Professional baseball team Hanshin is holding a memorial match against Yakult at Koshien Stadium on the night of the 29th to coincide with the birthday of former coach Katsuya Nomura, who died last February.
Mr. Nomura was the predecessor of Softbank, a famous catcher who won the first triple crown after the war in Nankai, and after retiring from active duty, he was the director of Yakult and was the director of Hanshin for three years from 1999.
After that, he was active as a baseball commentator after serving as a director at Rakuten, but died in February last year due to ischemic heart failure at the age of 84.
June 29th is the birthday of Mr. Nomura who died, and Hanshin is holding the Yakult game that started at 6 pm at Koshien Stadium as a memorial match for Mr. Nomura who was the director of both teams.
A large photo of Mr. Nomura was displayed at the front entrance of the stadium, and Mr. Nomura was impressed with the photos of Hanshin OBs who played under Mr. Nomura, such as Norihiro Akahoshi and Kyuji Fujikawa. A corner was set up to introduce the words.
Immediately before the start of the match, a video of Mr. Nomura was projected on a large-scale vision, and the players of both teams silently prayed.
For the three years under the direction of Mr. Nomura, Hanshin was at the bottom of the list, but in 2003 after he retired, he raised the core players when the team achieved the league championship for the first time in 18 years.
Director Yano, who is also one of them, said, "If I didn't meet Mr. Nomura, I wouldn't be there now, and my view of baseball changed and the fun changed. I want to make it a good opportunity to share my gratitude." It was.