深い～い話

先日、なるほど・すごいな・やっぱりな、と思う話を飛行機の中のラジオでききました。
それは王貞治氏が、インタビューに答えている場面でした。王さんはイチローの凄さをを語っていました。
「彼はある意味僕と似ていて、どんな記録を打ち立てようとも達成感というものを感じないんですね。」
「僕はいつも子どもたちに野球がうまくなるにはどうすればいいか聞かれるのですが、いつも答えるのはとても単純なことなんです。毎日練習をし毎回努力すること、これが大事だとね。イチローも同じことをやってきたんだとね。子どもたちにとってあまりインパクトのある話ではないですが・・。」
これを聞いて思ったことは、凄い人だからこそ人の凄さがわかる、ということです。凄くない私などは、イチローはいつも冷静沈着、自分をコントロールできる人だなあ、くらいにしか感じていなかったけれども、王さんは違っていました。「達成感を感じない」なんて、なるほどな・すごいな、やっぱり王さんだな、とつくづく思いました。

On the airplane from Tokyo to Hiroshima yesterday, listening
to the radio, I heard the soft voice. That was Oh Sadaharu’s. He is the one of the famous baseball players in the world.

When I was a child, he used to be a hero that made a world record, 756 home runs.　I clearly remember the scene he hit the home run, because it happened on the day of summer festival of my tiny village during summer holiday.

In the program on the radio, he answered the interview, “In a since Ichiro is similar to me because he has never felt a sense of accomplishment whatever he has made some records.”, and he continued “I always advised children that the most important thing to improve your skills was just practicing baseball every day and making an effort every time. Ichiro dose the same. The only thing he has done is practicing continuously and strictly. The advice I made does not give an impact to them but very important.”

To my impression, a great person knows what “a great” is. I thought Ichiro is a person who has a character of self-possessed and can put himself under the control. In a contrary, Mr. Oh Sadaharu focuses on a sense of accomplishment as a factor of Ichiro’s success. It is a deep insight that the person who did the same things could say.