From the Daily Sports Online column / デイリースポーツオンラインの連載コラムから
I once had a dream of becoming a sports journalist. I think I was caught up with the vague idea that being in the locker room with a championship team amidst the champagne shower frenzy was as good as life could get. Along the way, my aspirations got railroaded, but in a sense have come full circle in a more fulfilling way than I could have ever imagined. Last month, thanks to a mutual acquaintance, I met someone else whose original dreams went unfulfilled but ultimately led him to a much richer life experience.
Will Thompson was born in the USA but spent five of his formative years in Tokyo, Japan, as his father was employed by IBM. He lived not far from Jingu Stadium, and was able to attend a lot of Yakult Swallows during the late 1990s. Unlike many of his American peers, he did not relate to Mike Piazza, Mark McGwire, or Ken Griffey Jr. Instead, Will found himself enamored with Swallows catcher Atsuya Furuta. He played youth baseball and was the lone American on the team, but his unique circumstances allowed for opportunities that would not have otherwise been possible.
You see, Will’s was a church-attending family, and one of the biggest English churches in the city, Tokyo Baptist Church, also became the home church of many of the foreign baseball players. When his family befriended 1997 Central League home run king Dwayne Hosey (Swallows), an arrangement was made for him to conduct a baseball clinic for Will and his teammates. In fact, from a young age, faith was every bit as important to Will as the game he loved. Upon heading back to the States in 2000, he dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player and returning to Japan to share his faith with the locals.
That dream never materialized, but the man upstairs has mysterious ways of upgrading our plans. Will’s father became a key figure with Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), which was founded as a non-profit organization back in the late 1950s. He was also a huge sports fan who wanted his boys to experience the local sports scene in a powerful way. So he took his kids to a lot of sporting events, especially at the local university, Georgia Tech. Right around the turn of the century, a certain redhead outfielder was one of the school’s star baseball players. You guessed it – Matthew Henry Murton, who spent six seasons starring for the Hanshin Tigers.
The Thompsons and Murtons soon became friends and stayed in touch over the years. When Matt was given a chance to play for the Tigers (and signed a deal at the end of 2009), Will reached out to him and offered to help him in any way necessary. During this time, Will himself also became more involved with FCA. Until this point, the organization was doing work exclusively in the USA. But Will, who had always dreamed of making a difference in Japan, helped springboard an international expansion. Will had kept up with his Japanese studies, finding ways to get back to Japan over the years, and even studied abroad at International Christian University in Tokyo. After graduating from college, he came back to Japan to help start FCA Japan.
Through this, his friendship with Matt Murton solidified even further, as he helped Murton make cultural adjustments, do public speaking (at large events like the Franklin Graham Festival in Osaka in 2010), and so much more. FCA is there to support Christian athletes who find themselves in Japan (including former Tigers like Jason Standridge, Jerry Sands, and Mel Rojas Jr.), but also to find them opportunities to share their faith and spread goodwill across the nation.
Matt Murton has found himself back in Japan several times since leaving the team at the end of the 2015 season, and Will and FCA have helped out with the logistics each time. Most recently, the entire Murton crew (Matt, Stef and their five children) spent most of July touring the country. Murton says the trip had a twofold purpose: to show gratitude to Japan for the impact it had on his family, and to give his children new memories and appreciation for Japan as well. The entire trip was a whirlwind of activity for Matt, and his children were even able to participate in some baseball clinics with the local kids – a strange sort of parallel to Will’s childhood experiences!
I asked Matt about Will, and he said he was struck by a young man (at the time still in his teens) who had a trifold love for Japan, baseball, and Jesus. “It’s cool to be able to watch his story come full circle, as he has the opportunity to combine all three of [his loves]. To God be the glory!”
Will never made it to Japan to play professional baseball, but he did get to spend a good number of years working very closely with other men who love the game. This was not how he planned his life, but he says in some ways, he feels like he got to witness his dream come to fruition from up close when Matt Murton did it all: become a professional baseball player, move to Japan, and live out the Great Commission.
Will’s story is far from over, as he continues to serve with FCA. He is back in the USA but is serving a greater role, extending the organization’s reach to other Asian nations such as South Korea and India. This is a story I will not be taking my eyes off of, and I think if you keep your eyes on it with me, you will be touched and inspired, too.