This year's baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held in Tokyo on the 15th, and Nippon-Ham Fighters Chief Baseball Officer Hideki Kuriyama (64) was inducted as the newest inductee at the Expert Awards. A reporter who followed Kuriyama closely during his time as manager of Nippon-Ham Fighters delves into the thinking of the legendary manager who nurtured Ohtani and led Japan to a world championship.
It was a time that almost made me want to call it "Hideki's Room." At home games, it was customary for reporters to interview Manager Kuriyama for several minutes (though, looking back, more than half of the time was just casual conversation) while he watched practice from the first-base bench or third-base Excite Seats at the Sapporo Dome, the team's home ground at the time. I loved the time I spent being exposed to new ways of thinking and knowledge, such as the changing seasons and the animals in Kuriyama Town, Hokkaido, where he lived, and the topics of great people and history that only a manager who was an avid reader could share.
During my three years as manager of Nippon-Ham, there are some words I will never forget. "The manager becomes lonely, doesn't he?" This was in August 2020. Even if you give your all to make the team win, it doesn't all get rewarded. I could imagine that, given his position, it would be difficult to talk about his worries and conflicts with those around him. But this time it was different. "I guess I just wanted to let out my feelings. I just felt like I needed to get rid of the things that were bothering me... I don't talk about these things with anyone." It felt like I was peering into his heart for the first time.
In interviews after lose, he often said, "It's my fault." He never blamed a specific play or player, but took full responsibility. Why was that? I think the words I heard him say one time reveal his true intentions.
"I don't watch anyone. I watch The Fighters. I watch them like, 'What are you doing, manager?'"
He doesn't blame his players because he's kind to them. The reason they lost was because the coach failed to take the best possible measures to win, even though he was using his players and leading the team, so he thinks, "It's my fault." The "uneasy feeling" he mentioned earlier was probably a kind of feeling of remorse or regret, wondering whether the decisions he made at each moment during the game were the right ones.
He served as manager of Nippon-Ham and recaptured the world championship at the World Baseball Classic (WBC). He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in recognition of his love of baseball and his continued fight, even putting his life on the line. I would like to congratulate him with the same words I spoke to him when we met on ground immediately after the WBC final: "Congratulations, Manager." (Kojima Kazuyuki, Nippon-Ham reporter from 2018 to 2020)
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