Interview with Shogo Nakashima
As I interviewed Shogo Nakashima for the website of De Glaskoning Twins, I decided to translate the article and put it on my blog as well. Sydney BlueSox fans will likely want to know who will join their club this winter.
Since baseball is still the biggest sport in Japan, Shogo was very young when he made his first steps on the diamond. His brother was playing for a team in their hometown of Azisaka, so Shogo started to play baseball as well. He and his brother played on the same teams. After junior high, his brother stopped playing baseball but Shogo continued. Eventually, he attended Fukuoka University where he studied physical mechanics and got a degree.
During his days at high school, his school also played preliminary rounds of the Fukuoka prefecture for the Koshien Tournament. But since his school wasn’t very strong, it never made it to the main tournament when Shogo was playing there.
After Shogo got his degree at Fukuoka University, he was drafted by the Yakult Swallows, the club where Dutchie Wladimir Balentien is a beloved power hitter. In 2015 Shogo joined the club. One year later, he was added to the 70-man roster. Every NPB club has one Ni-gun (minor league) team and 45 players are on the roster of that team. Eventually, Shogo made it to the NPB roster. In total, he played three years for the organization of the Yakult Swallows.
After the 2017 season, Shogo joined the Asian Islanders. This is a travel team that mainly contains players from Japan but there were also a few players from Europe. The Asian Islanders are known for giving opportunities to players to play in Taiwanese leagues.
The Asian Islanders played several exhibition games against university teams, high school teams and factory teams in Taiwan. To the question why Shogo did not stay in Taiwan and joined De Glaskoning Twins from the Netherlands instead, he answered that De Glaskoning Twins was the first team to offer him a contract.
So far, the 178 cm tall (5-10) pitcher has been to Taiwan and the Netherlands thanks to baseball. This coming winter he will add Australia and New Zealand to that list. Recently, Shogo signed a contract with the Sydney BlueSox of the Australian Baseball League. The upcoming season, two new teams will be added to the ABL. One of them is from New Zealand, the Auckland Tuatara. As a result, the Blue Sox have to travel to New Zealand as well. Shogo got into contact with the Sydney BlueSox through Kotaro Nagata, general manager of the Asian Islanders and owner of Footrans, an intermediary for sports like baseball and soccer. Nagata talked with the BlueSox and as a result, Nakashima signed a contract with the club. It was Nagata who brought Shogo and De Glaskoning Twins together as well.
To the question what he takes most pride in, Shogo answered that he is proud on the fact that he managed to play in the NPB. Shogo is also very happy with his season in the Dutch hoofdklasse. He ended the regular season with a 1.99 ERA. Six pitchers ended in front of him, players like Lars Huijer, Loek van Mil (also known in the ABL) and Kevin Heijstek. But he managed to keep renowned pitchers like Rob Cordemans and Orlando Yntema behind him.
Shogo still doesn’t know what he will do after the NPB season. Likely he will go back to Japan. He still doesn’t have career plans for when he will stop playing baseball.
We would like to thank Shogo for the time he took to answer our questions. We wish him lots of success in the remainder of the hoofdklasse season and later in Australia.