Early Life and High School Career
Nishioka was born in Daitō, Osaka, and grew up in the city of Nara. He played in the national tournament as a member of Kōriyama Senior while attending Nara Prefectural Heijō East Junior High School, starting baseball as a right-handed hitter and switched to the left side during junior high.
Nishioka had longed to attend noted baseball powerhouse PL Gakuen High School in Tondabayashi, Osaka, but suffered much disappointment when he was told he would not be chosen as a recipient of an athletic scholarship. He made up his mind to attend Osaka Tōin Senior High School in his birth place of Daitō instead, vowing to defeat PL Gakuen when he played the school later on. In all of the games that Osaka Tōin played during the three years (the equivalent of tenth through twelfth grades in the United States) that Nishioka spent at the school, it never once lost to PL Gakuen.
Nishioka led Osaka Tōin to the 84th National High School Baseball Championship in his senior year of high school as the team captain and leadoff hitter, but the team lost in the first round to Tōhō High School, the Aichi champions. Despite his lack of success on the national stage, Nishioka hit 42 home runs in his high school career, mostly as a second baseman, and was considered one of the top high school prospects in the country by NPB scouts. He was selected in the first round of the 2002 NPB amateur draft held that fall by the Chiba Lotte Marines.
Read more about this topic: Tsuyoshi Nishioka
Famous quotes containing the words early, life, high, school and/or career:
“Betwixt the black fronts long-withdrawn
A light-blue lane of early dawn,”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“While you here do snoring lie,
Open-eyed conspiracy
His time doth take.
If of life you keep a care,
Shake off slumber, and beware.
Awake, Awake!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don’t put psychotics in high places and we’ve got the problem solved.”
—Tom Wolfe (b. 1931)
“Nevertheless, no school can work well for children if parents and teachers do not act in partnership on behalf of the children’s best interests. Parents have every right to understand what is happening to their children at school, and teachers have the responsibility to share that information without prejudicial judgment.... Such communication, which can only be in a child’s interest, is not possible without mutual trust between parent and teacher.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)