Disaster victim to throw MLB opening pitch
Shinji Takai, a strawberry farmer whose fields in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, were badly damaged by the March 11 tsunami, is scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch Wednesday at U.S. Major League Baseball's official opening game at Tokyo Dome.
The Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics will play the MLB's season-opening games, the 2012 gloops MLB Opening Series Japan, at the dome on Wednesday and Thursday.
After quitting a computer company in Tokyo at the age of 31, Takai, now 38, trained to become a strawberry farmer for two years in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture. He eventually started his own farm in Kesennuma, but just as business was picking up, the March 11 disaster struck.
After the disaster, Takai stayed at an evacuation center with his wife Noriko, 34, and their daughter Miki, 1, for about two weeks. When he saw mud-covered photo albums of wedding ceremonies and family trips being collected from devastated sites, he began volunteer work to clean the photos, utilizing his computer skills from his previous job. He has so far managed to return about 500,000 photos to their owners.
Takai currently has no prospects of resuming strawberry cultivation, but he is looking forward to taking the mound. As Ichiro Suzuki, who is the same age as Takai, belongs to the Seattle Mariners, "I'd like to pitch against him at the opening ceremony," Takai said with a smile.
Takai said he wants to thank people around the world who have supported disaster victims by displaying a cheerful attitude on the mound.
Also scheduled to pitch in the opening ceremony were Andy Anderson, the father of Taylor Anderson, an assistant English teacher who died in the tsunami in Ishinomaki; and Naho Hozumi, a member of the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Hands On Tokyo.
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