The 4th is the last day of the first course of professional baseball / Rakuten Okinawa camp.
In the 10 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake, Ginji from Iwate, a disaster-stricken area, is energetically working to regain his regular position.
Last season, Ginji's batting average was sluggish at 20%, 3 minutes and 6 minutes, and he did not reach the regular batting average for the first time in five years.
At the age of 33 on the 24th of this month, he is aiming for a regular return this season, his 16th year as a professional, who will be the oldest member of the team.
At the camp held in Kin Town, Okinawa Prefecture, every morning, I entered the stadium about an hour before the start of the whole practice, was throwing a bat, and silently hit a mountain ball on the last day of the first course, 4 days I was packing the foam.
In addition, after 3:30 pm when the overall practice was over, we started defensive practice with younger rivals competing for infield regulars, including Daichi Suzuki, who won the Best Nine and Golden Glove Awards last season. It was.
During his active career, Hiroshi Narahara, an infield defensive baseball coach who rang as a defensive master, encouraged him to say, "I can still go the oldest," and continued to be knocked for about an hour.
Then, I ran through two slopes of about 50 meters with all my strength, and finished the eight hours of practice.
Ginji strongly said, "The juniors were energetic, and it was fun to feel like I'm going to do it. It's meaningless if I don't play in the game, so I want to play an active part." Was there.