＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
＜Addition on 10/1/2021＞Yuki Saito has announced his retirement at the end of this season.
After graduating from Waseda University, he entered the professional baseball world with high hopes of becoming a future ace, but he failed to achieve the results he wanted and was plagued by injuries over the past 11 years.
Since he is only 33 years old, he may have a career as a TV personality like Kazushige Nagashima, or he may have some place to work in baseball-related jobs with Nippon Ham or other baseball teams. I hope he will think carefully about his second life.
Yuki Saito and Masahiro Tanaka were both born in 1988, and both were very successful in high school baseball. Saito was popularly known as “Prince Handkerchief,” while Tanaka seemed to be a slouch. Saito was the smart elite and Tanaka was the muddy weed, and Saito seemed to have the upper hand.
However, what about his success in baseball after joining the professional ranks? Saito was on the brink of not being able to continue as a professional baseball player after suffering a long period of hell due to a fall from the second team. Tanaka, on the other hand, was very successful in the Japanese professional baseball world and also in the Major League Baseball, where he broke into the game at a breakneck pace.
１．Yuki Saito
He was born in Ota City, Gunma Prefecture, and went on to Waseda University from Waseda Jitsugyo. In high school, he won the Koshien championship in the summer of 2006, beating Komadai Tomakomai High School, which included Tanaka, and also won the national championship that same year, beating Komadai Tomakomai High School, which also included Tanaka. He was also very active in the Tokyo Rokugaku University Baseball Tournament, where he was selected as one of the best nine and won the Best Defensive Ratio Award. He was selected to represent Japan in the World University Baseball Championships and the Japan-U.S. Collegiate Baseball Championships for the first time in history for four consecutive years.
I will never forget Nippon Ham Fighters manager Kuriyama’s overjoyed reaction when he drew Saito with the first pick in the draft at the 2010 draft meeting.
However, the world of “professional baseball” was not so easy. Due in part to a right shoulder injury, he dropped out of the second team a few years later and was rarely seen pitching in the first team. He seems to have been overshadowed by the popularity of Shohei Otani. This year, Kosei Yoshida of Kanaashi Agriculture, who played at Koshien, seems to be very popular.
It may be my imagination, but recently Saito seems lifeless and his expression is vacant.
The reason why the Nippon Ham baseball team has not fired Saito, who has been in such poor form, may be because of his general name recognition, the revenue from the team’s merchandise due to Saito’s presence, and the publicity that Saito brings to the team.
２．Masahiro Tanaka
He was born in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, and after graduating from Komadai Tomakomaki High School, he joined the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles instead of going to college. In high school, he lost in the finals to Saito of Waseda Jitsugyo, but was regarded as a “monster” and the “strongest ace of his generation.
Perhaps it was also good that Manager Nomura recognized Tanaka’s ability and loved him. His great success in a weak team is reminiscent of former Japan National Railways pitcher Shoichi Kaneda.
Recently, he has been full of guts and his face has been tightened up, giving him a good look.
Like Yuki Saito, there are many players who were drafted in the first round but left the professional baseball world without having played a significant role in professional baseball. They may have been unlucky in that they were injured, but it is more likely that they did not have the ability (or did not acquire the ability) to be successful in professional baseball.
On the other hand, there is Itaru Kobayashi (1968- ), who joined Lotte after graduating from the University of Tokyo. Although he did not have a chance to pitch in the first team after joining the professional baseball team, he went on to graduate school at Columbia University and obtained an MBA after leaving the team. He is now a sports management scholar (Doctor of Sports Science, Master of Business Administration), a professor at Edogawa University, and a visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University. I think this is a brilliant transition.
It is not for a third party to say, but Yuki Saito is 30 years old, so perhaps it is time for him to think about another “second life.