Benched

I'm not sure why I started to write in this diary today, or who I might share it with, but I need to keep my spirits up somehow. I guess it is about time to write down what I can't say to anyone around here since I barely understand the damn language!

I knew it was coming. I didn't need the interpreter to explain why I was being called into the Manager's Office after the game.

I've been benched!

I'm in the worst slump of my five year baseball career. My name is Roger Hornsbee Best. I play first base and bat cleanup for the Osaka Yellow Sparrows. Or I did.

I can see the local edition of the morning newspaper now! “Rodger's Best is Strike Three!” It'll be the front page news in the only English written paper in the southern region of Japan and I happen to play on their Professional Baseball Team.

Yeah! I think there ought to be a law against Japanese newspaper owners, having a baseball team! They are the worst critics when you don't do well and instead give all the credit to the Japanese players around you when you're finally hitting.

I came here five years ago, to play in this league, on the suggestion of my Agent. He gave me a couple of examples of players making the Major Leagues back home after putting up some big numbers in this league!

He said that American Baseball Scouts look at the Japanese Professional League as one step up from Triple-A Minor League play from back home, telling me, and I quote, “Just spend two...three years tops, hitting their pitching and I'll have a big, fat contract waiting for you when the Big League comes a calling.”

Well, nobody's calling! Not even my Agent.

Day 2 of being benched!

Team wins again with that baby face Katsu playing 1st base, my position.

The Manager called a team meeting three hours before the game today to announce that the Owners had come up with a new charity that every player must participate in.

That's the big difference between American Ball and Japanese. In America, the ballplayers have the right to choose what they want to do during their professional careers! Not so here.

Management wants us to select one, or maybe two, kids so we can be their representative in this charity of theirs. We have to pick them out of the thousands of letters received by the Team from Families who have been victimized by the Earthquake which devastated Northern Japan a year ago. Even the part time players must choose a child.

Our Manager was kind enough to suggest that the part time or bench players, such as I, pick only one child, just so we won't disappoint a lot of people out there. Thanks.

I asked to get out of it, but he wouldn't let me. He said he would pick someone for me.

Get this, for every hit, double, triple, home run, and so on, 50 bucks or 3,850 yen would be coming out of our paychecks, matched by the owners, and then sent to the victim of our choice!

Whoever turns up as mine, well, that poor kid isn't going to see a penny from this Yank!

Day 3

The team is on a three game winning streak with Katsu hitting the lights out of the ball!

Mr. Hiroshi, our manager, did pick a kid for me and I'm supposed to write to him to let him know I'm his representative on the team! Of course, the interpreter will write whatever I say, but what am I gonna say to a kid who lost an arm and had a leg crushed. I was told he didn't lose the leg, but he'll never run again. Great, first I'm benched, then my Agent won't return my calls, and now this! If I had a dog, it would've died this week with the way my luck has been going!

Day 4

Four wins in a row for the team without me playing! Mr. Baby Face Katsu is really getting on my nerves!

And how the hell did this kid find out I was his representative. I've already received a letter from him thanking me for this great honor. If some idiot in the front office had told him I was his rep, then they should have also notified him that I was riding the pine!

I asked the interpreter to write something up for me saying the proper things and all, but he told me I should put it in my own words. What? “Sorry kid, I'm benched?”

He finally agreed to do it for me for a couple thousand yen. Just like home, money talks to us all!

Day 5

A break in the schedule. Great, we didn't win or lose and Mr. Baby Face didn't get a hit batting in my spot.

The manager suggested I come in for extra batting practice today, but I lied to him saying I had a friend flying into the country and needed to pick him up at the Airport. You know, he had the gall to ask the interpreter if I was lying!

What the hell. There is an American-type bar in the hotel where I'm staying. With an American-type of bartender who appreciates how to turn about 3,000 yen into the sweetest gin and tonics this side of the Pacific!

That's all the hitting I need right now!

Day 6

Son of a gun! Today I showed up late to the ballpark, missed batting practice, got fined by the team, was hung over, and Baby Face went two for four in a losing cause!

How could that kid have gotten my letter already? He's written to me twice now and expressed how happy he was that an American Ball Player like me would be so generous to him. He goes on to say that by the end of the week, I'll be in the starting lineup so please take care of myself.

By the end of the week? This Saturday, according to my calendar, is two days away!

I guess the kid doesn't see any of the ballgames. If he had, he would've seen that my replacement, Mr. Katsu, is hitting .305, with two home runs, since taking my spot.

If I have the time, I'll have to let the kid know what's up. It's breaking my heart, but I can't let him think I'm some kind of hero. I'm not even playing!

Day 7
Things are getting pretty bad for me on the team.

Baby Face hits the game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth and the team mobs him at home plate!

Not only that, this kid writes to me every day now! It also turns out that this kid is not a boy at all, Akiko is a girl's name! I never even thought about asking the interpreter when I got the first letter if it was a boy or a girl.

She writes that from now on she'll be watching every game and she'll be helping me! When I swing the bat she'll be swinging the bat with me! When I run, she'll be running with me!

If I don't have enough pressure on me already! Now I've got some insane Japanese girl thinking she is going to help me magically and I'm going to save her from the poverty that has befallen her. Man, this country and these people are nuts!

Day 8

It's Saturday. When I get to the ballpark, I find out that Baby Face has been traded to the Tanabe Tigers for a pitcher! I got the start today at first base! I did get a hit, a single in the first inning, and scored a run. My first base hit in over a month!

It was so great being on that field again that I'll be glad to chip in the fifty bucks to that little girl. I just can't figure out how she knew I would be playing today?

Day 9

We won two in a row with me in the line up. Sorry to say, I didn't get a hit today, but I did start a three-two triple, play. The bases were loaded, the batter hit a screeching line drive right at my head, which I caught, tagged out the runner at first base when he tried to return after leading off too far, and threw home to the catcher as the runner from third base tried to score when he thought I wasn't looking!

Turns out that play will cost me fifty bucks too, but at least the players on the team have accepted me once again as their teammate!

Day 10

Another day, another letter from Akiko! Who cares, I went one for four today, made one hell of a defensive play, and to top it off, we won!

Akiko writes that she is so proud of me and is very thankful that I have begun to take care of myself! Before she mentioned it, I hadn't noticed that I haven't had a drink for three days now.

Now that's a new record!

I wonder what kind of stalker laws they have in this country? It is really eerie how she finds things out about me like she does.

Day 11

We won today. We are two games out of first place with 23 to go and of course another letter from Akiko. Now she is looking at the opposing pitcher for the next day, telling me his strengths and weaknesses.
She giving me information on how well I've hit him in the past, how the defense has played me, and if I should pull the ball or hit to the opposite field in the opposing Team's ballpark.

Oh, I almost forgot. She is writing these last few letters in English. It's a little hard to decipher sometimes, but I appreciate the effort. I actually wrote her back today since I felt so comfortable about not having to pour out my feelings through the interpreter!

Day 25 I think

Man, we had a 10 game winning streak sandwiched in between our only two loses since I last wrote in this journal! We're five games up in the standings, I've hit in 12 straight games, and today's newspaper headline has touted me as the team's MVP.

Since coming back into the starting lineup, I'm hitting .350 with 10 home runs and 25 runs batted in! With Akiko helping me, I've been unstoppable!

I wrote back to Akiko today to tell her how grateful I am. I've also invited her and her family to come and watch our final home game before the end of the season next week. It's my treat. I'll pay for their flight, their hotel stay, and all their meals! It's the least I can do for my biggest fan and the best hitting coach I ever had!

Day 29

We clinched the division title today, but I'm not really in the celebrating mood. Akiko said she would love to come and see me play in person, but that her Mother and Father had died in the Earthquake. She has no brothers or sisters so it would be just her coming. What child can travel alone without a chaperone? I sent two tickets anyways, with spending money, and made arrangements for her to stay in her own private room at the same hotel as mine. That way I can spend a lot of time with her. I also sent her tickets to all three remaining home games on the schedule. Man, that kid has been through a lot, and here I was feeling sorry for myself when I got benched!

With all that tragedy in her life, all she ever did was encourage me and help me. Not once did she ever complain to me about what had happened to her and her family in one of her letters! That is one special kid.

Day 30

We won again!

I'm so excited, nervous, and anxious. If I hadn't promised that little girl that I wouldn't drink anymore in one of my earlier letters, I'd be on one good drunk right now!

Akiko is flying in tomorrow during our final break in the schedule and before our last three home games.

I feel like a kid again. I'm just nervous about how I'll react to her being handicapped. I know they say to treat them as you would any person, but I've never had to deal with it before.

At least I'll have some great news for her when we meet. The San Diego Major League Ball Club has invited me to spring training with a guaranteed million dollar bonus if I make the team. The best part is that they just lost their All Star first baseman to free agency. I'm a shoe in.

Day 35

The Playoffs start in two days. We won all three games of the home stand and I hit a home run in each game!

Turns out that the best hitting coach I've ever had isn't a child after all. Akiko is a twenty-three year old woman. A beautiful woman. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun just being with a woman. And the reason she knew so much about me and that I would be playing again, is because her Uncle is my Manager!

My agent calls me every day now, the San Diego Team is calling me directly, and I'm starting to get offers from other teams too!

Day 36 after being benched!

You know what I have learned from these last couple of months? You have to be happy and thankful for every day you get in life! My little problems don't even compare to what Akiko has gone through. She is not bitter or angry with the world, but grateful for the life she still has a chance to live. I really like that about her.

I fired my Agent today and told the Major League Teams who have been calling me, that we play some pretty competitive baseball here in Japan. I've told them that money isn't important to me anymore.

I tell everyone and anyone who will listen, that I'm staying here in Japan for good. I kind of like the life I see in front of me!

A life with Akiko!

 

This story was inspired by Japan's 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. I hope you enjoyed it.

 

This is,

Remembering America's

And Japan's Greatest Game

 Jim Hauenstein

And

 

“It ain't over 'til it's over.” - Yogi Berra -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

 Like what you are reading?

Sign up as a Follower

 or leave a Comment

I would love to hear from you

Thanks for reading

 

Be kind to everyone

 

I'll be seeing you