It seems like every year in recent years, another player is putting out memoirs or thoughts about baseball and life with the Hanshin Tigers. Nothing wrong with that, if in fact they have something worth saying. But often times, these guys haven’t truly accomplished anything significant in their careers.
This one is different, though. For one, back in 1993 when this was written, not every player was putting pen to paper. Secondly, legend Minoru Murayama wrote this in the months leading up to his Hall of Fame induction. That is to say, 20 years after his playing career had ended. (And sadly, 5 years before his death.)
Born and raised in Hyogo Prefecture, and bleeding Tigers yellow, Murayama always played the game with every ounce of physical (and mental) strength he had. And it showed on his face as he threw. His pitching form was dubbed “Zatopek Style” (named after the infamous Czech marathon runner who had a pained look on his face while he won Olympic medals) and he welcomed it. Murayama’s truest claim to fame was having a walk-off home run hit off him in front of the emperor of Japan. And that home run began one of the greatest individual rivalries in Japanese baseball history: Minoru Murayama vs. Shigeo Nagashima.
One of the main focuses of this book is his duels with Nagashima, but Murayama also strays from that to talk about other great accomplishments in his career (one-hitting the Detroit Tigers in a friendly match, no-hitting the Giants but losing the game due to errors, and more). I had no idea that he spent that much of his career injured! He also talks very highly of some of his teammates. Of particular interest to me were his comments about Gene Bacque (friend of H-TEN). He not only brings up a few interesting episodes, but praises his character. (Mr. Bacque! He also says that your wife wore the pants in your relationship! But he says that’s true of most Americans.) It seems he also had a fondness for ace Yutaka Enatsu, though he also forced Enatsu to put aside a good chunk of his salary in his early years. Enatsu apparently thanked him later on in life.
So what was most interesting about this book to me? Everything, really… but I really loved the writing style: old-fashioned, lots of English words (spelled out in katakana, of course), and Kansai dialect-infused. I liked how Murayama wove in a lot of cultural phenomena and historical events right into the narrative. (It schooled me in Japanese history to an extent, as well.) I liked how he was not afraid to talk about the deep-seeded weaknesses that the Hanshin organization continues to have to this day. I liked how he comes across as a very intense, but very wise, man.
On the whole, this was nothing but a pleasure to read. I wish the man had lived on longer. This book is not easy to come by, but if you read Japanese, love the Hanshin Tigers, and can find this book somewhere, you need to spend the time to read it!