Padres’ Darvish giving advice to Ito (left) (Photo by Shigeo Takahashi)
Photo By Sponichi
On the 8th, Padres pitcher Yu Darvish (38) made a surprise visit to Escon Field, where his former team, Nippon-Ham, is holding their fall training camp. Initially, he had no plans to go down to the field, but he did practice with pitcher Taikai Ito (27) and others who had joint voluntary training in the United States in January 2023. The fans who were present were deeply moved by the sudden appearance of the legendary alumnus, making it his first visit.
Eh, the person himself? The fans present at Escon Field became agitated. Goods shop behind the left wing. Darvish and his family started shopping on a rented basis. A crowd of people gathered to watch the scene through the glass, and a security guard called out over a loudspeaker, “Please don’t stop!” Due to the legend’s sudden appearance, “Yu Darvish” immediately became a trend on SNS.
It was a surprise visit. Darvish flew into Hokkaido from Tokyo early that morning. It was his first visit to his old team’s new home base, which opened last year, where a fall camp was being held. It has been eight years since he visited Nippon-Ham’s practice since 2016 at Arizona camp. Behind the back net, he was happy to be reunited with team officials for the first time in a while. While enjoying the stadium, he also updated his SNS with the message, “I was finally able to come.”
Thanks to the efforts of team officials, who warmly welcomed the players by displaying a welcoming message on a large screen, they even held an unscheduled practice on the field after practice. Knock was chatting in the outfield with Miyanishi, a one-year senior with whom he played for four years starting in 2008. In the training room, he also did weight training with Ito, Imagawa, and others. Ito, who met him again for the first time since the WBC last March, once again expressed his respect for him, saying, “He has an amazing amount of knowledge. There are a lot of things I lack in myself.”
Darvish previously expressed his feelings toward his former team, saying, “I definitely want to wear the Fighters uniform again.” A representative from the team commented, “It was a great stadium, just as I had heard.The distance to the fans was close, and the atmosphere was great.” He has a commemorative sign on the mural of himself and Otani (Dodgers) on the wall of a facility called “TOWER 11.” At the end, I stood on the mound and admired the scenery. (Shunta Seito)
▽Darvish’s visit to Nippon Ham’s Arizona camp On February 12, 2016, during his time with the Rangers, Darvish visited his former team’s US camp. Coach Kuriyama, who stood and talked for about five minutes, welcomed the players, saying, “It will be stimulating for the players.” The night before, he had invited Otani (currently Dodgers), Nakata (currently Chunichi), Sugitani (retired), and others to a house party and treated them to Seiko’s special pizza and spare ribs, with whom he was dating, but on this day, he came to say hello. Shio responds to Otani by simply replying, “Oh.” “There are a lot of cameras around…” he said, showing concern for his juniors who are attracting a lot of attention.
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