Actor Takaya Matsutani appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi), which aired on Getsuku. He spoke tearfully about his relationship with the actor, which began when he was chosen to play the lead role in the film "Glory Back Home," based on the life of Shintaro Yokota, a former Hanshin Tigers player who retired from baseball due to a brain tumor and passed away at the young age of 28.
The two had a lot in common: their fathers were professional baseball players, they lived in dormitories in high school, they were left-handed pitchers and left-handed bats, and they were close in height and age.
On this day, he brought a glove to the studio. "This glove was a gift from Yokota Shintaro. I received the glove that he used when he was active," he revealed. He said that he had been practicing baseball to prepare for the role. He had always been a pitcher, so he had been practicing with a pitcher's glove, but "Shintaro (who was an outfielder) said, 'I'll give you the glove that I used when I was active, so please practice with it.' I was so happy. I never thought I'd receive a glove from a professional baseball player. Gloves are really important things," he said happily.
When he heard about the movie, he resumed baseball practice and began training again. "While I was practicing, Yokota was diagnosed with a brain tumor and placed back in hospice care," he said. "I was surprised because he was on the mend, or rather, he was feeling better at the time."
He went to a hospice in Kobe, but "wasn't able to talk to him at the time." Later, when he heard that Shintaro had passed away, he headed back to Kobe. "I didn't know what I could do, but there's a stadium called Naruohama Stadium (for the Hanshin Tigers) where Shintaro had always practiced, including at Koshien, and I thought he might want to go, so I went around to various places with Glove," he said.
After watching the finished film, he mourned, "Shintaro is no longer with us. In the film, Shintaro was so vibrant, so alive, that when I finished watching it and returned to reality, I felt like Shintaro was gone."
