私は高校野球が大好きで、中学に入ると両親に「内緒」でソフト部に入部した。6歳の時、しょう紅熱とリウマチ熱を併発して1ヵ月の入院。その影響で腎臓を患い、体育の授業では、過激な運動とされる水泳とマラソンは禁止されていたから、まさか運動部に入るなんて親には言えなかったのだ。だから、当時にしては高額の入部金、400円もお小遣いから工面した。結果的には、高校でもソフト部、大学でも学校の代表として東京都リーグに出場する楽しい経験をした。

常にミーハーな私は、野球と言うよりも、かっこいい野球選手に憧れていたのが本音。だから高校球児が年下になると、新聞の切り抜きや野球雑誌集め、校歌の録音なんて、オタクに近い趣味からも卒業。しばらくあまり見ていなかった。

でも今年は違う。女子高出身なので、母校が甲子園に出ることは永遠にないから、出身大学の系列である早実の快進撃からは目が離せず、優勝は嬉しかった。その上、早実の野球部長は、私がマネージャーをしていた理工学部硬式野球部の先輩、佐々木慎一さんだということがわかったのだ。

彼は理工の学生にしては珍しく、「将来高校の教師になって、野球部の監督として甲子園に出たい」と言って教職を取っていた。その後、都立の高校で教壇に立ち、野球部を指導しているという所までで音信不通だった。だから、いつのまにか早実に転職し、競争が激しいと思われる野球部長のポストを得て、そして、全国優勝を果たしたのだと知った瞬間、夢を叶えたんだ、それも「日本一」というかたちでと、私まで体が震えた。私が海外でふらふらしている間に、日々目標に向かって頑張ってきたのだなあと、あまりはめを外すこともなく、クールで真面目だった慎一さんの顔が浮かぶ。それに比べて私は人生で何か成し遂げられるのかしら…と恥ずかしさと焦り。

さて、アラタが生まれてからの私の夢は、将来アラタとキャッチボールをすることだったけれども、もう一人男の子が生まれるっていうことは、打撃練習でもノックでもできる。楽しみだ。彼らにも慎一さんのように、目標に向かってひたむきに取り組める人間になってほしいけれど、どうやって育てればいいのかしらねぇ。

The first clear memory of birthday presents from my father is a green baseball glove. I was 11 or 12. I was mad about watching high school baseball tournament. And when I started junior high school, I joined school softball team without letting my parents know. I had scarlet fever and rheumatic fever at the same time when I was 6 and hospitalized for a month. As a result my kidneys were damaged and I wasn't allowed to do any 'hard' sports, such as swimming and marathon, even though I had no symptoms and perfectly felt fine. But still, I simply couldn't tell my parents for a little while that I was playing softball. I ended up playing softball for nearly 10 years, for high school and even for university, though.

I hadn't watched much baseball for a long time since I got out of Japan. But not this year. One of the high schools which has a connection to Waseda university, the university I went, won the summer tournament for the first time. I went to a girls' high school and there has been or will be no chance to participate the tournament as it's for boys. That's the reason I've got a special feeling for Waseda's high schools in respect of baseball. I was so delighted that they won the tournament. In addition, the manager of the team (not the main coach) is someone I know. He is Mr Shinichi Sasaki, who was one of the members of the Waseda Science and Engineering department baseball team, where I also belonged to to help the players.

Mr Sasaki would tell me he wanted to be a high school teacher to coach the baseball team. Unlike other Science and Engineering students, he was taking extra subjects to be qualified as a teacher. I knew he got a job at a high school in Tokyo and became a baseball coach as well. Yet I've lost in touch with him since. So when I realised that he was the manager of the winning team, I was really moved. In these years, he must have worked very hard to be a good coach and found a job at the Waseda's high school, which has one of the top baseball teams in Japan, and got a post as a baseball team manager, which must be terribly competitive. His dreams came true. It's not ordinary achievements. He is now the top manager in Japan. I can still remember Mr Sasaki's serious and cool looking, and I can easily imagine how determined he must have been to make his dreams come true. I have to realise that there are people who have worked hard with self belief and achieve something special in their lives. Looking at myself, I feel a bit embarrassed, how little I have done in the same span of time...

Our family will expand soon and I will have 2 boys. With 2 boys, we will be able to not only play catch but also practice hitting balls etc. It'll be really nice! And I really hope that my 2 sons will grow up to be a sincere and confident men who can be determined to achieve their dreams. But, how can I bring them up to have such determination??