Youth Baseball x Stocks x AI Adoption: Thinking About Investment Targets from the Future of the Ballpark
Should AI be introduced to youth baseball?
To give you the conclusion first, I believe it "should be used." However, with conditions.
And today, I want to take it a step further and think about what kind of companies will have the wind at their backs, working backward from the "future where AI enters youth baseball." This is an article I want people who like both baseball and investing to read.
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## AI is already starting to enter the ballpark
In the professional world, tracking pitch spin rates and batted ball speeds has already become standard. We are in an era where you can use services that record your form on video and have AI analyze it with just a smartphone.
There is no reason why this trend shouldn't trickle down to youth baseball.
So, should we just use it more and more? I think this is a matter of degree.
**The areas that can be left to AI** are clear.
- Managing pitch counts and elbow strain. Acting as a monitor to ensure children don't break their bodies.
- Recording form and visualizing changes. Objectively documenting "what has changed since last month."
- Checking for imbalances in practice menus.
On the other hand, there are **areas that should not be left to AI**. That is the child's own "sense."
The feel of the ball the moment you hit it. The footwork when catching. The time spent using your own body to try and fail, saying this or that doesn't work. If numerical data jumps ahead and gives the answer to all of this, children will lose the ability to communicate with their own senses.
AI is not an umpire or a manager, but a **measuring and recording clerk**. I think this sense of distance is the right way to interact with youth baseball.
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## The problem of "eyes"—it was a difference of a few centimeters that allowed me to continue playing baseball
From here, I will talk about something a bit heavy.
At my high school, there were **two people who could no longer play baseball because a ball hit their eyes**. A batted ball and a throw during practice. Both were split-second events. Teammates who were chasing the white ball together until yesterday took off their uniforms because of a single eye injury. I still cannot forget that scene.
And actually, I almost became one of them. A ball flew toward my face, and if it had hit **just a few centimeters differently, I would have been unable to play baseball**. At the time, I just brushed it off as "I was lucky," but now I think it wasn't really something that should have been left to luck.
In baseball, eyes are not consumables; they are a lifeline.
Hitting is a world of 0.4 seconds. In the instant from when the ball leaves the pitcher's hand until it arrives, you must determine the pitch type and location. If your eyesight drops, the precision of this judgment is the first thing to be eroded. **In the future, people with poor eyesight will find it harder to succeed as batters**. Especially in an era where tracking data makes pitch speeds and movement more severe every year.
And children from now on will grow up looking at screens for much longer than our generation. **The number of children with poor eyesight will definitely increase in the future**.
For the baseball world, this is a quiet but serious headwind.
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## That is why "glasses" will become the gateway to AI
This is where the story connects.
More children have poor eyesight. But they want to play baseball. They want to protect their eyes and bridge the visual handicap. A place that can solve these three things at once is on their faces. **Glasses**.
Think about it. What if glasses became not just for vision correction and protection, but also a **data receiver**?
- Through the lenses, you can see the batted ball speed and swing trajectory mentioned earlier.
- Advice on defensive positioning appears at the edge of your vision.
- At your ear, you hear the voice of an AI coach via bone conduction.
From "returning to the bench to look at a tablet" to "receiving information while playing." The moment glasses and ears become the gateway for AI, the distance between youth baseball and AI will shrink at once. I see the final piece that makes AI indispensable not as a high-performance model, but as a **device that fits closely to the body**.
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## So, where will the wind blow?
From here on is the talk about investing. If you believe in this future map, there are four areas to pay attention to.
**1. Smart Glasses**
The leading candidate for glasses-type devices. In the US, Meta (Meta Platforms) is already mass-producing smart glasses in partnership with eyewear brands. This is the area at the forefront of "glasses x AI."
**2. Lenses and Vision Correction**
If the number of children with poor eyesight increases, the demand for lenses will structurally grow. In Japan, there is HOYA, a global leader in eyeglass lenses, and overseas, there is EssilorLuxottica, which owns brands like Ray-Ban. It's understated, but it's a direct recipient of the trend of declining eyesight.
**3. AI Semiconductors and Infrastructure**
No device can run without a chip to calculate in the background. This is an area represented by Nvidia, and demand will accumulate as smart glasses become more widespread.
**4. Sports Analysis Technology**
Groups of companies that handle professional judgment and analysis systems. Hawk-Eye, a subsidiary of Sony Group, is a prime example, and technology polished in the pros will inevitably trickle down to amateurs.
*Needless to say, this is not a recommendation for specific stocks, but a story about "areas of interest worked backward from a future map." Please always research investment decisions yourself and take responsibility for them.
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## Summary: Changes in the ballpark quietly precede stock prices
Should AI enter youth baseball? It should. However, as a "measuring clerk" that does not take away a child's sense.
And children's eyes will definitely get weaker from here on out. "Glasses" that protect the eyes, compensate for vision, and deliver data will be the key to bringing AI and baseball closer together.
I was able to continue playing baseball by a difference of a few centimeters. For the next generation, I want to prepare a ballpark where they don't have to rely on "a few centimeters of luck" thanks to the power of technology. I believe that betting on that future is the essence of this investment theme.