Looking at the note "Ohtani Shohei" on his phone screen, Lin Guanglai couldn't help but indulge his mischievous streak, and as soon as the call connected, he spoke:

"Hey, isn't this the 'high schooler'?"

On the other end, upon hearing this nickname, Ohtani Shohei rubbed his forehead, a bit helplessly replying, "Why even you..."

Lin Guanglai immediately burst into laughter, "You need to ask those Los Angeles media, now the nickname 'high schooler' is known by almost every MLB fan in North America." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

But then he changed the subject and asked towards the other end of the call, "So Shohei, what's up?"

On the other end, Ohtani Shohei was silent for a long time before hesitantly speaking, "I wanted to ask you, how do you adjust your state and adapt to the competitive rhythm in America..."

Just like Lin Guanglai last year, Ohtani Shohei officially announced his posting after the 2017 season. Thanks to his stellar performance in the past season as the lead player guiding his team to a strong championship win and sweeping multiple personal honors, this Japanese prodigy, half a year older than Lin Guanglai, attracted a slew of teams chasing after him as soon as he entered the market.

Surprisingly, among strong teams including the Dodgers, Red Sox, Cubs, and Giants pursuing him, Ohtani Shohei ultimately chose the relatively weak Los Angeles Angels as his first Major League stop.

In his words, the Angels "offered him extensive development space and trust," and "met all his needs as a dual-role player"; even Trout, who was hosting a wedding, took time out of rehearsals to recruit him in person—all of which made Ohtani feel respected and agree to sign with the Angels.

As for the nickname "high schooler," it can't go without mentioning the spring training that is nearing its end: Following in Lin Guanglai's footsteps to the Major League, Ohtani Shohei has garnered much attention while naturally bearing immense pressure—all instinctively comparing him to Lin Guanglai from the previous year, even though their levels of maturity are clearly different.

During the spring training for the Angels, Ohtani Shohei's performance was simply "terrible":

While pitching in the Cactus League, Ohtani Shohei pitched a total of 2.2 innings, leaving an alarming 27.00 ERA, a statistic excluding his Minor League spring training and team training stats;

As a batter, he managed only 4 hits in 32 at-bats, drew 3 walks, struck out 10 times, and had a dismal .125 batting average.

Clearly, this data did not satisfy the media and fans who came specifically to witness the dual-role charm, coupled with the fanfare surrounding Ohtani's posting akin to an idol show, many mouthpieces of teams spurned by Ohtani sneered at his spring performance—

And among them, the most influential was ESPN's lead reporter Jeff Passan's description in his report: the ace reporter thought Ohtani Shohei's batting technique was "almost no different from that of high school players";

Even Angels fans themselves, part of them questioned if the team got swindled by a Japanese player and wasted twenty million US Dollars.

Ohtani Shohei considers himself a person with clear goals, unaffected by external gossip, yet the dense ridicule from North American media and the overwhelming news bombardment still troubled him.

Ultimately, blame lies with Lin Guanglai:

After all, as a dual-role player too, Lin Guanglai's performance last season was astonishingly impressive, seen by veterans, media, and fans alike as a "non-replicable" miracle, significantly raising expectations for "dual-role players";

Other than the treasure-laden New York Yankees, other teams were eager to acquire Ohtani Shohei hoping he could demonstrate the uniqueness of a dual-role player— not demanding a one-to-one replication of Lin Guanglai's performance, even if Ohtani Shohei achieves sixty to seventy percent of last season's Lin Guanglai, it would be a massive enhancement for 99% of the teams.

Hearing Ohtani Shohei's somewhat complaining tone, Lin Guanglai raised an eyebrow, "What's up with you? This doesn't seem like the you I remember... It's just spring training, surely you haven't been affected by those people?"

"Not quite..." Ohtani Shohei denied this viewpoint, continuing, "But what can I say, the game rhythm in America is faster than I imagined, even those 4A level pitchers and batters, the pressure they give me is much greater than in Japan."

For this point of view, Lin Guanglai was non-committal, "My perspective is, what you need to do now is adjust your mindset, then improve continuously according to the team's development mechanism—anyway, your contract with the Angels stipulates you'll always be in the Major League, with batters like Trout, Pujols around you, just learn well from them...

As for the current slander, we are all professional athletes, the logic should be clear: once the new season starts, speak with your performance on the field—don't let such small matters bring you down, I've been hoping to have a good game against you when playing the Angels the new season."