Former professional baseball player Shō Nakata (37) has opened a baseball facility called “Aim for the Top,” which he personally produced, in Nagoya’s Minato Ward. Nakata, who played for the Nippon-Ham Fighters, the Yomiuri Giants, and the Chunichi Dragons, reportedly paid “several hundred million yen” out of his own pocket for the facility, where he runs baseball clinics for elementary and middle school students and personally coaches when he has time. “I’d love to see Koshien players and pro baseball players come out of this place,” he said, describing his goal for this new chapter of his life. The thread lit up with questions about where the money came from, surprise at the tuition-based business model, and debate over Japan’s shrinking youth baseball population.
“Aim for the Top,” a baseball facility produced by Shō Nakata (37), who played for the Nippon-Ham Fighters, the Yomiuri Giants, and the Chunichi Dragons, has opened in Nagoya’s Minato Ward.
Nakata reportedly spent “several hundred million yen” of his own money on the facility, where he’s producing a baseball clinic aimed at elementary and middle school students.
He’s putting in real effort, personally stepping in to coach whenever he has time. “I’d love to see Koshien players and pro baseball players come out of this place” — he shared his ambition for this new chapter of life.
Source: chunichi.co.jp / Original article here
He's probably got sponsors backing him.
Of course he took out a loan — it's a business after all.
That's the real problem. They need to be building up amateur and industrial-league baseball instead.
LOL it's just a regular tuition-based "business"
>Currently about 160 elementary and middle schoolers attend. It runs on monthly tuition, and it's not a business that turns a big profit. Still…
Tuition? Not free?
If he built the school himself, of course it's coming out of his own pocket.
Surprised 160 kids are still signing up for baseball school these days.
The future of baseball is bright 🤣
Just drawing in the hardcore kids isn't going to grow the sport or boost participation numbers. Baseball people are all clueless — they can't tell the difference between popularizing a sport and developing talent.
Nakata bought a house in Nagoya and lives there with his family. Apparently he feels he owes the Dragons for taking him in.
Means the facility itself is his own — unlike independent-league teams that run on outside subsidies.
Did you cancel your Norton subscription or something? (joking that the previous post's garbled text looks like a keyboard/IME glitch)
I didn't have a great impression of him before, but now I really want to root for him.
Aichi's baseball kids are already dominating Koshien. The Chunichi Dragons have won the most titles of any team in the 12-club junior tournament. This year's Koshien champions, Chiben Wakayama, had Yamada — a former Chunichi Jr. player — as captain and cleanup hitter. Kendai Takasaki's sophomore leadoff hitter is also from Aichi, Yokohama's captain is a Chunichi Jr. alum too, and Sendai Ikuei's entire 1-2-3 batting order is from Aichi. It's an era where top schools nationwide are poaching Aichi's kids.
That explains why he's always doing commentary for Chunichi games in Nagoya.
Figure skating's popular in Nagoya too — guess there are a lot of families there who can afford to put their kids in expensive sports.
I heard his daughter goes to the "Mao Rink" in Tokyo (a skating rink named after figure skater Mao Asada) — was that not true?
The guy behind this whole thing probably did round up sponsors, and Nakata's the result.
Background and Talking Points
Shō Nakata is a former professional baseball player who played for the Nippon-Ham Fighters, the Yomiuri Giants, and the Chunichi Dragons before retiring. The facility runs on monthly tuition, and according to the Chunichi Shimbun article that broke the story, about 160 elementary and middle schoolers currently attend, though it’s “not a business that generates large profits.” Opinions in the thread split over how to read the phrase “several hundred million yen out of his own pocket” — some mistook it for unpaid charity work, while others pointed out it’s actually a normal tuition-charging business, speculating about loans or backers. There was also pushback on the premise that baseball’s youth population is declining, with some noting that the serious “gachi” (hardcore/committed) kids at school-style programs like this one haven’t dropped off at all. Separately, Aichi Prefecture has recently become known for producing captains and star players at Koshien powerhouse schools who came up through the Chunichi Dragons Junior program, and posters in the thread cited several real examples.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Sports News+) thread “[Baseball] Shō Nakata: “I’d love to see Koshien players and pro players come out of this” — Baseball facility “Aim for the Top” opens in Nagoya, “several hundred million yen” out of his own pocket.”
