Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 519 - 109: The Storm Gathers (Part 2)

[66th Floor: I’m so pissed off, what the hell were those dogs playing today? Do you even deserve to wear the Giants jerseys? Each of you makes millions, enjoys top-notch treatment, and yet can’t even hit a single ball. Such a waste of me rushing to the Dome right after work — damn it, give me a refund!!!]

[77th Floor: The Giants devotee upstairs is hilariously angry, spending so much money during the off-season, is it worth it? I think our Hanshin is better! Lin Guanglai can only bully weak teams like yours — just wait till he comes to Koshien this year and see how our Central League No. 1 takes him down!]

In Lin Guanglai’s fan group, messages were coming in one after another, making it feel chaotic and impossible to keep up with.

[So strong, so strong, a no-hitter at 19, I’m so thrilled watching it — truly, choosing to be a fan of Light was the best decision of my life, he never lets fans down!]

[Family, can you still access SoftBank’s official store now? I’m stuck and can’t get in — anyone in Fukuoka who can buy no-hitter commemorative jerseys and merchandise for me? I can pay extra!]

[Forget it, even locals in Fukuoka can’t get in, SoftBank’s website seems completely down... I’m planning to go to the Yahoo Dome’s official store to book tomorrow, but I guess it won’t be less crowded...]

[So, with Light’s performance this season, barring any accidents, he should be able to grab all the awards he missed last season, right?]

[Pretty much, the pitcher’s stats are overwhelmingly leading, the only one seeing Light’s taillights among other teams’ pitchers is Orix’s Kaneko, but even he is significantly behind. If he keeps pitching like this, there’s no doubt he’ll secure the Eiji Sawamura Award;]

[As for MVP, we need to see if there’ll be any hitters like last season’s Balentien in the Pacific League this season, or Light could also boost his batting stats further. I feel as long as he hits over 30 home runs, there’ll be no suspense for the MVP.]

[By then, SoftBank will likely release a bunch of memorabilia, right? Sigh, I can only feel my wallet burning... Anyway, tomorrow I need to earn well, whatever these collectibles cost, I’ll buy them all!]

Compared to the fans online happily chatting after work, the ones harboring the deepest resentment now were probably the employees of the various newspapers. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

A no-hitter game is rare enough, not to mention pitching one against the Giants, a high-profile team, all of which means that tomorrow’s sports headlines in the major newspapers will dedicate themselves to this game worthy of going down in history.

The next morning, when sleepy commuters bought the latest edition of newspapers before boarding the Shinkansen as part of their daily routine, almost all of Japan knew what happened last night at the Tokyo Dome.

Japan’s most authoritative Asahi Shimbun had a giant photo on its sports front page of Lin Guanglai roaring triumphantly after striking out a Giants batter, alongside a solemn and powerful main headline:

[Opening the Doors to a New Era — The Young Dual Swordsmanship King Crushes the Giant Army with a No-Hitter Game!!!]

In the accompanying editorial, Asahi’s writer provided a serious analysis of the competitive state Lin Guanglai showcased during the game and expressed high prospects for his future performance, believing that with just the performance in less than two months since the season started, Lin Guanglai could almost lock in numerous titles this season in advance.

Daily Sports, which specializes in sports coverage, treated him even more profusely, not only giving Lin Guanglai the front-page headline treatment but also drafting overnight to use four pages of space in the internal pages, combining the opinions and views of professionals to technically analyze the forkball Lin Guanglai pitched yesterday.

Through a series of snapshots from high-speed cameras, the terrifying plummeting trajectory of the forkball, like something supernatural, was presented to readers, once again overturning people’s perceptions — Daily Sports experts even outright called this forkball ’the new magic ball of the 21st century.’

Besides the media reporters, the data analysis teams of the other 11 clubs also did not get a good night’s sleep last night.

"Stop, right here!" When the Giants’ chief data analyst called for a stop, the screen was frozen at the moment the baseball was released from Lin Guanglai’s hand; then, the scene started playing frame by frame.

The turning point of yesterday’s game can be said to be precisely this baseball being replayed on the big screen — after that, the Giants’ morale was shattered, and although they slightly recovered later, they never managed to make anything significant.

As Nippon Professional Baseball’s premier club, the Giants can accept a loss in a game, but they absolutely cannot accept to lose in such a way; hence, almost simultaneously as the game ended, their professional data analysis team also started working.

The other clubs did the same.

"Release point, swing action, arm angle... these data correspond closely to Lin Guanglai’s four-seam fastball sample in our database, with a similarity rate of 90%!"

"We also gathered first-person subjective feelings from the players, and their common response was that no matter how they viewed it, this ball was undoubtedly a straight ball before it dropped!"

"This means our hitters can’t react in less than 0.2 seconds unless they preemptively predict..."

"Especially considering Lin Guanglai’s extreme speed, plus his excellent control level, this just magnifies the threat of this ball infinitely — although the sample isn’t large yet, just based on last night’s game, whenever this forkball is released, it’s basically a swing and a miss because you never know when he’ll use it!"

...

In a certain hotel in Tokyo, Brandon Duckworth was writing an email:

"Dear Billy, how have you been lately? I heard the team’s performance at the start of the season has been quite good, and Tanaka’s condition has lived up to every dollar we paid for — I guess you should be in a pretty good mood, having been the one who orchestrated that trade back then?"

"I’m sending you this email mainly to recommend a player, he’s very young, only 19 years old this year; but I believe once you see the footage I’m sending you, you won’t dismiss him because of his age.";

"When I was with Rakuten Team, I played directly against this kid. Let me put it this way, this kid is an absolute miracle, watching his games feels like watching a combination of Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux, every pitch he throws is a treat!"

"And did you know, he’s also a dual swordsmanship player — even last year’s Tanaka was made a sieve in the playoffs by him!"

"You know, CC is getting older, especially the knee issues making his pitching increasingly unstable; while Tanaka and Kuroda are both good pitchers, I don’t think they are the leaders who can guide a team in crucial moments."

"Not to mention, after this season ends, we’ll have to say goodbye to one of the greatest captains in team history — after Mariano and Drake left one after another, Bronx fans need a new era leader."

"This person needs not only immense skill but also the resilience to handle the Big Apple City’s media and our crazy fans."

"And he might just be our answer!"

"I’ll send the footage to your email shortly, I suggest you watch it with our general manager and coaches — trust me, Joe, who was once a catcher, will absolutely love a pitcher like this!"

"By the way, this year end, Major League will restart the Japan-U.S. exchange games again, I heard Albert Pujols and Bryce Harper will be there, I think by then you can come and watch him play live, he won’t disappoint you."

After re-checking the email to ensure nothing was missing, Duckworth clicked the send button at the top right corner.

He glanced out the window, today’s weather in Tokyo wasn’t so good, clouds shrouded the sky.

"The wind is about to blow..." he murmured to himself.