The words and deeds of a great general who changed his baseball life (6)
Maretetsu Morimoto talks about Trey Hillman Part 1
(Series 5: Hankyu trainee Hiromi Matsunaga fires 17 out-of-field shots. Director Toshiharu Ueda is surprised, saying, “Here we go again!”>>)
Encounters with coaches greatly change an athlete’s competitive life. Maretetsu Morimoto, who contributed to Nippon Ham’s 2006 Japan No. 1 and three league championships, said that his encounter with manager Trey Hillman (now the player development coach of the Los Angeles Angels) was a turning point in his baseball life. It happened.”
In 2006, the first year of the team’s move to Hokkaido, Hillman led the team to victory in the league for the first time in 25 years and the number one in Japan for the first time in 44 years. Achieved consecutive victories. He is a person of merit who raised the team power of Nippon-Ham and made the team take root in Hokkaido. We asked Mr. Morimoto, the main player at the time, about the episode with Hillman.
Maretetsu Morimoto, who played an active role as a mainstay of Nippon-Ham under manager Hillman (left)
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――What was your impression when you first met Director Hillman?
Maretetsu Morimoto (hereafter referred to as Morimoto): The first time I met him was before Manager Hillman was appointed manager of Nippon-Ham. Nippon-Ham and the New York Yankees had a business tie-up, so in 2000 I participated in the Yankees’ minor league fall training camp, and the manager there was Hillman.
After that, when I was appointed manager of Nippon-Ham and met at the autumn training camp (2002), he remembered me and told me, “You’ve grown a lot.” It seems that the team had heard that he was a fast player and that he had grown into a good player, and they gave him a very high evaluation.
――Is Hillman the type to actively communicate with the players?
Morimoto That’s right. Although there was a language barrier, we were able to actively communicate with each other through our interpreter, Kenichi Iwamoto, who spoke many positive words. I think it was trial and error trying to approach the players.
I think there were times when I felt uncomfortable with Japanese culture and baseball practice methods, but I could tell that they were making positive efforts to understand them. First of all, I got to know about Japan and the team, and then felt their enthusiasm to change the team.
