The 2007 All-Star Game

There's a major league baseball player's autobiography that deeply moved me. It's the most moving athlete autobiography I've ever read. It's the autobiography of a man who accomplished something unthinkable in Japan. "Breakout: From Prison to the Big Leagues," by Ron LeFlore with Jim Hawkins (1978, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.)

Japanese translation version of "Breakout" (1978, translated by Akio Inaba, Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo, Japan)

According to this autobiography, LeFlore was a delinquent born and raised in a black slum in Detroit. He barely attended school. He spent his days fighting, extorting, and stealing, and was finally sent to prison at the age of 19 when he was arrested for robbing a bar with a rifle. However, it was while in prison that LeFlore took up baseball seriously for the first time, and his talent blossomed. Released on parole in 1973, at the age of 23, he joined a minor league team and was promoted to the Detroit Tigers in major league baseball a year later. In 1976, he played in the All-Star Game and joined the ranks of top players.

During his nine-year career in the major leagues, LeFlore led the league in stolen bases twice (1978, 1980) and runs once (1978), and also held the impressive record of hitting in 31 consecutive games from 1975 to 1976.

Now, I think that LeFlore's success in the baseball world was largely due to the fact that he was able to fit in well with the first minor league team he joined. While a lot of that was due to LeFlore's reformed, cheerful personality, I also think that the presence of the man who served as his manager cannot be overlooked. LeFlore's autobiography doesn't go into much detail about this man, but I think his attitude and treatment of LeFlore was admirable. He never showed too much special consideration for LeFlore, a player with an extremely unusual background, and yet he always seemed to care for LeFlore and watch over LeFlore with warmth.

This man gave up his dream of becoming a major leaguer and became a minor league manager. He was only 28 years old when he took on the 23-year-old LeFlore. ...When he met LeFlore, did he not curse an unfair God? LeFlore, a robber who was blessed with talent, and himself, who had devoted himself to baseball but was not blessed with talent? Or had he reached a state of mind at the young age of 28 where he was free from such curses?

This man later became a coach for a major league team, and in 1986 rose to the position of manager of a major league team. This man's name was Jim Leyland.

In 2007, at the age of 62, Leyland served as the American League manager in the All-Star Game. At that moment, I remembered his relationship with LeFlore, and was moved that Jim Leyland, much later than LeFlore, finally made it to the All-Star Game. It seemed like a drama written by God to me that two completely different men, Ron LeFlore and Jim Leyland, met and each achieved such remarkable success, albeit at different times.

Later, I realized how careless I had been. I learned that Jim Leyland had already served as the National League manager in the 1998 All-Star Game.

Furthermore, Leyland served as the American League manager again in the All-Star Game in 2013, and in 2017 he managed the United States national team in the World Baseball Classic, leading them to their first championship. And in 2023, Leyland was inducted into the "National Baseball Hall of Fame".

While I am very happy to learn of Leyland's spectacular success, I will never forget the first time I was moved by remembering LeFlore and Leyland at the 2007 All-Star Game. That was the event in Major League Baseball that made me think the most about life.

I worry that I may have made a huge misunderstanding or written something rude about Ron LeFlore and Jim Leyland. Please forgive me if I have misunderstood or been rude, as I have nothing but admiration and respect for the two.

In Japan, it seems impossible for someone to become a professional baseball player after graduating from prison. I don't think anyone would have the guts to try something like that, and Japanese society doesn't seem to have the tolerance to give anyone a second chance. Also, in Japan, it is unthinkable for someone who has not been a successful professional baseball player to be selected as a manager of a professional baseball team. In other words, I think the lives that LeFlore and Leyland led could never happen in Japan. But I hope that the time will come when such things can happen in Japan.

(If I've made a mistake or left out something important, please let me know. I'll try to make corrections or additions.)