Though I have never lived in Hokkaido, I have been rooting for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, a professional baseball team in Japan, for over 50 years since 1969, when the team was called the Toei Flyers.

In case you are wondering, most Japanese baseball teams have the names of their owning companies in their team names.

Previously, the movie company Toei owned the Flyers, and now Nippon Ham, a meat product company, owns the team, which they renamed the Fighters.

It would be a long story if I wrote about how I became a fan of the Fighters, but the biggest factor is that I have been oriented to be different from others since I was a child.

I was born and raised in Osaka.

When I was in primary school, many of my classmates were fans of the Hanshin Tigers, franchised in Nishinomiya City, near Osaka. Not a few children were fans of the Tokyo Giants in their heyday, which won the league championship for nine years in a row.

The rest of my classmates were mostly Hankyu Braves fans. The team was also franchised in Nishinomiya City. There were also a few fans of the Nankai Hawks and the Kintetsu Buffaloes which were franchised in Osaka.

In such circumstances, I became a fan of the Toei Flyers, who were franchised in Tokyo. After a while, the team was bought by the housing company, Nittaku Home, and Nippon Ham got ownership in 1974.

When I lived in Osaka, I could not find Fighters fans around me unless I went to ballparks.

In 2004, the team moved to Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture. At the same time, Tsuyoshi Shinjo returned from American Major League Baseball and joined the Fighters as a centerfielder, which created a huge Shijo boom.

Suddenly, my ex-classmate from high school began rooting for the Fighters, and she became the first fan of the Fighters I knew in person.

Although the team won six league championships between 1969 (the year I became a fan) and last year, they came in last place seven times during this time frame. They had a record of 3221 wins and 3378 losses in total during this period, making for a .488 winning percentage.

In a nutshell, the Fighters have been a generally weak team.

It took 13 years for the team to win the league championship since I became a fan, and I had to wait for another 25 years till they won the championship again. I have been patient all the time.

After transferring to Tokyo, I frequently went to the Korakuen Stadium and the Tokyo Dome, built on the site of Korakuen Stadium. I also visited the Sapporo Dome 5 years ago for the first time.

Their games are sometimes broadcasted, but I know they tend to lose when I watch the game on TV, so I always try not to watch TV while they are playing. I’m rather proud of being such a true-blue fan of the team.

In all those long and sometimes a little bit painful years of being a fan, I have never been as excited and thrilled as last year.

Of course, this is because Shinjo became the director last year, and it was extremely exciting to see how he directed the team though they finished in last place.

He tried a bunch of tricky game plans.

For example, he changed the batting order literally every game; he tried 143 patterns in 143 games in 2022. It wasn’t unusual to see yesterday’s cleanup hitter be the lead-off man today.

He promised to use every player on the team at least once in the season, and in fact, he used all of them including the farm except for a pitcher who was injured and in treatment all through the year.

He prefers eccentric and outfoxing tactics, such as hit-and-run after 2 strikes, double steal, 2-run squeeze play, etc. He thinks differently and plays differently, which is why I like him because it goes well with my way of thinking.

Some people say Shinjo is going about it the wrong way, but some ex-teammates say he has a solid baseball theory. Whatever it is, he is trying to break out of the old shell and do something new, and that is the fun part.

Still, some people predicted that they would be in last place again this year. However, you never know who is going to win in the end.

I’m not sure the Fighters will win in the end, as they might be at the bottom again. Of course, the higher the ranking, the better, and winning the championship would make me the happiest, but the fun of baseball is not only about the team’s ranking.

By this, I mean that it was Tsuyoshi Shinjo who showed us there is more to baseball than rankings.

Shinjo caused controversy last year when he said, "I'm not aiming for the championship". This year he said, "I'm only aiming for the championship". This is interesting, but in any case, I will be rooting for Tsuyoshi Shinjo.

During the last season, no matter how many times they were beaten, my sense of excitement never went away. I am sure it will be the same this year. I can hardly wait to watch them play on the field.