NEXON SUSTAINABILITY

AM09:15 Assembly & warm-ups

Thank you for letting us use the very spacious and well-maintained Chiba Lotte Marines’ indoor practice facility this year as well.

Warm-ups were done thoroughly -by stretching and tossing a ball back and forth- to prevent injury.

AM09:50 Orientation quiz

We started off with an orientation quiz session, which also worked as a warm-up. The kids were quizzed on important points regarding how to play online games safely, and on Nexon and the Chiba Lotte Marines.
The kids had to do things like jump 10 times, do push-ups, or give high-fives to all the participants before answering a question, so they were having fun moving their bodies during the quiz.

10 minutes passed without a final winner so it came down to a rock-scissors-paper match between the remaining four kids. The winner received the Nexon Award.

AM10:30 Kids’ Baseball Class

Kids’ Baseball Class finally began. Each player took on one of the three areas -pitching, fielding, or batting- to instruct.

Tomohisa Otani gave instructions for the pitching section. Otani not only answered many questions from the kids, but also gave them careful instructions on pitching by showing them how to do it.

Tatsuhiro Tamura gave instructions for the fielding section. Tamura taught the kids the right mental attitude for fielding and throwing the ball, such as, “Don’t be afraid of the batted ball, and throw the ball with care.”

Shota Ishimine gave instructions for the batting section. Ishimine gave detailed advice to each of the kids on how to properly swing the bat and how to angle their feet.

While the participating kids started out a bit nervous about getting direct instructions from the professional baseball players they admire, soon enough they were listening intently to their advice with serious expressions and giving it their all to shout out and play.

AM12:20 Players’ comments / Special autograph session

The winners of the Player’s Award -which was awarded to excellent players selected from the participating kids by the three professional players themselves- were very delighted to be gifted with gloves and caps that the players had actually used.

In addition, this time there was a surprise match of rock-paper- scissors, and the winner got a special autographed bat. The event was a blast up until the end!

Players’ comments

Tomohisa Otani
“I was impressed with your high individual abilities. I would like you to become even more proactive and challenge yourselves to get better not only in baseball but in various things.”

Shota Ishimine
“Please continue to practice a lot. I would like you to take good notes of what you were told today and keep them in mind while you practice.”

Tatsuhiro Tamura
“I was surprised by how good you were. The greatest tricks for getting better is to mimic the players you like, so please do so. I would be really happy if we could play together 10 years from now.”

Special autograph session

Closing Commemorative photo shoot / Farewell to players

The players and all the participants took a commemorative photo together. This year, six teams (63 people) were chosen by a random drawing from the numerous applicants.

At the end, the three players left through a path surrounded by kids. Thank you for teaching them.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us at Nexon x Chiba Lotte Marines Kids’ Baseball Class. Let’s root for the Chiba Lotte Marines together with Nexon going forward!