In March, while preparing for the Sponichi tournament for adult baseball and Senbatsu High School Baseball, I thought that amateur baseball would finally start this year, but the news came in. When I heard the news that the Nippon-Ham Fighter Yasuaki Imanari had died on the internet, he suddenly shouted “Eh!” And got stuck.
Yasuaki Imanari Scout (right photo) handing a message from Director Hillman to Yu Darvish (left photo)
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Scout with no professional experience
Imanari Scout was born in 1955. He fought several times in practice games as a baseball player in Tokyo when he was in high school. Horikoshi High School, where Imanari Scout was, is a strong team aiming for Koshien, and I clearly remember that my early graduate school was badly done.
At that time, the Imanari scout was a tall infielder who defended the short and third. He heard that he became a catcher after advancing to Komazawa University, but after that, he saw his name in a newspaper article saying that he would become a Hanshin scout as soon as he graduated from college.
I don’t know how I got the job, but I also had a longing for scouts, so I had envy, respect, and a little jealousy for Imanari scouts.
It was Toshihiko Sonoda, a scout from Hiroshima Carp, who introduced me to the Imanari Scout. When he first met, he brought up the story of his high school days, but he didn’t remember at all, “I wonder if that was the case …”.
Even so, after that, when I met him at the scene, he said “Let’s go” and asked me “Do you want to eat this?”
At that time, the scout was always in a local stadium where only he came, and although it seemed to be blunt, it may have been a shy person.
Even so, he was a scout with a “lone wolf” atmosphere, without having to sit next to him and talk about it. He wasn’t the kind of person who always used his opinion without hesitation, and even if he made a mistake, he had a lot of enemies.
“A young man who has no professional experience like me and suddenly became a scout from college wouldn’t be a job if he kept silent.”
