Pitcher inspired ordinary people to fight odds

Comedian and actor Hitoshi Ueki (1926-2007) is said to have struggled to reconcile his public image, as the titular character in the movie series "Musekinin Otoko" (Irresponsible man), and his actual no-nonsense demeanor. "In my case, no matter what part I play, in the end, I am playing Hitoshi Ueki," he once said. The more famous the person, the more difficult it is to break a fixed image.

Former professional baseball pitcher Shigeru Kobayashi, who died Sunday at age 57, was often referred to as having had a "tragic fate." During the 1979 offseason, Kobayashi was traded from the Yomiuri Giants to the Hanshin Tigers for Suguru Egawa in a controversial move that took advantage of the so-called one-day vacuum, a loophole in the draft rules. Ever since, Egawa has been stuck with a bad guy image while Kobayashi was always regarded as a tragic hero.

Perhaps Kobayashi found the false image annoying, given his place in the world in a sport where only the strongest win.

He recorded 22 wins in the year he transferred to the Tigers. In particular, he scored eight wins and no losses against the Giants. After the season, he told the magazine Bungei Shunju: "What supported me was the determination not to allow the Giants to win the pennant, no matter what."

Kobayashi could accomplish the feat because he was a good player. Nevertheless, he taught us a way of life to overcome and use adversity as a springboard.

One of his trademarks was his baseball cap flying off his head as he threw the ball. With a spirited and powerful pitching style, Kobayashi played the sport with a sense of rebelliousness. It encouraged many people who were fighting their own battles.

Kobayashi threw seven kinds of pitch. He is said to have divided the strike zone into 48 parts in a grid and threw the ball aiming at the outside. Maybe it was impossible to accurately direct his pitch to an area the width of a ball. Still, he made it a rule to keep it within half the width of the catcher's mitt.

He called himself "stubborn and proud." Takenori Emoto, a former Tigers pitcher who was Kobayashi's senior in the team, said of him: "He was very much a pitcher and the greatest narcissist." It doesn't matter how he looked. I wish I could have seen him more inside a baseball stadium.

There is no reason for society to complete his image as a tragic hero with his premature death. I have no idea which part of the grid the god of fate aimed at. But looking at his lack of control, I cannot hold back tears.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 19