The anecdote of the Japanese Asian Games baseball representative who was an oden vendor.jpg

Mr. Nakamura pulls his food stall today, his body heavy with fatigue.
This work is difficult and grueling...
But thinking of his younger siblings who look only to him at home, and his ailing mother,
he silently pulled his stall forward.
After graduating high school, having learned nothing and possessing no special skills, the job Mr. Nakamura chose was this oden vendor.
Even for him, who worked all day long, there was one single hobby.
That was baseball.
"Hey, your hand movements while skewering the oden are quite something. Why don't you join our team?"
A single comment from a customer, half-joking and half-serious, led him to pick up a glove by chance.
Just once a week, during the time he played amateur baseball, he could forget all his worries and anxieties
and immerse himself joyfully in the game.
Nakamura, who had always been quite athletic, stood out in the team and played as the cleanup hitter.
Then one day,
Nakamura faced a moment he would never forget for the rest of his life.
"The Amateur Baseball Association has requested that we include you in the national team for the Doha Asian Games."
It was a moment like a dream.
As a top hitter in amateur baseball, Nakamura returned home after defeating Korea to claim a silver medal.
Although they narrowly lost to Taiwan and missed the gold, he was satisfied,
thinking it was a great achievement for someone from amateur baseball, not even a professional.
However, after returning home, he was still just an ordinary oden vendor.
In the Japanese baseball world, which looked down on Korea by several levels, defeating Korea wasn't even worth talking about.
In such a situation,
Nakamura was nothing more than an ordinary citizen, still selling oden to support his family.
And after the Beijing Olympics baseball final...
"Korea was strong."
"Seriously. To think they would even win the gold medal..."
They were regular customers who had come to eat oden.
As Nakamura refilled the oden broth, he asked them,
"Did Korea win the gold medal?"
"Yes. They beat Cuba 3-2. Wow, Korea has really become strong."
"Was it Ryu Hyun-jin? Korea's left-handed starter was incredible."
Ryu Hyun-jin?
It was a name he had heard somewhere before.
"Someone like Sabascia was throwing well, too."
A left-handed pitcher like Sabascia...
At that keyword, Nakamura's memory was revived.
"If it's Ryu Hyun-jin, he's the pitcher I once hit a home run against in Doha."
Nakamura spoke up proudly.
"Really?"
"Yes. I told you before that I went to Doha as an amateur baseball representative, right?"
"Yeah."
"The pitcher I met there was Ryu Hyun-jin. I hit a home run in my first at-bat."
At that, the customers began to burst out laughing, clutching their stomachs.
"Puhahaha, you're quite the joker, boss.
There's no way the ace of the world's strongest Korea would get hit with a home run by an oden vendor."
"Right. It must be someone with the same name, or your memory is just wrong."
They chewed their oden, laughing, saying it was an impossible occurrence.
"Is that so?"
Losing confidence in his memory due to the customers' rebuttal, Nakamura asked.
"Yeah. Think about it. The ace Ryu Hyun-jin, who shut down the mighty Cuba in this Olympics,
got hit with a home run by an oden vendor at a tiny little stall like this... That was quite a masterpiece of a joke."
"Man, I had a good laugh. Ah, boss, give me some more oden broth."
Right... there's no way a pitcher who gets hit with a home run by a mere oden vendor like me is that ace Ryu Hyun-jin.
It's probably, as the customers said, someone with the same name, or my memory is wrong.
"Boss?"
"Ah, yes, yes. Oden broth. I'll pour it for you."
With a bitter smile, Nakamura poured the cloudy oden broth into the bowl.
Only a faded Asian Games silver medal hanging in a corner of the shop watched them silently.
Recognized as a legendary masterpiece of Baseball Gallery