Chunichi fan Ichiro also said, “Bring back Tao”

Yasushi Tao, who also served as the first manager of the Rakuten baseball team after the baseball world reorganization scandal in 1994, is in a sense a symbolic player who was sacrificed at a time when professional baseball players did not have the right to compete in front of the team. Ta.

In 1975, he joined Chunichi as the first draft pick from Doshisha University and won the Rookie of the Year title in his first year with a batting average of .277. After that, he continued to use the batting club smoothly and was loved by men and women of all ages as the face of the team due to his friendly personality and dedication to serving fans.

However, in 1985, he was at the peak of his career as a raw star, having the most hits in the Central League for three consecutive years. On January 24, just before camp was due to begin, he was suddenly informed that he would be traded to Seibu.

The player president, whose jersey number is “2”, has been making demands every year for the team to improve the environment in which they play, and because of this he has been shunned by the national team at the time. Tao considered Nagoya his final home and had just built a new house in Hoshigaoka. It was a sudden transfer announcement, like a punitive appointment, without any warning.

Huang in Nagoya was even more unconvinced than himself, who accepted the unilateral notice on the spot, and a signature campaign “against the trade” began.

It is a well-known anecdote that Ichiro, a Chunichi fan who was still in elementary school, had the words “Bring back Tao” embroidered on the apron he made for his home economics class. Still, this was a time when the only resistance a player could take was to retire from active duty.

However, as mentioned at the beginning, in November of the year Tao was traded, the players’ association was recognized as a labor union by the Tokyo Metropolitan Labor Relations Commission. Now, 19 years later, it has gained enough power to overturn even the original drawings of its owner.

In that case, what I have to do for the current players like Atsuya Furuta who have achieved this goal is to pick up the baton again and become the manager of this new team that I was offered, no matter how inferior the team might be. Isn’t it?

At his inaugural press conference held on October 13, 2004, Tao said the following.

“We want to create an attractive baseball team that creates an environment where players can easily play, and respond to the enthusiasm of baseball fans in Tohoku.” “We want to make a team that players from other teams want to come to.” (Asahi Shimbun)

With a players-first mindset, he began by creating a team that would create an environment where players would want to come. When the distribution trade was carried out on November 8th, in addition to that, players from other teams who became free agents and free trades were incorporated, and the organization was put together like a rush project.

Anyway, I wanted to practice once this year, so I held my first practice on November 13th at Fujiidera Stadium, which was the home base of Kintetsu in Osaka. Uniform designs had not been decided yet, so players wore all-white uniforms to fall camp, which was said to be similar to high school baseball.

After his appointment was decided, he had to assemble the coaching staff and make an announcement within two weeks, so it was a hectic process, but Tao himself found it rewarding to start a new team for the first time in 50 years, which could be said to have been born under the guidance of the players’ association. I was feeling it.

Tao’s policy in his first year at Rakuten was to prioritize establishing a professional baseball team in Tohoku. This is what I told Mikitani, the owner, as soon as the engine was started.

“Thank you for being a newcomer to the baseball world. But please don’t think of the team as your property. Professional baseball teams are public goods. We belong to the fans.”

To this, Mikitani reportedly responded, “I understand.”