The Secret · American Version

Mr. Irvin and the Team Spirit, who introduced him abruptly to many an outfield wall.

TEAM SPIRITS

Rosa petrus a.k.a. canis calidus

RANGE Despite their reputation for enormous importance, Team Spirits are harder to see than a dab of hair oil on a baseball travelling at 95 mph between a pitcher’s hand and a catcher’s glove. Learned experts (which sports writers always are) maintain that Team Spirits can be found even in the Major Leagues, but for the most part, they grace (or plague) amateur clubs, college, and farm teams. They feed off success and grow or shrink with a team’s achievements. Team Spirits are most noticeable by their absence—it is invariably observed that a losing or strife-torn team has “lost its Team Spirit.”

HABITS Team Spirits, although invisible, can influence the outcome of most sports events. They can nudge a knuckleball over the corner of the plate, and, by spreading their wings and lowering their flaps, transform an arrogant pitcher’s fastball into a hanging curve, or “gopher ball.” Likewise, they can cause a long flyball to remain suspended in the air above the fence until caught and steer a slow bunt to either side of the foul line. Team Spirits inspire basketball players to take swan dives onto the parquet. Cheered on by a Team Spirit, an out-of-position hockey player will lunge to catch a puck with his teeth, and a soccer player will interpose his head between foot and ball … for Team Spirits most often abound wherever large groups of people gather to watch smaller groups get their exercise for them. When a basketball spins for thirty seconds around the inner lip of the rim and then shoots out like a champagne cork, that’s the Team Spirit (who never gets called for goaltending) doing her thing. Likewise, a field goal attempt bouncing off both uprights and the crossbar before dropping down on the wrong side, and a puck coming to rest right on the goal line are both the handiwork of Team Spirits. However, these tricks are whimsical. An angry Team Spirit can shatter a baseball bat and direct a sharp shard of oak into the neck of anyone within a hundred feet of the batter’s box. Many players try to win the good will of the Team Spirit by such time-honored rituals as swinging three bats simultaneously, spitting frequently, or smuding black stuff beneath their eyes. Managers and coaches seek the Team Spirit’s favor by the ancient rites of kicking dirt on the umpire’s shoes, looking sleepy at crucial moments, and looking anxious and intent when nothing is happening on the field.

HISTORY All Team Spirits are descended from the legendary Will Toowin, who in old England once defeated Robin Goodsport on the enchanted playing fields of Eton. It was Will Toowin who invented the beanball and inspired Ty Cobb to sit on the bench sharpening his spikes while the other team’s shortstop watched in terror. Team Spirits are related to such other malevolent ephemera as The School Spirit, The Self Image, and The Company Man. SPOTTER’S

TIPS Team Spirits inhabit exclusively the locker rooms of winning teams, for whose successes they are given (or take) all the credit. According to some West Coast managers, they do not associate with Nice Guys, who finish you-know-where.

Two editions, one page

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Japanese edition page: TEAM SPIRITS — 日本語版 · Japanese edition

日本語版の本文

For the Team · Team Spirits

The Japanese text with an English back-translation.

Japanese text

棲息地この妖精たちは通称チーム・プレイとかチームの和とか呼ばれ、もっぱら勝ったチームのロッカールームにいる。負けたほうにはいない。いないから負けたのだから。とはいってもこの妖精は気まぐれで, つねに自分たちのチームにとどめておくことはむずかしい(チームのなかにかならずひとりやふたり裏切るやつがいるからだ)。

習性たとえば高校野球のように純心無垢な少年たちばかりならいいが, 世間の表も裏も知ってしまった大人たちの集団では「フォア・ザ・チーム」をつらぬくことはむずかしい。だから実業団チームなんかは, 選手たちが社会の表に触れないようにするため, 選手寮をつくって隔離したり、年がら年じゅう合宿をして予防にこれつとめている。そのおかげでニッポンのアマチュア・スポーツは世界のレベルに比較してもかなりの線を維持することができている。が、その反面, 彼らはある意味では社会おんちにされている。 “激しい練習の毎日” という美名のもとに, まるで修行僧のような生活を強いられ, 会社の, あるいは地域の,あるいは国家の期待を一身に受けて、ひたすらスポーツとだけ取り組んでいる。彼らの表情には悲愴感さえあって, それがまた観客を酔わせ夢中にさせる。でも,これがはたしてスポーツのほんとうの姿だろうか。フォアザチームの精神というのはこのような集団生活, きびしい連日の練習なくしては生まれてこないのか。フォア・ザ・チームの妖精たちは、正直なところ, もっともっとひとりひとりの選手たちが人間的魅力にあふれているチームに応援したがっている。

歴史フォア・ザ・チームの歴史はむしろプロスポーツの隆盛によって確立されてきた。ワン・フォー・オールとは, オール・フォー・ワンの意識があってはじめてなりたつのであるから。

私立探偵の情報アマチュアのくせに夜の街で金使いの荒らい選手のいるチームに行けば会える。

English back-translation

Habitat These sprites are commonly known as “team play” or “team harmony” and are found exclusively in the locker rooms of winning teams. They’re never with the losing side. And that’s precisely why the losing side lost. That said, these sprites are capricious and difficult to keep permanently within any one team — because there’s always one or two traitors lurking somewhere inside.

Behavior Pure-hearted young boys like high school baseball players are one thing — but in a group of adults who know both the front and back of the world, maintaining “for the team” spirit is genuinely difficult. So corporate sports teams build dormitories to isolate their players from society, running year-round training camps as a preventative measure against outside contamination. Thanks to this, Japanese amateur sports maintain a fairly competitive level by world standards. But on the other hand, these athletes are in a sense made socially deaf. Under the fine-sounding banner of “daily intense training,” they’re forced into a life like ascetic monks — carrying the expectations of their company, their region, their nation on their shoulders, doing nothing but sports. Their expressions carry a note of tragedy that intoxicates and captivates audiences. But is this really the true form of sport? Can the spirit of “for the team” only be born from this kind of communal living and relentlessly grueling daily practice? The Team Spirit sprites, to be honest, would much rather cheer for a team where each individual player overflows with human appeal.

History The history of “for the team” was established rather through the rise of professional sports. “One for all” can only be realized when there is first an awareness of “all for one.” Field Intelligence Go to any team where supposedly amateur players are spending suspiciously large amounts of money out on the town at night — you’ll find the sprites there.

TEAM SPIRITS

Two editions, one page

日本語版の本文

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