{"id":8671,"date":"2015-12-04T17:29:24","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T08:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/?p=8671"},"modified":"2016-05-19T17:56:10","modified_gmt":"2016-05-19T08:56:10","slug":"abe-isoo-and-the-waseda-baseball-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/news-en\/2015\/12\/04\/8671\/","title":{"rendered":"Abe Isoo and the Waseda Baseball Club"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"right\">Waseda University Archives<br \/>\nAkira Takahashi<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">In May 1899, Doshisha Junior and Senior High School Vice Principal Abe Isoo became a lecturer at Tokyo College (Waseda University\u2019s predecessor). Abe later became a Waseda faculty member at the political science and economics department where he gave lectures on social policy and English-based lectures as part of Waseda\u2019s advanced preparatory curriculum. Abe was one of Waseda\u2019s most prominent professors in the Meiji and early Taisho periods and occupied key positions such as Dean of Waseda\u2019s first School of Political Science and Economics and University Vice President. When discussing Abe and his activities at Waseda, one cannot help but mention his role as manager of the Waseda Baseball Club.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wasedaweekly.jp\/upload\/1542\/1382%E6%97%A9%E7%A8%B2%E7%94%B0%E3%81%AB%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2%E3%81%82%E3%82%8A.jpg\" width=\"918\" height=\"600\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo taken in 1905 to commemorate the Waseda Baseball Club&#8217;s first American Tour<\/p><\/div>\n<p align=\"left\">Apart from a period when Abe became Dean of Waseda\u2019s athletics department, Abe was manager of the Waseda Baseball Club from its inception in 1901 until 1926, and dedicated a tremendous amount of energy towards the Club\u2019s success.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">As manager, Abe watched over practice sessions while fulfilling his duties as an instructor. He was committed to providing the Club with new opportunities and in 1905 made the team\u2019s first American Tour a reality. During his time as manager, Abe oversaw the first Waseda vs. Keio University baseball game as well as the establishment of the Tokyo Big 6 Baseball League \u2013 two traditions that continue to this day.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">For Abe, the most important role as club manager was cultivating its members&#8217; spirits.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wasedaweekly.jp\/upload\/1542\/%E8%BF%BD%E5%8A%A0%E5%86%99%E7%9C%9F.jpg\" width=\"965\" height=\"600\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Team photo taken at Stanford University<\/p><\/div>\n<p align=\"left\">In his writing, \u201cThe Three Primary Virtues of Baseball,\u201d Abe wrote, \u201cI have communicated to the team the importance of cultivating and strengthening the spirit.\u201d He emphasized two major points. \u201cThe first is to fight with the same passion throughout the entire match.\u201d In other words, you should give it your all until the very end no matter the circumstances and never \u201cabandon hope.\u201d \u201cThe second is to avoid placing all importance on winning or losing.\u201d For Abe, the importance of competition was not the act of winning or losing, but the act of calmly committing your spirit until the very end.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Manager Abe used baseball as a way to encourage all students to maintain a calm spirit and overcome difficulties in the game of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Waseda University Archives Akira Takahashi In May 1899, Doshisha Junior and Senior High School Vice Principal  [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[78,165],"class_list":["post-8671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-history-en","tag-soccer-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/athletic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}