「Ｂaseball and the Japanese」と題して、
かつて、ＮＨＫ教育テレビの英会話番組で、日本の野球に詳しいアメリカ人の作家ロバートホワイティング氏が、日本の野球についてインタビューを受けたことがありました。
インタビューアーは当時、ＮＨＫ教育テレビの英会話講師であった松本道弘先生でした。
最近、斉藤投手についての記事が多いので、その関連で、その番組の一部をこのブログに、紹介してみたいと思います。
何故、日本人は野球が好きなのか？
という問いに対して、
ホワイティング氏は四つの理由を挙げています。
まずは、第一番目の理由です。
Matsumoto: Why has Japan chosen baseball ? Why Japanese people love baseball so much ? You know, Docter Nitobe Inazo said that baseball is a pickpockets' sport. He objected the introduction of baseball. Are you aware of the fact?
Whiting: Yes, I am. Well, I'm glad you asked that question, because I just happen to have my own pet theory about why the Japanese like baseball.
I think when Dr. Inazo made that statement, Keio and Waseda were already drawing capacity crowds to the baseball games they were playing, so I mean he was fighting a lost cause. The four basic points, I think, are, one, that baseball was the first group game that was played in Japan, first group game to be introduced in Japan. At that time there were only the martial arts, the one-to-one confrontations, and sumo, which was odd, because Japan, as we all knows, is a country where people have their identities rooted in the group that they belong to, and this, baseball being a group sport, gave the Japanese their opportunity to practice their group proclivities on an athletic field. And you even see that today. There's more emphasis on the bunting, and hit-and-run, and the teamwork aspect of the game, whereas in America it's on the individual aspect of it.