Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 597 - 146: A New Magic Pitch?!

Considering the difference between modern baseball and baseball in the 1970s, if Lin Guanglai's idea were known to outsiders, it would certainly be seen as arrogance, but he indeed had this idea himself—after all, even something that countless people once considered impossible, Dual Swordsmanship, he dared to challenge successfully; so what does an ERA in zero-point range matter?

"The equipment is adjusted. You can start pitching now!" On the sidelines of the training field, the staff signaled that the high-speed recording equipment was set; 18.44 meters away, the catcher responsible for receiving had also prepared, and Lin Guanglai nodded to the other side and quickly began his pitching practice.

The other three went to other venues for batting practice, so at the moment, the entire field had only Lin Guanglai, the catcher, staff adjusting equipment, and the trainer he had invited.

This training venue was specially arranged by Nomura Katsuhiko for Lin Guanglai, with high-speed cameras set up near the pitcher's mound and home plate, clearly recording his pitching movements and pitch trajectory, facilitating summarization and discussions with professional trainers for improvement plans.

After a series of fastballs, sliders, changeups, and cutters, Lin Guanglai signaled to the catcher at home plate that the next pitch would be his signature forkball—these five pitches are Lin Guanglai's strongest and most dominant pitches currently, whether in terms of speed, force, or control, he's reached top-notch levels in Japan and even the world; other pitches he can throw, but usually chooses them unexpectedly against opponents.

Adjusting his body posture, the next moment the baseball released, yet upon release, Lin Guanglai didn't feel quite right: while throwing this ball, his grip had a slight error, causing the force to be applied by his index finger—in general, a forkball should be thrown with force from the middle finger.

However, just as he thought this ball would become a sweet spot pitch, the trajectory greatly exceeded his expectation range: the baseball, with an extremely high initial speed, exhibited characteristics of a forkball's steep drop while maintaining a significant lateral movement and finally perfectly captured by the catcher's glove reaching downward.

As Japan's best pitcher today, Lin Guanglai almost instantly noticed the uniqueness of this ball: a forkball with initial speed over 145 km/h, simultaneously having significant lateral movement, like a fusion of forkball and sinker—it seems such a ball has never appeared in the over hundred-year history of baseball; if batters encountered it on the mound, how desperate they would be?

That afternoon, and the following days, Lin Guanglai and his trainer spent almost entirely focusing on this sudden brilliant moment, combining high-speed camera content and Lin Guanglai's insights, continually perfecting this unprecedented new pitch.

Pitching, summarizing, pitching, summarizing, pitching, summarizing... Besides eating and sleeping, this became Lin Guanglai's norm in the coming days; even his companions were stunned by his sleepless dedication, all curious about what happened.

After nearly a week of keeping them in suspense, when Lin Guanglai had mostly perfected this new pitch, he called the three companions to the training ground and let them experience it personally as batters in the box.

Thus, these three, arguably Japan's best batters currently, all fell into a prolonged state of shock, unable to extricate themselves; when they looked back up at Lin Guanglai, their eyes held complex emotions difficult to express.

Yanagida Yuuki from his team was alright, since he didn't have to face this nasty pitch as an opponent in official games; but the other two opponents were different—in the new season, what would their teams and teammates do when facing Lin Guanglai?

"By the way, Guanglai, have you decided what to name this pitch?"

Lin Guanglai smiled and said: "Since the pitch is a bit like a forkball and a bit like a sinker, let's simply call it—"

"Splinker!"