Firsthand is a new content pillar by Mothership, featuring in-depth articles and videos about people in Singapore and their stories.
We'll explore issues that matter by experiencing them for ourselves, gather expert opinions, and hear the perspectives of young Singaporeans, to present the points of view that matter, firsthand.
Wong Kohei, 24, is undeniably driven.
He is the first Singaporean to have successfully joined a professional baseball team — the Ibaraki Astro Planets in Japan — and is under a training contract that started in May and will run to August 2023.
It seems like a dream, but Wong divulged that he is actually not being paid under this opportunity; the training contract only gives him the chance to fight for a spot on the main team, to play in Japan’s independent leagues.
Still, he is fully committed to the sport — his official training schedule runs six days a week but Wong often goes the extra mile by training on his only rest day.
Most days, Wong has to wake up at 5:30, as his team usually departs for matches with neighbouring states by 7am.
In Japan. Image via Wong.
The day then blows by in a blur of long commutes, pregame training, and the actual game itself.
While Wong’s training contract means that he doesn’t get to play in games, he shared that he helps in admin matters instead, before the team finally returns to their home state late at night.
This means that Wong only gets to bed at 12am-1am every day, before the cycle repeats.
“I’ve only had three off days so far,” he said.
“So far, if I’m not training, then I’ll be sleeping, because I am really tired.”
A baseball family
Hearing about Wong’s passion for baseball firsthand somewhat answers the question as to why anyone would go all in for a path that requires that much effort and sacrifice, for no pay.
He shared that he first began playing softball when he was five, before he later switched to baseball at 11.
Growing up, Wong’s family was always active in the sport — in fact, his brother also plays in the national team, while their father was a former coach and umpire. Wong’s mother — who is from Japan — is a team manager for Singapore’s national baseball team.
Wong (on the right), 7, with his older brother (on the left). Image via Wong.
After joining the national team at 14, Wong then rose through the ranks and was appointed vice-captain of the team at 20.
Now a third-year business student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Wong is currently taking a Leave of Absence (LOA) for one semester to pursue his dream of playing baseball professionally overseas.
“I think it's about how complex the game is,” he said, before elaborating with conviction about his passion for the sport.
“It involves a lot of mental and physical aspects, which makes it very interesting.
For example, I'm a batter, so I need to be able to hit the ball. But I also need to guess what the pitcher is going to throw – there are a lot of pitches: fastball, breaking balls, curve balls.”
Wong batting at the Hong Kong International Open (HKIBO) in March 2023 where Singapore came in second. Photo credit: CYLOO
Sacrificing for passion
Wong had his hopes of playing professionally overseas dashed for the first time at 16.
He explained that a high school in Japan had actually accepted his application to play baseball back then, but financial difficulties resulted in the dream falling through.
“It was out of my control, but it impacted me a lot. After that, I wanted to make sure that if there was another chance, I could do so without having to worry.”
After completing his National Service (NS), Wong began working full-time at an IT start-up before continuing on a part-time basis whilst studying in NUS.
Wong explained that he had wanted to support himself financially as he knew that this was a risky path — with potentially high costs.
“I didn't want to take money from my parents,” he said, “as I didn't want to burden them for my own goal. My thinking was I should bear [the costs of] that risk myself.”
Knowing that taking a leave of absence from school was a possibility, Wong also planned ahead, studying harder during the first academic year so that he would have the option of taking a break from university thereafter without impacting his grades too much.
In addition, he continued training up to five times a week over the next year, in order to prepare for the baseball tryouts in Japan.
“I barely had a social life,” he admitted.
“Imagine having school, training four to five times a week, sometimes up to six. There was no time for me to have a social life, and that was a huge sacrifice.”
For Wong, “going against the norm” was also an uphill battle, one that he personally struggled with.
He explained that he felt a lot of fear in making his decision, despite knowing he wanted to pursue it.
“Some people questioned ‘Why are you doing this?’. Imagine telling them that you're actually not paid even though you join a professional team. It was all the more like, ‘why are you doing this when it’s costing you money, and it's not going to help you in your life?’”
“So it took me a pretty long time to decide that I [still] wanted to go to Japan to do the tryouts,” he said.
“There was so much uncertainty.”
Taking the leap
Then in November 2022, after the pandemic, Wong bit the bullet and flew to Japan to compete in the open baseball tryouts.
According to Wong, the application fee for the open tryout cost just S$60, but international players also had to take into account the additional costs of their flights and accommodation.
With many players already pre-selected for the leagues from local high schools and universities, there were only a few spots left, which meant that competition was brutal.
Wong’s tryouts saw him vying for just one position out of 300 hopefuls — the majority of which were Japanese.
There were some aspiring Korean players but Wong was the only Singaporean there.
Wong stands amongst other applicants, in the red Singapore jersey. Image via Wong.
As luck would have it, the tryouts happened to fall in the middle of NUS’s exam period, which meant that Wong did not have the luxury of flying over early on in order to acclimatise to the weather.
He could only afford to be in Japan for three days, of which one was the day of the tryouts.
Wong shared that with only three rounds for the tryout, eliminations moved quickly — the first round saw about half of the applicants cut, and after the second and third rounds, only 25 hopefuls remained.
While Wong was one of these finalists, ultimately, he was not selected by any team to play in Japan.
But Wong did not give up.
“I already sacrificed so much — my studies, all my time for training. I wasn’t just going to give up, I still wanted to give it a shot.”
Creating his own opportunity
So, Wong reached out to Toma Irokawa, the general manager of Ibaraki Astro Planets, who had previously coached in countries such as Pakistan and Thailand.
Wong had met Irokawa during the open baseball tryouts in November, when the latter had approached Wong to find out more about baseball in Singapore having seen his national team jersey.
He described his cold pitch to Irokawa as simply trying whichever method might work at giving him a third chance at his dream.
“I added him on Facebook, and I just told him what my intentions were — why I wanted to play in Japan, and that I wanted to grow the sport in Singapore through playing professionally overseas.”
After a few rounds of calls with Irokawa, Wong was then offered a position of team manager with the Ibaraki team, but he had decided to convince Irokawa to give him a chance at playing for them instead.
He shared frankly with Irokawa that at 24, he still desperately wanted to play professionally.
“I explained that I wanted to know myself as an athlete, what my limit is.
And for me, my ultimate goal is to really grow the sport in Singapore. So I am using this as more of a stepping stone to learn the game outside of Southeast Asia, at the highest level possible, before bringing it back to Singapore to grow the sport.
That has been quite clear cut for me from the start.”
Although Wong quipped candidly that he still does not know why Irokawa eventually agreed to take him on, the latter did so, and the deal was finalised sometime in December 2022.
After eight years, Wong’s longtime dream was finally a reality – in fact, he would be playing professionally with a team that operates under the BC league, one of the top tier independent leagues in Japan, albeit under a training contract.
Wong shared earnestly whilst taking the interview from his car, after having just completed practice:
“I’m trying to take things one step at a time. If it [getting signed] comes, it comes. If it doesn't, then it doesn’t. Then I'll make a decision from there.”
On the field, after a game with the Saitama Seibu Lions third string team from the top league. Image via Wong
Post-training one day. On the side, Wong shared that his contract also has him helping out with the team’s administrative matters, such as translating for other international players in the team, and helping to look after them. Image via Wong.
What Wong hopes to achieve
The harsh reality is, the level of baseball in Japan is much higher than that in Singapore, and will almost certainly always be.
Pitchers in Southeast Asia might throw at speeds of 125 km/hr, for example, but Wong shared that pitchers in his team throw significantly faster, and speeds often go up to as much as 145-150 km/hr.
The difference in standards mean that Wong has a lot of ground to catch up on.
On top of that, spots for the paid contracts are much coveted and usually change at the drop of a hat, depending on one’s capabilities.
Wong opined that the mindset and environment the local players grow up in is very different as compared to that in Singapore as well.
“Here in Japan, many players are really in it to play professionally. Baseball is just all they do, from primary to high school.”
However, in Singapore, while athletes are dedicated to training for a sport, there are often just too many other things to think about – such as one’s studies, or prepping for future job prospects, finding internships – such that having one’s life only revolve around a sport like in Japan is not realistic.
Wong pointed out that given this environment and mindset, it is admittedly almost impossible to play baseball professionally in Singapore — one would have to travel overseas.
When I asked Wong about what more could be done to elevate the baseball scene in Singapore given all the challenges professional sports face, his response was much simpler than I expected.
As the national team has no official baseball programme nor field to train at yet, I’d thought that the topic of funding might come up in conversation.
But instead, Wong shared pensively that it would simply be nice to receive more signs of support from the general public — especially when it comes to standing behind athletes who decide to pursue the paths less travelled.
In chasing a path that is different and that may be hard to comprehend, Wong said that for him, even “jiayous” have made a difference.
“Because it takes a lot of courage to do this. And I think I’ll understand completely, if other athletes choose not to pursue this path along the way.”
He elaborated that he would not have made it this far without his family, who have always been supportive of his dream, as well as his coach.
“It really makes a difference,” he said, “in terms of believing that what you’re doing is possible.”
Wong added that after his experience in Ibaraki, he hopes to be able to pass that kind of support to his team and peers moving forward, and continue growing the sport in Singapore for years to come.
“I hope that through sharing my experience, we can raise awareness about baseball, and more talented baseball players will want to pursue baseball at a higher level too.
I want to be better and I want the team to be better. I really believe that the best way to do so is to have more people play the sport overseas, and see what the game is like outside Singapore."
Top images via Wong Kohei and CYLOO
Have an interesting or unconventional journey to share? Email us at firsthand@mothership.sg.