Once Highly Touted Prospect Kimi “Nails” Fujita Shipped to AAA
By Jim Bouton, Naha Shisa correspondent

7/25/2014: Shizouka, Japan — Kimi “Nails” Fujita has been the centerpiece of the Naha Shisa rebuilding effort ever since he was the first player picked during the Tom Fees general managing regime in 2010. Scout Daisuike Wakabayashi told me that he could very well average .320 with 30 home runs with his powerful, compact swing.

When he winter ball during the off-season to power up his career, he was coming off a solid rookie campaign, posting a .736 OPS at the tender age of 21. His character was sterling, and his adjustment to being unisex in a society that is so image-driven was nothing short of miraculous. Kimi joyfully took his parents with him to San Juan to enjoy the pleasant tropical climate with him. Then, shockingly, Kimi lost his father in a boating accident. Everyone could only watch with utter dismay as the once well-adjusted person completely came apart at the seams.

His teammate and good friend Yoritomo Masuda joined him in playing winter ball. While Yoritomo flourished, Kimi never returned from his bereavement leave. “It was very strange,” said Yoritomo. “He seemed to be handling things very well considering how close he was to his father. Then he simply vanished without a trace.”

Naha Shisa team officials were able to track him down and Kimi reported to spring training camp on time. His appearance was shocking. Whereas he had once radiated health and vigor, he now looked drawn and pale. His eyes looked absolutely haunted as he withdrew from the other players and media to skulk by his corner clubhouse locker. His once lavishly decorated fingernails were bitten to the quick. He was the last to show up at the park and the first to leave, demonstrating the polar opposite of his once sterling work ethic.

GM Fees sat down with me during a cool spring day to fill me in. “It won’t surprise you to find out that Kimi has had some serious substance abuse problems ever since his father died,” he told me. “Kimi went through extensive rehab and is being monitored very closely. While he is now staying clean and sober, he is only hanging on because he is in jeopardy of losing his entire career. He has not at all grieved for his father properly, nor has he embraced the 12-step spiritual program. I believe that until he comes to terms with his higher power, he will continue to flounder.”

That was back in April. Finally, several months later, the team has regretfully sent the struggling ballplayer down to AAA to iron out his difficulties. He was hitting an anemic .222 with only three home runs and a .555 OPS. This is no sophomore slump; this is an unmitigated disaster.

Scout Wakabayashi believes that Kimi permanently damaged his nervous system over the winter and will never live up to his former potential. “He could still be a good ballplayer,” Daisuke told me, “but he has lost that little extra edge that separates the good from the great.”

Kimi finally agreed to talk to me when I joined him in Shizouka in time for the series between the Anguirus and the Gojira Godziras. He was looking better than he had when I first saw him in spring training, but he was still a shell of his former self. He didn’t look at me when I spoke to him, and when I did manage to catch his eyes, they were flat and lifeless.

“I guess I’m finally realizing that I had based my entire self-esteem upon the support of my father,” he lamented. “All during my life, he was my source of strength. He could always put everything in perspective. When he suddenly vanished, I could not bear to face life without him. Suddenly, the jeers about my status as a unisexual person stung me as never before. Certain fans chided me that losing my father was punishment from God because I am a freak.”

Finally, he looked up at me, and his eyes were burning with anger and resentment. “Well, you know what? I’ve come to a conclusion. If there is a God and He would create a person like me and then take away my sole source of support, then He must be a sadistic #*%@! I don’t even think there is a god anymore.” With that, he stormed off to dress up for the game.

I was shaken to the core that such a luminous person could fall so far, so quickly. I will certainly be keeping close tabs on Kimi. Hopefully, I will be able to report later that he has worked through the personal hell that he is going through right now. For now, he seems to be a boat adrift in the ocean without a sail or rudder.