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The previousEpisode6Now, I told you about the Keiso Six Consecutive Matches that took place in 1960 (Showa 35). This time, I would like to introduce an event about 10 years later.

 

College baseball played a major role in igniting the popularity of baseball after the war, but with the development of professional baseball, the number of TV broadcasts decreased and the popularity began to fade. In such a situation, Hosei University was the catalyst that attracted attention again, and played a leading role.

 

Since the beginning of the 1960s, Hodai has become a frequent contender for the championship, winning four consecutive victories from the fall of 1969 (the third school in history), and from the spring of 1976, winning all the championships (taking points away from all universities). Accomplish the feat of accomplishing. This four-time winning streak is a record that has not yet been broken, and it can be seen that it was an overwhelming strength.

　

The man who won the latter four years in a row and played a leading role in the Hodai baseball club was Taku Egawa, who has been attracting attention as a "monster pitcher" since high school. Mr. Egawa originally wanted to go on to Keio, but the result was a failure. At that time, the results were even reported on the telop as breaking news, and there were various speculations about Mr. Egawa's career. After that, Hosei University was chosen as the place to go to, and four years like a dream story began.

　

After entering the school, Mr. Egawa stood on the mound as a main force from the spring of the first year. Because there were many famous players in the same period, it attracted attention as the "Hana no Showa 49 group" and set many records. Selected as the youngest player in the Best Nine team at the time, succeeded in completing 17 shutouts in four years, reached the regular turn at bat despite having a small number of at bats as a pitcher, and left the second highest batting average in the league...etc. left a surprising result and created the golden age of law school.

 

In this way, Tokyo Six University baseball attracted attention again due to the dynamism of Hodai, but during that period, the Juku baseball club fell far away from winning the championship. They achieved three consecutive victories in 1971 and 1972, but after that victory, they hovered in the middle for 13 years (1973-1985) and 25 seasons, and it seems that they often fought for the bottom.

 

Houdai was called the golden age, Keio University was called the dark age, and both schools spent the 1970s in contrast, but the revival of Keio University shows excitement. In the next column, I will introduce the season that raised the signal of its revival.