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. * Mr. Irvin and the Team Spirit, who introduced him abruptly to many an outfield wall.
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)。
C
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。
136
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.
136
