Wednesday, March 22, 2017

“Takeji Nakayama!” Takeji doesn’t respond.  First of all, his name isn’t pronounced right; second, he doesn’t know the speaker.

The speaker is 20-year-old rookie GM Jonas Pine, witnessing his first Shinkansen practice.  Frustrated, the young American from Texas shouts, “Yeah, you! Number… 5!” This time, Takeji looks up and responds in Japanese.  Pine stares at him, shrugs, and walks back to settle his office.

Pine received a call from the new owner Sinji Sojo, Jr.  “I quickly accepted,” Pine states. “As soon as I found out it was a baseball gig, I was on the next jet.”

It is a shock that Mr. Sojo hired such a young GM.  Sojo says, “It was an easy decision.  We need to win so I got a winner.” Sojo inherited the team from his father who passed away two years ago after a long fight with Alzheimer’s. On Opening Day, the team will wear purple ribbons to help raise awareness for the disease.

While on the plane to Japan, Pine already made his first mark on the team.  Pine traded third basemen Hokusai Akoi to Seoul in exchange for second basemen Forrest O’Conner.  When asked why made a trade so fast, Pine responds, “Well, he is American.  He speaks English.  I only know two languages: Spanish and English. So far, I can only understand four of my players.  But seriously, it came down to offense over defense.”

This brought us up to another point; how will Pine manage a team with players he can’t understand? “Well, a few of the Japanese players understand English, but I reckon they have a problem with my accent.  Now, I have wisely invested in Rosetta Stone’s Japanese learning products.  But for now ,I have an app for my cell phone.

“Minus the language complications, I have a great feeling.  I mean, the fans here are great; everyone in Hiroshima has at least a Shinkansen hat.  Never have I seen fans so dedicated to a team.  Despite our past struggles, theses fans keep on coming back.  It’s only fair they see their team take a Neo-Tokyo Cup.”

Pine then grins and says, “We will win not one, not four, not sev… man, I give up.  I’m not going higher!  But all jokes aside, I have a great feeling watching these guys practice.  I have some big shoes to fill, but I think my feet are big enough, especially if everyone pitches in and does there part.  Really, my message to my players is if you don’t want to be here, then get out of my clubhouse.  This team is too important to Hiroshima for any of my players to underachieve.  Sinji is about the best owner you could possibly have.  He is a real nice guy who has a good feel for baseball.  So all in all, I am excited to find out what we are capable of, and what a ‘Shinkansen’ is!”