Ceremonial First Pitch

September 4, 2007 (Tuesday)

I would like to share a unique experience that I had recently.

On August 31, I threw the ceremonial first pitch at the beginning of a baseball game at the Chiba Lotte Marines’ stadium. There was an official game between the Chiba Lotte Marines and the Orix Buffaloes on that day, and a special event called “match day” was held at the beginning of the game commemorating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Chiba University of Commerce. As the president of the University, I threw the ceremonial first pitch.

As a primary school student I played my fair share of baseball, but in the 50 odd years since for one reason or another I have not had the opportunity to even touch a baseball. I practiced throwing several times with students in the baseball club in the time since the plan was confirmed several months ago. I prepared for the day hoping that I could somehow complete the throw, but ceremonial pitch fell well short of home base, bouncing twice before it landed in the catcher’s mitt. For a novice it was a decent showing, and to highlight the 80th anniversary of the founding of the University I put on a little performance for the crowd’s enjoyment before the pitch.

First, I raised both hands high in the air from the top of the mound and answered cheers from both the infield and outfield. I then walked around the plate on the mound, and slowly and carefully pulled out a blue handkerchief from my pocket and wiped the sweat from my forehead. This was a deliberate imitation of the immensely popular Yuki Saito, a pitcher on the Waseda University baseball team known as the “handkerchief prince”. (He is famous for keeping a handkerchief in his uniform pocket during games since his days as a high school player). The large crowd of 30,000 showed its approval with cheer and applause. After this the catcher and I elaborately exchanged signs, and the pitch was launched. The performance was praised as helping to boost energy and enthusiasm for the Chiba University of Commerce event.

While I was glad that it was received well, what is important is that this plan generated a win-win synergistic effect for both the Chiba University of Commerce and the Chiba Lotte Marines. The ceremonial first pitch led to several million yen in event money being paid to the baseball club. For the Chiba University of Commerce, a heightened sense of unity was realized among the 1,000-plus university-affiliated people in attendance.

This example is an illustration of beneficial collaboration through an event between a university and a baseball club, or to be more general, between a company and another company. There is no doubt that many opportunities to produce such win-win collaboration between companies exist in an industrial society. The wisdom to utilize this potential will likely become important for companies in the future.

In any case, it was a rather unique evening and an experience that I enjoyed.