Moving away from home and starting over in a new city is a difficult task for anyone. That task becomes exponentially more difficult when the city is over 5,000 miles away from home and nobody speaks your language. That is what’s at hand for 11 members of the Cochella Valley Snowbirds who have made their way from Japan to play in the California Winter League.
The Snowbirds are coached by two Japanese coaches with American playing experience, Mac Suzuki and Takashi Miyoshi, to help ease the transition. “I still remember the first time I was here,” said Miyoshi. “I was 18 and didn’t speak any English and it was a really, really tough transition but day by day, you try to learn the culture. It just takes time.”
Miyoshi got involved with the CWL last year after coaching with Darrell Evans for an independent league team. Miyoshi says that the biggest difference between baseball in Japan and America is that in America, “Everybody is playing for the fun, everybody is trying to enjoy the game but in Japan, it’s like the Army, more strict. They don’t know how to have fun with the game.”
“I’m trying to recruit players who want to learn the baseball style from the states” said Miyoshi. “If someone has great motivation to learn baseball in the states, I want to bring that guy over.”
Outfielder, Shingo Ono, is one of the players that Miyoshi brought with him to the CWL. “Since I was little, it was a dream to come here to play baseball” says Ono (through a translator). “I have been playing independent ball for four years so I saved money and I finally had the chance to go”.
It has only been one week, but Ono has already grown a liking to the American style of baseball. “It’s been so much fun. So much better then Japan” said Ono. “Everyone is trying to enjoy the game, not only players but the coaches too.”
For the first time in their baseball careers, these men are being allowed to enjoy the freedom of the American game; but it’s not just the Japanese who are learning about the American style of play. American teammate Jeff Vires has found himself motivated by the Japanese style of play. “They are really thorough when it comes to being prepared versus even myself and some of us from America” Vires said. Vires and others are being pushed to work as hard as their Japanese teammates.
While the Snowbirds locker room is divided by two languages, that has not hindered team chemistry. “Body language makes up for the language barrier so once we get in the game, (language) doesn’t really get in the way. It’s baseball”.
And it’s baseball that has made it easy for 11 men to travel all the way around the world and leave their family and friends behind. As Shingo Ono put it, “This is my new family and new friends”.
