香山リカのココロの万華鏡:見る人の心奪う「野球」 ／東京

November 10, 2013(Mainichi Japan)
Kaleidoscope of the Heart: The power of baseball
香山リカのココロの万華鏡:見る人の心奪う「野球」　／東京

This year's professional baseball Nippon Series really generated a buzz. The Yomiuri Giants and Rakuten Golden Eagles came to the plate with very different histories. Some people were moved to give the Golden Eagles their fervent support simply because they were a team from the disaster-hit northeast.
　今年のプロ野球日本シリーズは大変盛り上がった。読売ジャイアンツと東北楽天ゴールデンイーグルスは球団の歴史も、戦歴も対照的。さらにイーグルスは東北の球団だけに被災地へ心を寄せる人たちも熱心に応援した。

Baseball fans were excited elsewhere as well. In American Major League Baseball the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, with Japanese pitchers Koji Uehara and Junichi Tazawa greatly contributing to the victory and grabbing the attention of fans in Japan, as well as those in the United States.
　海の向こうの米国メジャーリーグではボストン・レッドソックスがワールドシリーズ制覇を果たしたが、同球団所属の上原浩治、田沢純一両投手が大活躍し、こちらも日米のファンは大いに沸いた。

This talk about baseball reminds me of the 1976 Academy Award winner "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
　野球といえば１９７６年のアカデミー賞映画「カッコーの巣の上で」を思い出す。

Set in a 1960s American mental institution, a man pretending to be a psychiatric patient is admitted there and rebels against the administration. During a "discussion therapy" session that is anything but, he suddenly requests that the institution staff change the building's schedule so the patients can watch the World Series.
６０年代の米国の州立精神科病院が舞台のこの作品では病人を装って入院し、病棟の管理体制に反発する男が名ばかりの「ディスカッション療法」で突如、「ワールドシリーズ中継をテレビで見られるように病棟の日課を変更してほしい」と要求する。

Although the other patients at first say they want to watch baseball, when a vote is held only two others agree with the man.
口では「野球が見たい」と言いながらも、投票を行うと男に賛成したのは２人。

Afterwards, the man convinces the other patients that it's OK for them to express their opinions, and in a second vote on the baseball issue all the participating patients vote in favor of the man's proposal.
その後、男は入院患者を「自分の意見を言っていいんだ」と説得し、２回目の投票では参加した患者全員が賛同票を投じる。

However, the medical staff turn down the idea on the grounds that not all the patients participated in the vote, and in the end they refuse to allow them to watch the games.
しかし、医療スタッフ側は「投票に参加していない患者もいる」という理屈を持ち出して結局、野球中継の観戦は許可されなかった。

The movie was a heavy critique of mental institutions of the time that ignored patients' rights, and there are many things that can be learned from it. When I first watched it as a university student, I was moved by the power of baseball to motivate people to act, even when they were resigned to other things.
　当時の人権を無視した精神医療への強烈な批判となっているこの作品から学ぶことはあまりに多いが、私は大学時代に本作を初めて見た時に「他のことでは我慢している人たちも、『野球が見たい』となると立ち上がるんだな」と、野球というスポーツが人をひき付ける力に感心した。

When I became a psychiatrist myself and began working in a hospital ward, I started experiencing that power again and again.
　その後、自分も精神科医になって病棟に勤務するようになると、ますますそれを実感することになった。

Back then, many baseball games, Giants games in particular, were broadcast on television. When the clock went past 6 p.m., patients would gather around the television to watch games.
当時はジャイアンツ戦を中心に多くの試合が中継されていたが、午後６時を過ぎると多くの患者さんたちがテレビの周囲に集まってくる。

There were many times when I was surprised by a patient who, though normally reticent, would give swift responses when asked about their favorite baseball team or baseball player.
他の話題には乗ってこないような人に「好きな球団は？　ひいきの選手は？」と問いかけると即座に答えが返ってきて、驚くこともしばしばだった。

Afterwards, soccer replaced baseball as the more popular sport, and baseball games became a less common sight on TV.
　その後、世間では野球よりもサッカー熱が高まり、地上波放送での野球中継も少なくなってしまった。

However, the roles of the different players in baseball are more clearly defined than in soccer, and the rule of changing batting and fielding roles every three outs, along with other aspects of the sport, give it ups and downs that continue to entertain audiences.
ただ、サッカー以上にそれぞれの役割がはっきり分かれており、「３アウトで攻守がチェンジ」などメリハリがある野球は今でも見ている誰もが楽しめ、心を奪うスポーツであることは確かなのではないだろうか。

I no longer work in the hospital where I watched the baseball games with the patients, but I think nostalgically about whether those patients watched and enjoyed the Nippon Series this year.
　患者さんたちと一緒に野球中継を見た病院から私は異動してしまったが、彼らも今年の日本シリーズに胸を熱くしただろうか、と懐かしく思い出すのだ。

(By Rika Kayama, psychiatrist)
毎日新聞　2013年11月05日　地方版
〔都内版〕