Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 574 - 137: Complete Domination, Unrivaled in History!

After bidding farewell to Yamada Tetsuro, the formal awards ceremony was about to begin.

Lin Guanglai walked directly toward his manager, no, now it should be the former manager, Akiyama Koji, where the players of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks were gathered.

Just as he was about to find a seat, Lin Guanglai was stopped by Akiyama Koji, who looked at him with a smile: "Guanglai, why are you sitting here?"

"Isn't this the SoftBank formation? If I don't sit here, should I go over to the Giants?" Lin Guanglai thought Manager Akiyama was joking, so he responded in a teasing tone.

"You shouldn't sit here today." Akiyama Koji pointed to the very front, "See the first row over there? That's where you should be sitting today!"

"Uh... what's going on, wasn't it different last year?" Lin Guanglai was momentarily stunned, not reacting to the situation.

Akiyama Koji shrugged, "Use your brain, Guanglai—you are the first high school graduate player in Nihon Professional Baseball history to achieve the grand slam accomplishment in a single season. How could the league not seize such a great promotional opportunity..."

"Besides," Akiyama Koji paused, "think about how many awards you're receiving tonight, just the Best Nine, Gold Glove, Eiji Sawamura Award, and MVP make four, and there's a commemorative trophy for the Grand Slam Winner, and the Shoriki Award..."

At this point, Akiyama Koji sat in his seat and laughed heartily, as if he had thought of something amusing: "If you were sitting in this formation, you'd be exhausted from running up and down the stage, carrying trophies back and forth, wouldn't you?"

Hearing this, Lin Guanglai imagined such a scene in his mind: Okay, if that were the case, it really does seem a bit comical...

When Lin Guanglai reached the front row to find his seat, a staff member noticed him first and guided him to the arranged seat in front.

With a little time left before the official ceremony began, the seats on either side of him were still empty, and Lin Guanglai, driven by curiosity, couldn't help but peek at the nameplates behind the two chairs.

Behind the left seat, a nameplate printed with "Wang Zhenzhi" was fixed there.

Well, that's acceptable, after all, President Wang Zhenzhi is not only part of SoftBank's top brass and a legend of Japanese baseball, but also an old senior to Lin Guanglai; this arrangement indeed makes sense.

Then he looked to the other side—

"Nagashima Shigeo." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

When this name appeared on the seat opposite Lin Guanglai, he knew what Nihon Professional Baseball officials were up to: frankly, they wanted to create a photo opportunity with these two legends alongside Lin Guanglai as a promotional gimmick; in other words, the league wanted to recreate the glory of the "ON Cannon" era through Lin Guanglai's rising star.

Looking at the row of empty seats in front of him, Lin Guanglai glanced at a few more names sitting alongside him: Yoshida Yoshio, Takagi Morimichi, Fukumoto Toyohiko, Yamamoto Koji, Harimoto Isao...

Each of these names is a superstar once thunderous in the league, and among them are legends who pioneered an era, with an average age of over 70 years—placed in this formation by the league, Lin Guanglai just turning 20 next year could truly be considered out of place.

Soon, amid the admiring and reverent gazes of players around from various teams, these legendary figures of Nippon Professional Baseball gradually entered the venue: Walking together with Nagashima Shigeo, Wang Zhenzhi waved to Lin Guanglai in the direction, beckoning him over.

"Didn't you see, this is our SoftBank's super talent, although back in the Japanese Series, my Daiei lost to your Giants Team, but now with Guanglai here, even if we encounter the Giants Team in the series, they're definitely no match for us!"

Wang Zhenzhi introduced Lin Guanglai to Nagashima Shigeo with a full smile, revealing a joy akin to a grandparent boasting about their excellent grandchild to friends, both in his expression and tone.

"No need for your introduction, we've long met." Nagashima Shigeo glared at his old partner and good friend, instantly switching to a kindly disposition, "Guanglai, it's been a while—looks like you've truly remembered what I said to you at the Tokyo Dome last time. You've played the Japanese Series excellently, the Hanshin guys were no match for you at all!"

Centered around Wang Zhenzhi and Nagashima Shigeo, these invited legends quickly formed a circle, and as the only young face in the crowd, Lin Guanglai naturally received multiple mentions, learning many interesting anecdotes about the older generation.

With Lin Guanglai consistently and stably proving his talent in professional baseball, those who once doubted his Dual Swordsmanship decision have now transformed into members of the praise crowd.

For instance, the Nihon Professional Baseball legend Harimoto Isao present today, back when Lin Guanglai announced his Dual Swordsmanship challenge before the nomination meeting, filled a newspaper column with reasons he thought it impossible to succeed, using quite aggressive language, nearly naming and criticizing Lin Guanglai directly.