Pacific League Marketing (PLM) held a tee-ball event at Kadena ball park in Okinawa Prefecture on December 13th last year as part of a joint project with the Japan Winter League (JWL).

Approximately 30 preschoolers and children attending after-school care in Okinawa Prefecture participated in the event. Many of the children had never even touched a bat, so it was a time for them to take their "first steps" in baseball.

A highly flexible program creates a "natural smile"

There were no restrictions on age or experience on this day, and entry and exit was free. By creating a space where children could enjoy themselves freely, even those who looked confused at first quickly found their own way of having fun, hitting and retrieving balls at their own pace, and quickly became accustomed to using bats and balls.

The final game was a tee-ball match, where everyone hit the ball and ran around on the artificial turf, which they had only been able to watch from the stands, enjoying baseball to the fullest, an experience they don't usually get to have, and not only the children but also the adults watching from around them were naturally filled with smiles.

A step forward as "action" for PLM

For PLM, this event is positioned as one of the joint projects launched in conjunction with the JWL this winter, and is an initiative to provide local children with an opportunity to experience baseball.

Takagi Takashi, deputy general manager of the PLM Media Rights Division, who led the project, said, "As someone in baseball world, I felt that we should somehow address the issue of the declining number of players." This overlapped with JWL's theme of regional revitalization, and the idea of providing an experience for local children in Okinawa led to this project.

The value of "experiencing baseball" as perceived by participants

Positive feedback was also heard from the parents who participated. Yuki Sunagawa, a mother who participated with her 4-year-old son, reflected, "I was grateful that I could participate freely without being bound by time." It was her first time to actually enter ground, and she said, "It was great to be able to experience baseball, which I'd only ever watched."

Her husband, Bobby Price, also commented, "The content was appropriate for the age and level of the children, and because it was a small group, they were able to move freely." He said it was a special experience for his children to be able to stand as players in a stadium where they had previously watched games from the stands.

The potential of tee ball as baseball population declines

This event was held with the cooperation of the NPO T-Ball Association. Yukigo Nakazato, a member of the Okinawa Prefectural Federation, explains about teeball, "We value the simple fun of anyone swinging a bat and running when the ball flies." In the last game, the rules were simplified and a format was adopted that allowed you to score every time you went around the base. Even the children who were passive at first became more active when they always scored, and in the end, they enjoyed themselves with all their might to the extent that some children were frustrated.

Mr. Nakazato says about the significance of the involvement of companies that make a living in the sports business such as PLM, "The hurdles to disseminate information and hold events will be lowered, and it will be easier for the field to move." These efforts also exuded hope that they would expand the entry into baseball and baseball-type sports.

The first day that leads to the next

This tee ball event was not just a one-off experience, but also the first step for PLM. Takagi said, "We don't want to end it here, but we want to explore ways to continue it, including collaborating with other regions and organizations."

baseball has gone from something you "watch" to something you "touch." This small opportunity that was born on the Kadena ground has undoubtedly led to new possibilities.

Text by Makoto Iwakuni