Meaning of ば in the news


While watching [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLnEclUFFpI) news I
heard this sentence:

> 藤井八冠が“お菓子のふじい”を **食べてくれれば** というのは、前から思っていまして、今後もぜひ **活躍していただければ** と思います

I'm not sure about those ば's meaning: I was wondering if the second has an
omitted いい, 活躍していただければいい ("I hope they will keep an active role"), but even if
this is the case I'm still not sure about the first: 藤井八冠が“お菓子のふじい”を食べてくれればいい
would be "I hope Sota Fujii will eat the Fujii sweets", which could make
sense, but then again I'm not sure about the というのは part: if it's a theme
marker, it would be something like "Speaking of hoping Sota Fujii will eat the
Fujii sweets, I hope he will keep an active role", which doesn't really make
sense.




The two are separate sentences, and I think the speaker didn't know what to
say next when they said 前から思っていまして、. They tried to say something after that
and 今後もぜひ活躍していただければと思います came out. I.e. there isn't a direct relation between
the two parts.

Now re: 藤井八冠が“お菓子のふじい”を食べてくれればというのは、前から思っていました, this is mostly equivalent to
"I hope Sota Fujii will eat the Fujii sweets", but it says 前から思っていました which
means they have been hoping so for a while.

One could just say 藤井八冠が“お菓子のふじい”を食べてくれればと前から思っていました, but the reason they say
というのは is: this is a bit more roundabout which comes off as more polite and
less forward. 〜ばと思う is sometimes used by high-ranking person to "strongly
encourage" the lister to do something, but the speaker in this situation wants
to avoid giving that impression, so they are signalling they don't feel
entitled that he eats their sweets.




The two are separate sentences, and I think the speaker didn't know what to
say next when they said 前から思っていまして、. They tried to say something after that
and 今後もぜひ活躍していただければと思います came out. I.e. there isn't a direct relation between
the two parts.

Now re: 藤井八冠が“お菓子のふじい”を食べてくれればというのは、前から思っていました, this is mostly equivalent to
"I hope Sota Fujii will eat the Fujii sweets", but it says 前から思っていました which
means they have been hoping so for a while.

One could just say 藤井八冠が“お菓子のふじい”を食べてくれればと前から思っていました, but the reason they say
というのは is: this is a bit more roundabout which comes off as more polite and
less forward. 〜ばと思う is sometimes used by high-ranking person to "strongly
encourage" the lister to do something, but the speaker in this situation wants
to avoid giving that impression, so they are signalling they don't feel
entitled that he eats their sweets.

