Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 598 - 147: The Power of the Magic Ball

The days of independent training and spring training passed quickly, and after a fulfilling offseason, the 2016 season of Nippon Professional Baseball is finally about to ignite the flames of battle once again.

For fans who love professional baseball and supporters of various teams, the upcoming season is full of intriguing highlights:

First and foremost, this will be the last season in Japan for Lin Guanglai, the acknowledged top domestic player by everyone in Japan. What kind of stats can this superstar who monopolized all individual and team honors for two consecutive years deliver in this final year? Which Major League team will he ultimately choose to join after the offseason? These are popular topics that many are eagerly waiting to witness the outcome of.

Secondly, can the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, who have dominated the Pacific League and the Nippon Series for two consecutive years, achieve the historical feat of winning Japan's Number One three times in a row this year?

It's worth noting that since the first Nippon Series was held in 1950, only 3 teams have completed the achievement of winning Japan's Number One three times in a row in the 65-year history:

Yomiuri Giants, with one three-peat (1951-1953) and one nine-peat (1965-1973), the V9 Giants led by coach Kawakami Tetsuharu and starring Wang Zhenzhi and Nagashima Shigeo, created a dynasty unmatched to this day. Not only did they far surpass other competitors of their era in player skill, but they also coincided perfectly with Japan's period of rapid economic growth, thus becoming more than just a baseball team and transforming into a cultural symbol of the nation.

Zintetsu/Seibu Lions, with three three-peats (1956-1958, 1986-1988, 1990-1992), established a dynasty team that reigned over all of Japan in the 1980s. It is the team with the most Japan's Number One victories apart from the Giants. Especially under the leadership of the legendary coach Mori Tsutomu, and players like Akiyama Koji, Kiyohara Kazuhiko, and Disland, they won 9 Pacific League titles in 11 years and secured Japan's Number One 8 times, calling them invincible.

The last team is the Orix Buffaloes' predecessor, the Hankyu Braves, who accomplished their three-peat feat from 1975 to 1977: this founding team of Nippon Professional Baseball long remained poor within the league, but they managed to build a strong roster just in time to run into the V9 Giants' peak period. From 1967 to 1972, they challenged the Giants in the Nippon Series five times, only to be defeated each time, earning the title of the greatest losers. It wasn't until later that they overcame their mental block, defeating the Yomiuri Giants two consecutive years to achieve dynasty success.

Now, after successfully defending their title for two years in a row, the SoftBank team stands at the crossroads of history once again: if they can be crowned Japan's Number One once again this season, it will be enough to inscribe the entire team and the names of everyone within it into the annals of Nippon Professional Baseball history, to be revisited countless times in the years to come.

This is an enormous honor both for the team and its players, and it is also what fuels the SoftBank players spiritually throughout this season.

Of course, after two years of ruling the Japanese baseball scene, they've naturally become thorns in the side of the other 11 teams, destined to face significant challenges in this new season:

Take, for example, today's opening game, where SoftBank's first opponent of the new season is none other than the Saitama Seibu Lions, whose lineup has been completely rebuilt and is coming on strong.

This premier club of the Pacific League has fallen into complete silence since they won the league championship and Japan's Number One in 2008. In recent years, they've been unable even to make it into the climax games.

Logically speaking, with powerful pitchers like Kikuchi Yuusei and Makita Kazuhiko, and a team ERA that has been at the top over the years, the Seibu Lions shouldn't be in such a situation; ultimately, it's because their lineup's strength doesn't match that of their other opponents.

With many young batters within the team, and the front and rear sections of the lineup lacking connection leading to unable to chain together runs, the long hits production relies almost solely on Nakamura Gouya... These are objective issues with the Seibu Lions' lineup and the biggest reasons they have repeatedly faltered at crucial moments over the years.

It is precisely due to these considerations that the Seibu Lions have focused their draft priorities on supplementing lineup strength and accumulating talent over the past few years - for instance, during the 2013 selection conference, instead of competing with other teams for Matsui Yuuki, the Seibu Lions chose to uniquely hook Mori Yuuya, a generation-leading powerful catcher. They then used the second pick to acquire the ready-to-deploy infielder Yamaka Hotaka from Fuji University; in 2014, they used the third pick to select Shuta Tonosaki, also from Fuji University.

This formed the Seibu Lions' "Mountain Thief Lineup" that would sweep all Japan in the coming years:

Kuriyama Takashi and Nakamura Gouya, experienced and still strong; right in the peak of their careers, with all stats breaking out, Akiyama Shingo and Asamura Eitou; gradually showing potential and securing their place within the team - Mori Yuuya and Yamaka Hotaka...

Under the leadership of legendary coach Watanabe Hisashi, this storied club has come to Fukuoka with great determination to win, aiming to defeat SoftBank and start the new season with a triumphant opening!

To this end, Watanabe Hisashi has dispatched the most formidable lineup the Seibu Lions can field under the current circumstances: with the team's ace Kikuchi Yuusei anchoring the pitcher mound, focusing on offensive strength in the lineup, even at the cost of some defense.

Meanwhile, SoftBank shows the composure of a defending champion by adapting unchanged to circumstances, essentially continuing last season's starting lineup, where manager Kodama Komei makes a slight adjustment concerning Lin Guanglai's arrangement: