#kariba

I see this subject come up time and time again, and I have some time on my hands, so I really have to talk about Miyuki’s role in Eijun’s recovery from yips. Sorry folks. It’s just that people often say he didn’t have one, and IMO that’s not the case. This might be long, so read it at your own risk.

I admit, I don’t buy into the idea Eijun’s yips are caused or aggravated by Miyuki, because we’re shown Eijun’s trauma after the Inajitsu game (the hit-by-pitch, seeing Tetsu cry, etc) and during the Yakushi game (when he feels pressured by Furuya and Kataoka’s comments about being a relief pitcher). It doesn’t matter if Miyuki blames himself - it’s not really logical that his criticism (which Eijun has dealt with from the start) should play a bigger role than the two traumas mentioned already. But even if we exonerate him from causing the yips, what about Eijun’s recovery? 

As a language geek and a literature major, allow me to bore you all to tears elaborate. Let’s take that scene when Kataoka, Miyuki and Chris are watching Kariba, Kanemaru and Eijun practicing the outside pitch. Let’s look at what is actually being said in this scene, because I think it’s really important to understanding what’s really going on here.

Miyuki’s exact line is as follows:

Su’imasen, Chris-senpai ni made dette kite moratte.

(すいません、クリス先輩にまで出って来てもらって）

Believe it or not, this simple sentence actually gives two important clues about Miyuki’s involvement post yips.

Clue #1 - Receiving a favour. The use of suffix verb moratte (morau) indicates the receipt of a favour from Chris to Miyuki. In other words, Chris getting involved was on Miyuki’s request. Of course, that alone doesn’t explicitly specify what the request was. To figure that out, we have to cheat a bit and look at Chris’s response.

Chris replies with jibun demo zutto itakatta koto da.

 The ‘jibun demo’ in this sentence gives us that clarity. It means ‘even me’, or ‘I also’. So whatever it was, Chris wanted to do it as well as Miyuki. 

Neither sentence states what the ‘it’ might be, but we already know that Chris taught Eijun to pitch to the outside as a remedy for the yips. So in context, that must be the ‘it’. This is the favour Chris did for Miyuki. And it’s the thing that Chris ALSO wanted to do. 

The ‘I ALSO’ aspect demonstrates that this wasn’t Chris’s initiative, but something suggested to him; something both Miyuki and Chris wanted to do. And the morau indicates Miyuki probably asked him to do it. 

Yes, Kataoka is there too, but Chris’s statement lacks any formal speech. That means what he says is addressed to Miyuki, his kouhai, not his coach. The fact Miyuki is the one apologising also suggests this. If it were Kataoka’s request, it seems weird for Miyuki to be saying sorry to Chris. Kataoka is probably there to watch the fruits of the exercise (Eijun pitching to Kariba), rather than involved in how it came about.

We can take this analysis further, though, by going back to Miyuki’s statement and Chris’s response.

Even though Chris wanted to teach Eijun that skill,  we know that he didn’t originally intend to intervene in this crisis. He initially told Kanemaru not to make too much of the yips, and when Kanemaru asks if he will get involved, Chris says Eijun will overcome it on his own.

So, even if he did want to teach Eijun this skill, he did not do it on his own initiative. That also reinforces the idea that he is there now only because Miyuki asked him to do that favour. In short, Chris provides the solution, but Miyuki is the reason he acts.

 If we go back to the way Chris told Eijun, originally, that the four-seam was their ‘final lesson’, this also indicates how ‘hands off’ Chris is with Eijun after his retirement. This also explains why intervention from someone (here Miyuki) was necessary to get him involved. (Perhaps we should also see it as significant that Miyuki could persuade him where Kanemaru failed, but that’s another discussion).

All of this speculation means we can also infer that, if this is Miyuki’s idea, then, even while trying to handle his other catching duties, Miyuki must have been thinking about how to make this right. If he wasn’t, he would never have asked Chris anything.

Circumstantially, this is supported by his thoughts in the canteen in an earlier scene, where he reflects that Eijun is too conscious of pitching to the inside. It makes sense that he’d settle on pitching to the outside as a viable solution to try after ruling out Eijun’s form as the main problem. Let’s also not forget that he also told Kuramochi that Eijun was a valuable asset the team would need in the autumn. 

Let’s go back to Miyuki’s statement once again and examine the second hint.

Clue #2 - Miyuki’s Last Resort This time, I want to talk about Miyuki’s use of made. Made here means ‘to the extent of doing x’. Obviously, the x is getting Chris involved. That implies that, far from passing the buck and just dumping the problem on Chris, Miyuki’s almost certainly asked him for help after exhausting other options. 

Why does that matter? Because it indicates Miyuki has already tried other ways to help Eijun before resorting to asking Chris’s help. In fact, we see one example of this with the filming of the pitches (involving Kariba) as well. So we do know that Miyuki is working with Eijun on a fix for the yips before he speaks to Chris.

One main reason I think people don’t notice/credit this is because, right before Chris gets involved, Miyuki tells Eijun he shouldn’t overthink, has never had good control, and is an idiot. It’s so deliberately contrary to what Miyuki is thinking and what we subsequently know he does in bringing in Chris that it reminded me of Miyuki in that earlier scene, standing on the hill with Kuramochi, saying that he’ll be hated, or he’ll lie, or do whatever it takes to make a pitcher shine.

It also reminded me of the time Miyuki had Eijun pinned up against an office wall for badmouthing Chris, but then went to Chris and persuaded him that he needed to take working with Eijun seriously. Here too Miyuki acted as go-between connecting Eijun and Chris, not minding if he appeared in a negative light to Eijun to do it.

In that context it seems likely that Miyuki chose that moment in the canteen to be bad cop. He chose to be bad cop so he could make Chris good cop, because he knew Eijun would listen to Chris - perhaps all the more so if he thought Miyuki didn’t care. Miyuki himself acknowledges that the lesson will be more effective from Chris. Perhaps he also wants to make Eijun angry with him, rather than overly focused on his pitches, or to fire him up to practice more (which is what happens), but those things are my speculation. Whatever the truth of that, the truth remains that Miyuki IS working to help Eijun, just doing so behind the scenes, rather than up front. 

It doesn’t really end there, though. Even after enlisting Chris, Miyuki continues to lowkey support Eijun’s recovery from the shadows. He insists on him playing in the intrasquad with the third years (despite Kuramochi’s querying it), because he says he needs the experience, and by pushing him to complete inside pitching in an actual tournament game, despite the risk. Even though he makes those calls, we see him agonising about whether Eijun is ready or not. That shows that even then he is still worried about his pitcher and his form, and that - for him - this is still an ongoing problem he is working to resolve. While Chris’s involvement is still absolutely critical, it is something of a one off. Miyuki and Kariba are the catchers who actually bring Chris’s teaching to fruition - one in the bullpen and the other on the ground. In that context, this is a team effort.

Miyuki is often a catalyst, acting behind the scenes rather than making overt gestures. That makes his actions frequently misunderstood. Sometimes it’s the little things he does that have the biggest impact, but he is rarely given any of the credit. For me this is one of those examples.

Miyuki is pivotal to Eijun’s recovery from the yips, from the start through to the end. He’s there when it’s first discussed, a supportive hand against Eijun’s spine. He’s there when they’re filming in the bullpen. He’s there, handing the baton to Chris as a last resort. And he’s there on the ground, when Eijun finally pitches it again.