#54 ギブスじゃなくてギプス、そもそも「シーネ」

Behind the Scenes of the Hanshin Tigers' Back-to-Back Championship Beer Shower in Hiroshima

For the second year in a row, Nakaoka was tasked by TV Osaka with covering Hanshin's championship beer-shower celebration. Because nobody knows in advance exactly when a team will clinch, scheduling the assignment is notoriously difficult. This year, Hanshin played a daytime game in Hiroshima, and the Tigers would be crowned champions the same evening if the Giants lost their night game. Nakaoka spent an uneasy night watching the Giants-Hiroshima game on the hotel television in Hiroshima—torn between wanting the Giants to lose and what he described as a complicated feeling he called his 'Giants DNA.'

Personally, he had been hoping to see Hanshin win and the ceremonial toss the following day at Yokohama Stadium. The production staff, however, had already set up their broadcast equipment and booked hotels in Hiroshima, and the atmosphere was unmistakably 'please clinch it tonight.' The Giants duly lost, Hanshin clinched in Hiroshima, and the beer-shower special went to air from 1 a.m. for thirty minutes. Nakaoka admitted he wished he had been on screen a little longer, but added with evident pride that the interviews themselves came out 'incredibly well.'

A Moment with Sato Teruaki

At the beer-shower venue, Nakaoka attempted a gag involving his glasses—opening and closing them theatrically—but acknowledged it 'got absolutely no laughs.' The interviews, on the other hand, were a different story. He singled out his exchange with Sato Teruaki (佐藤輝明), who was on the verge of winning the Triple Crown—a feat not achieved by a Hanshin player since Randy Bass, and not by any NPB player since Murayama. With rumours circulating that Sato might head to the majors next season, Nakaoka stopped short of saying 'please don't go to the majors' and instead offered the softer 'please don't go anywhere.' Sato said nothing in response and simply pulled him into a tight embrace. 'I took that to mean he's going,' Nakaoka admitted.

'Gibusu,' 'Gipusu,' Shīne: A Double Error Uncovered

Kokado is roughly three weeks out from his fracture. The pain and swelling have nearly disappeared, but his doctor has instructed him not to put any weight on the foot, so he remains on crutches. A cautious trial of bearing weight confirmed that the pain has not gone entirely, and walking is still some way off.

The episode's other centrepiece was what the two hosts called the 'gibusu problem.' Kokado had always referred to his device as a *gibusu*, but staff member Katayama, who writes the episode titles, used the spelling *gipusu* instead. Investigating the discrepancy revealed that *gipusu*—derived from the German *Gips*—is in fact the correct Japanese form, while *gibusu* is an informal variant that developed because it is easier for Japanese speakers to pronounce. Nakaoka lamented that he had been saying it wrong his whole life ('I want those years back'), though he quickly rallied with 'well, *gibusu* is fine for us Japanese.'

Then came a second error. What Kokado is actually wearing is not a gipusu—which denotes a full circumferential cast—but a *shīne* (シーネ), a one-sided splint. His specific device is a 'hybrid shīne,' a black brace-like item with a shīne built into its inner surface. Nakaoka then confessed that he had worn a similar device four years ago and had also called it a gipusu—when it, too, was a shīne. Making matters worse, he recalled that on a previous episode he had displayed the device as an exhibit and had got both its name and which side faced outward wrong. Two errors, confirmed.

Planning the November 29 Event

The pair turned to planning their upcoming live event on November 29. The working programme has Part 1 titled 'Kokado Walks Proudly' and Part 2 titled 'Nakaoka's Flip-Flap Glasses and Bamboo Craft,' with plans to display the shīne and bamboo craft pieces as exhibits.

Listeners had requested a sticker lottery, but the hosts settled on giving every attendee one sticker from a newly designed version instead. They have previous form here: roughly 2,000 stickers were reprinted for about 5,000 yen on a past occasion, and the same approach is planned this time. The original sticker version—reserved for people encountered on the street—will be kept separate, and only the new version will be handed out at the event. An additional hidden element also emerged during the discussion: staff member Yatabe would blend into the audience and personally hand stickers to the first fifteen people who tracked him down.