This book was released during the 2021-22 offseason before ex-manager Akihiro Yano announced that he was resigning at the end of the 2022 season. But it was probably read by most people during the early parts of this year… and with timing being what it is, most of it probably fell on deaf ears.
That being said, I felt like most of what was written in this book also fell on my deaf ears as well. I mean, by the time I started reading it, the team was off to a rather poor start, and though they were able to turn the season around and win one round of playoff ball, most of the words in this book rang hollow as it talked of winning the Japan Series playing Yano baseball.
On the whole, this book talked a lot about how to become a stronger person in the face of adversity, so I suppose in that sense, Yano was able to put to the test whether or not he was capable of doing so one last time. Throughout this book, it definitely sounded as though Yano was more interested in teaching about the joy of baseball than its fundamentals. I know it is a game, and players (and coaches, I suppose) are there to entertain the fans and give them great joy, while also having fun themselves. But there is definitely something to be said about playing the game fundamentally well.
There were a few cool stories about how, for example, he used the great story of Shintaro Yokota (who made a miracle throw to home in his finale as a member of the Tigers back in 2018) to inspire the 2019 team that was struggling to find that extra gear late in the season… and how ultimately, they won their final 6 games to make the playoffs.
I will also say that it opened my eyes to some interesting concepts. One of which is that the Japanese do not so much pursue excellence as they do beauty. There is beauty in a lot of what the Japanese do, including food, martial arts, and more. Yano was trying to make a claim that baseball, when played the Japanese way, is a thing of beauty. Hard to disagree with that statement, but the Tigers in 2022 did not achieve “beauty” on the field.
So on the whole, I have a hard time recommending this book, unless you want to read it solely as a self-help book, which is actually what it is meant to be. But if you’re looking for self-help, there are definitely better books out there than this one.