Former Buso High School Baseball Club
Interview with Watanabe Onigiri, the land of gold Part 2
(Part 1: Baseball club life with senior Yakult Yasutaka Shiomi >>)
A young entertainer, Watanabe Onigiri (Kin no Kuni), who was a smashing catcher who teamed up with Yasutaka Shiomi (Yakult), who was one year older than Buso High School, and Kazutomo Iguchi (Nippon Ham). In the second part of his interview, he talked about his life after the last summer of high school, which was the development of “no way”.
Watanabe, a former high school baseball player who became a finalist of the “R-1 Grand Prix 2022”
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When I touched on “the last summer of high school,” Watanabe rice balls clouded my face for the first time on this day.
“That was an unforgettable event in my life.”
July 12, 2012. Takeshi has been eliminated in the first round of the Kanagawa tournament. There was a bad luck in the lottery that collided with the powerful Nihon Univ. Fujisawa from the first match, but above all, the last scene that suddenly dropped the curtain in the hot battle was controversial.
In this game, Watanabe participated in the starting lineup as the 4th catcher and is playing an active part with 2 hits in 4 at bats. However, in the end, I saw the team’s defeat on the bench. He was sent a pinch runner in the last 9th inning attack and was replaced on the way.
“I was losing 1-2, but I got a hit in the top of the 9th inning, and I got a pinch runner to catch up, and I managed to tie the score to 2-2.”
In the bottom of the 9th inning, a second-year catcher wore a mask instead of Watanabe. And the scene in question comes.
A pinch of a goodbye hit on bases loaded with one out. The batter launched a high infield fly. At that moment, the referees declared “infield fly”. The fly was caught by a short, and at this point it was 2 outs.
Here, the infielders of Takeshi gathered on the mound. As the pitcher turned his back to the runner and had a meeting, cheers rose from the first base side stand. The third base runner jumped out and fell into the home base. Infield fly is ball in play. In other words, home-in by touch-up is established.
The ball umpire makes a safe call and announces the end of the match. The Takeshi players panicked. The referees entered into long talks in response to protests from the Buso side that they had “taken time.”
