Masaaki was a very weak boy. When he was still very young, he had gotten polio. He got better very quickly but since he was the first child in the family, and he was a boy every body in the family had been extremely worried. His mother had always been the one that worried the most. His father was always very proud of his school work and other awards he had gotten.

However, Masaaki didn't like school much. He went to one of the best schools in the city, but the color of the of the black board was such a horrible color, that he sometimes almost fainted just by looking at the color. Almost every month his mother took him on the back of her bicycle and hurried him to the doctor.

For a very long time, he was miserable and lonely. He wasn't extremely weak when he wasn't ill, but he never felt very well either. Until one day in 3rd grade, when he was asked if he wanted to play baseball by a group of friends. So he started to learn the game of baseball that a lot of boys used to enjoy when my father was young. He enjoyed playing the games, and learning new rules from the older boys in his school. As he grew older, he joined the baseball team, and became the pitcher. From then on, he was feeling much better, and everyday he went to school about 30 minutes earlier than when the bell rang to play baseball.