From Our Daily Sports Online column / デイリースポーツオンラインの連載コラムから
Until that embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Yokohama DeNA Baystars, June was a pretty fabulous month for the Hanshin Tigers. Their 14-5-1 record to that point had them pushing for third place, and it seemed like all the talk at season’s start of a lost season were behind them. They are still, in fact, not far out of that race, and anything can still happen.
I like to think that the same is true of me as a blogger and wannabe sports journalist. I was actually a part of three recordings in May, and two came to fruition in June (while the other got put on ice for now, but could still get aired someday). Allow me to boast a little of my TV appearances, if you don’t mind. (And if you mind, you can close this tab now and get on with your life! I won’t be offended!)
In early May, I got a couple of random direct messages on my Twitter account. One was from the account of News Zero’s features crew. They said they had read my Daily article about switching allegiances to the Orix Buffaloes. They wanted to talk a little about what I thought about the Tigers’ season to that point, and why I wanted to start pouring my energy into following the Buffaloes instead. You should keep in mind that around this time, the Tigers were still sputtering and fifth place was still a distant dream. Well, I ended up meeting them on May 25 and we talked for a good hour or more about my H-TEN story to this point, the 2022 Tigers, and yes, even the Buffaloes. Days later, they followed up with me, asking if there was any bar/pub I frequented to watch Tigers games. I said no, I almost always watched at home (while “taking care” of the kids) or at Koshien. But I have friends who run a small shop near JR Nishinomiya, and they said they always have the Tigers game on the telly during business hours. So I asked them if I could use their shop on June 17 for a TV spot, and they kindly obliged. Late that same night on News Zero, a nationally-known program, I got roughly 8 minutes of air time with Tigers highlights interwoven into my story. I mean, it was quite lengthy and mind-blowing in some ways! But the icing on the cake was that the iconic news anchor in Tokyo, Yumiko Udo, a Hanshin Tigers fan herself, said, “I would love to meet Trevor-san.” An unforgettable page in the book of my life!
The same May night that I met News Zero to record the original story, I rushed home and had a small Mainichi Broadcasting System crew waiting to enter my home and film me while I watched the Rakuten Eagles plaster my dearly beloved Hanshin Tigers. The feature they were doing was somewhat similar to the one News Zero did, but meant to be aired after the Tigers-Fighters game on June 3, time-permitting. Time did not permit. They pushed it back to June 8. Well, they had 4 features prepared, and I was largely unaware (until it was too late) that they set up a poll on Twitter for people to choose which one they most wanted to see. My feature finished 4th in the voting, and they only had time to show 3 features before their time slot was up. So it got bumped once again, this time to June 22. I made sure I got enough votes this time around to finish second… but once again, the game went to extra innings and they did not have time to broadcast my feature. Maybe someday. For now, it’s on standby.
But the oddest of these TV appearances just aired this past Tuesday (June 28) really late at night. Talk about out-of-the-blue, though! I received an email from Kansai TV, who wanted me to appear on a TV show as a guest panelist. I had (sort of) done this kind of show twice before, once in March 2020 and again in January 2022… but those were both 100% about my out-of-control Hanshin fandom. This time, the show had nothing to do with the Tigers, about baseball, or even about my being a foreigner living in Japan! It was a regular talk show with two hosts and four guest panelists. Among the guests was the quite-famous Takeshi Tsuruno. So with the help of a TV executive, I got primed on what I might be expected to talk about… and I felt like I had something to add to the program… but when started rolling, I found myself lost amidst the chatter of all the other panelists. Just keeping up with what everyone was saying was a challenge in and of itself. I did not have the linguistic bandwidth to add anything of merit to the show (which was about SDGs and helping kids find fun research projects for summer break). Nevertheless, the fact that I got to sit next to Tsuruno-san, talk with him a bit before the show, and be aired on TV for something other than my love of the Tigers, was extremely special. And TV being TV, they found a way to make it look like I was a proper contributor to the show, even though I sat in silence throughout much of the recording at the studio.
I am not sure if or when another opportunity will come my way, but I have to say, June was a pretty special month for me, too. I was also able to witness two outstanding victories at Koshien Stadium, and celebrated my birthday with my awesome family. It’s great to be alive! Here’s to a super special July for the Tigers, for me, and most of all, for you out there, too!