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In the last column, I told you about "the secret hidden in socks".

 

The theme of Episode 8 this time is "Handkerchief Prince". I'm sure you've all heard of it at least once. Introducing the story of Yuki Saito, a handkerchief prince who took the world by storm, and the Keio-Waseda match.

 

It's been 15 years since the summer when many people paid attention to the novel appearance of a high school baseball player wiping his sweat with a blue handkerchief on the solitary mound. At the time, pitcher Saito, who had been attracting the attention of professional scouts, decided to go to Waseda University, and the whole of Japan was in an uproar.

 

Pitcher Saito, who was entrusted with the opening pitcher from the spring of the first year, will show off his magnificent pitching and captivate the many fans who come every week. This popularity will also move the Six University Baseball Federation. Except for the Keiso match, tickets were only sold on the day of the match, but due to the excessive queues, ticket pia will start selling tickets in advance. Also, it was the influence of Saito that we started selling goods such as calendars.

 

Pitcher Saito had won the Best Nine since his first season, but it was the 2010 fall league that attracted the most attention in the four years. At that time, Waseda University had three first-place draft pitchers, and was called the BIG3. A fierce battle for victory unfolded in Keiso, and Keio won in the second round of Keiso, and the winning percentage became the same, and the championship match was held. It's been a long time since the championship match at Keiso, and it looks like it's going to be a close match, but Waseda's batting line exploded from the beginning. Pitcher Saito kept the Keio batting line to no hits until the 7th inning, and his pitching and batting went well. In the 8th inning, Keio finally captured Saito and closed the gap by 2 points, but was pushed back again and ended up with a 10-5. It was

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Many videos from that time have been uploaded to Youtube. It seems that there are many images of the inside of both schools because the media also covered a lot. Please look for it!

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as a side note...

In this 2010 fall league match, Keio's pitchers, who were pitching against Waseda University's BIG3, were mostly sophomores. Currently playing for the Chunichi DragonsKoji Fukutani pitcher, Daisuke Takeuchi, who was the assistant coach of the cram school baseball club until last year, pitched full laps, and the two of them pitched well in the two consecutive games of the Keiso and Keiso games, bringing them to the championship game. After that, the two continued to play an active role as starting pillars, with pitcher Fukutani being nominated in first place in the draft and pitcher Takeuchi proceeding to the path of adult baseball. Mr. Takeuchi was appointed assistant manager in 2019 and contributed to the 2021 spring and autumn consecutive victories as a link between the players and the manager. Paying attention to the activities of the alumni is one of the ways to enjoy college baseball!