📚32【Mother in the Alps Seats】Getting Fired Up 806

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Mother in the Alps Seats

Kazumasa Hayami (Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1977, winner of the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Shugoro Yamamoto Prize, etc.)
Shogakukan 351 pages
First edition 3/20/2024

There are many stories written about high school baseball, but isn't it quite rare for the mother to be the protagonist?
Are there any?
It's the first time I've read one, though...

The protagonist is a nurse and a single mother who lost her husband, and her son is an ace in the Kanagawa Prefecture Senior League, with a promising future.
Although he has no experience playing at Koshien, he is scouted by a growing private school in Osaka, and the son moves into a dormitory while the protagonist begins living in an apartment.

In her private life, the protagonist is blessed with a good workplace, works as a nurse, and becomes friends with a doctor whose son is on the same team.
On the other hand, unfamiliar things happen frequently in the baseball club, and she finds it difficult to fit in.

The rules of the parents' association, the relationship between the manager and the parents' association, bullying and hierarchy within the parents' association, the roles and burdens of officers, slush fund issues, the son's injury and surgery, dropping out of the lineup...
Even though she lives right under her son's nose, the protagonist's daily life is prioritized by being a "high school baseball player's mother."
And that is "betting on the first appearance at Koshien."

At the workplace I retired from at the end of April, there were two "high school baseball player's mothers."
Both were single mothers, and both of their sons (of different ages) were in dormitories at high schools far away.
Moreover, both of them quit the companies they joined after graduating from college and became police officers.
What an amazing coincidence!!
One was my subordinate, and the other was a mom friend whose son was a junior high classmate of Susumu (pseudonym, second son), so I know the reality of "high school baseball player's mothers" fairly well.
Like how they get asked for donations even after graduation.

Even so, the parents' association is unreasonable and harsh.
The protagonist's workplace is understanding and she can manage her time, but she has no financial leeway.
And above all, things happen that make it impossible to bear the pangs of conscience.
Do the baseball players themselves actually know the truth about the parents' association?
Even if the players knew, could the parents stay calm?

The son suffers from an elbow injury that he had been nursing since he was an ace in the senior league.
In high school, he chooses surgery, gives up on being a pitcher, and is dropped from the regular lineup.
Perhaps because the pressure is gone, he enjoys baseball from the bottom of his heart, speaks up loudly, and becomes the team's mood maker.
The protagonist is encouraged by her son's growth and gains the trust of other parents and the manager by working with them.

There are parts that make you think "Hmm..." regarding the ins and outs of the parents' association and the manager, and the behind-the-scenes of scouting, but heated games are interspersed in between, so it doesn't get too heavy or boring.
The son is also such a good kid.
If he were my own son, I'd hug him even if he hated it.
If he weren't my son, I'd fall in love with him.
Age gap or not, I love unrequited love...

This is a story about high school baseball, a story about a parents' association, a story about a baseball player's growth, a story about a parent and child, and I think it's also a story about a parent's growth.
No matter what perspective you read it from, you'll surely get fired up.
Even those who say "I can't believe they do parent duty on school holidays," those who say "I can't spend money on club activities," and those who say "I'm not interested in baseball at all," will likely find it burning and moe.

It's heartwarming how the mother and son's Osaka dialect has become natural before I knew it.
This parent and child have already moved on to the next phase!!

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