Yoshinobu Takahashi, Special Advisor to the Yomiuri Giants

How you communicate your words is important

Yoshinobu Takahashi, Special Advisor to the Yomiuri Giants

■ Profile
Born April 3, 1975 (Showa 50). Originally from Chiba Prefecture. Over his 18 years as a player, he had a batting average of .291, .321 home runs, and 986 RBIs. In the spring of his third year at Keio University, he won the triple crown in the Tokyo Big Six Baseball League. His 23 home runs in the league remain the most in history. In 1997, he joined the Giants as the first draft pick. In 2004, he won a bronze medal as a member of the Japanese national team at the Athens Olympics. He retired from active play in 2015. The following year, he served as the Giants' 18th manager for three years. He currently serves as a special advisor to the Giants and a baseball commentator.

　Yoshinobu Takahashi, who has been attracting media attention since he was a high school student and has been called a "genius hitter," has continued to perform well since his first year as a professional. We spoke to Takahashi, who has had a variety of experiences as a player, manager, and commentator, about his encounter with baseball and his views on the game.

　After graduating from high school, I went on to Keio University. I chose Keio because my senior at Toin Gakuen, Taisei Takagi, was enrolled there, and I felt that if I followed in his footsteps, I might have the potential to become a professional. I started playing baseball with a local club team in the fourth grade of elementary school. At the time, I never thought I could become a professional baseball player, but when I was in my third year of university, I saw Takagi doing well in his first year as a professional, and I thought, "Maybe I can do it too if I work hard," and began to consider going pro. However, at the time, I felt like I was playing baseball for the people around me, such as my teammates and family, because I wanted to make my teammates and family happy by achieving results in games. After becoming a professional, I began to think, "Since it's a job, I should earn money for myself."　

　Baseball is said to be a team sport, but your individual performance is more important than the team's performance in determining your own evaluation. In other words, if you don't hit the ball, you'll lose your place right away. I realized the importance of managing myself, and I started paying attention not only to my technique but also to my physical condition.

　Now that I've retired as a manager, I mainly do live coverage as a field commentator. The role of a commentator is to explain what's happening in front of them in an easy-to-understand way. The appeal of baseball is that there is no script. There are games where one team makes a comeback in one blow, and there are also games where one team suffers an upset defeat to a team that has a good record. I hope that viewers will enjoy my predictions and comments, which make use of my experience as a player and manager.

　To fully convey the appeal of baseball, I place great importance on "how to convey it in words." I've been in this industry for a long time, so I often end up not being clear enough, thinking, "This much explanation will get the point across." I try to make it so that everyone who watches the game, even those who have never played baseball, can feel like they're the manager. One of the joys of baseball is being able to think of all sorts of possibilities, like, "If it were me, I would do it this way."

◾️Message to students

　When you're in pain, you inevitably want to blame something. However, you won't learn anything if you just keep running away from the pain. Even when you're struggling, if you take the time to reflect on yourself, you can climb the ladder, even if just a little. I hope you'll continue to work hard in the place you're in and pave your own path.

Student Newspaper April 2025 Issue Aoyama Gakuin University 1st Year Aoi Kuwayama / Waseda University 4th Year Natsu Nishimura

Masamasa Hattori, second year at N High School / Natsu Nishimura, fourth year at Waseda University / Samurai Yoshida, third year at Aoyama Gakuin Junior High School / Aoyama Gakuin University, Aoi Kuwayama / Ryusei Nishiyama, fourth year at Musashino University