September 16 - From Texas to Utah and throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, Mark ‘Pudge’ Gjormand has sent dozens of players off to play college baseball. No players from his Madison High School program, however, have traveled as far to play college baseball than Noz Honda.
The recent Warhawk graduate, a first-team 6A Conference 6 pitcher this spring, plans to enroll in one of two schools in Tokyo, Japan in March, where the right-handed pitcher hopes to continue his career in the country’s collegiate ranks.
“It was a childhood thing that I wanted to do,” Honda said of his return to Japan, where he was born before his family moved to the U.S. a year later. “I thought this was the right time to do it.”
Honda has been accepted to Keio University’s School of Economics, and is awaiting word on his application to Tokyo University. Both schools are members of the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League, which has produced 23 national champions since being established in 1925. One member, Hosei University, has won a record eight titles. The schools in the league, and other large universities throughout Japan, are comprised solely of walk-ons and field teams of up to 100 players, with 25 permitted to dress for each game. The Tokyo Big6 members play three-game series against the other five schools in the league during the spring and fall seasons.
Keio will square off next month with rival Waseda University, another member of the league. The two schools have matched up in spring and fall season series dating back to 1903, and the games annually draw large crowds and the attention of local news outlets.
“[It is] a very historical game,” Honda said. “It would be pretty close to the Yankees-Boston rivalry. I haven’t started school yet, so I don’t know what’s going on on campus. But I do know that’s usually the big talk on campus when the two schools clash.”
For Honda, earning a roster spot at Keio will be more difficult than at Tokyo University, which had a 94-game losing streak from 2010-15. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound right-hander said he would welcome the opportunity to play at either school after a successful career with the Warhawks. He went 7-1 with a 1.07 earned run average and had 41 strikeouts in 45.2 innings this past spring, after helping the Warhawks win the 6A state championship as a junior in 2015.
He traveled to Tokyo earlier this month to complete his application process, will return to Virginia later this month and plans to workout locally before heading back early next year. One of his workout partners will be his younger brother, Arata, a junior pitcher and third baseman at Marshall.
Honda credits Gjormand’s program with helping him prepare for Japanese baseball, which is notorious for its structure and discipline.
“He had a pretty structured practice plan, and he really likes small ball, getting runners on base and moving them around,” Honda said. “He taught discipline to his players, and it’s pretty close to how the Japanese play baseball.”
That being said, a two- or three-hour high school practice pales pales in comparison to the training players in Japan are required to undergo. Practices have been known to run upwards of eight to 10 hours, with infielders taking hundreds of ground balls each day and pitchers required to throw long batting practice sessions. This often after running a mile to simply begin the practice session.
The culture of the Japanese game also yields to high pitch counts which can wear on a pitcher’s arm, something which is not lost on Honda.
“At Madison, I used to pitch a lot too, a couple bullpens a week. So that’s not going to trouble me,” he said. “But I’m sure some people coming in will have thrown 300-400 pitches over a span of like three days, so they’ll be more prepared, I think.
“I’m going to try, and see how it goes. The first two years, I don’t think I’d be able to make the lineup. But hopefully by my junior or senior year, I’d be able to make the bench.”
Photo/Albert Jacquez
