Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 609 - 152: For Victory, For the Championship! (Part 2)

Judging solely from the data, whether it's the pitchers or the lineup of hitters, compared to last season's phenomenon, there's only a slight decline, and in some aspects, even a lead;

The only real issue seems to be the stability of the bullpen, which has indeed experienced certain fluctuations. Last season's proud iron wall bullpen trio—Mori Yuudou, Igarashi Ryouta, Dennis Sarfate—has all seen a collective decline in form this season, but the impact on performance is actually not as severe as anticipated.

Looking at this fact, rather than saying the Softbank Team has weakened, it's more accurate to say that the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters behind them have shown incredible strength.

What bothers Kodama Komei more than these data things is the slightly troubling atmosphere in the locker room lately, which is also a frequent occurrence in competitive sports:

In many cases, victories often mask problems within the team, and winning championships and titles can make discordant players tolerate each other; but when successive defeats come, those issues that weren't seen as problems can explode instantly, and a small collision might even become the spark that ignites the entire locker room.

Unfortunately, the culprit behind the troubled atmosphere in the Softbank Team's locker room right now is none other than Kodama Komei himself, and the incident happened in mid-July.

That day, Kodama, as usual, arrived early at the field, intending to check on the players' condition—if there were no data confirmations or minor league games to inspect, it was his habit and routine to arrive early at the training ground to run.

As he was dripping with sweat, players arriving early for extra batting practice started showing up one after another. At this moment, Kodama Komei noticed that among them, the figure of a player who hadn't performed well in recent games was missing—that person was none other than Yanagida Yuuki, one of last year's greatest contributors to the team's championship victory.

Yanagida Yuuki, who had a career year last season, fell into an unusual slump this season, especially during the period when the Softbank Team encountered a losing streak, his season's average batting rate plummeted to .229, marking a complete Waterloo.

Thus, on that day's training post-start, already in a bad mood due to the team's slight drop in performance lately, Kodama Komei directly confronted Yanagida Yuuki, questioning "why he didn't come for extra practice"; but in reality, Yanagida Yuuki was simply suffering from right elbow pain, so before training started, he prioritized care and physical adjustment, spending that time on his preparation.

The supervisor, without understanding the background, said such harsh words in front of the players, and such matters spread quickly in the locker room: as one of the absolute cores of Softbank, Yanagida Yuuki, who is usually cheerful and good at easing the atmosphere, enjoys very good rapport within the team, which led many players to feel indignant about how he was treated.

It was after this incident that the players and the supervisor began to grow somewhat distant, and the atmosphere in the rest area could no longer come together completely as before. In this sense, the wave of six consecutive losses in mid-August wasn't surprising.

Kodama Komei indeed reflected on his actions; possibly, as a rookie supervisor who claimed the league title and became Japan's Number One with unstoppable momentum, and with the new season also going smoothly from the start, he more or less became a bit complacent, developing the illusion that "it was he who led Softbank to the championship"—in fact, last season's historic Softbank lineup probably could have achieved the same things under any supervisor capable of controlling the team, and might have even done better than he did.

Saying things like that without understanding the background hurt the player; how can a supervisor like that expect players to follow?

Just as Kodama Komei was pondering how to ease tensions with the players, a "knock, knock" sound came from outside, as if someone was knocking on the door of his office.

"Come in." When the person from outside entered the office, Kodama Komei was somewhat surprised: the visitor was none other than Lin Guanglai, the current top player within the Softbank Team, whom he relied on most as a supervisor.

"Guanglai, please sit down. Is there something you need?" Kodama Komei spoke kindly to the other party.

Lin Guanglai declined the invitation to sit from his supervisor, simply stood in place shaking his head, directly expressing his intentions: "Supervisor, before this afternoon's training begins, I hope you can express your apology to Brother Yuuki for the previous incident."

"The team's current state isn't great, everyone's under a lot of pressure, and even the atmosphere in the locker room has become somewhat troubling..." Lin Guanglai thought about the recent locker room situation, and continued with a serious tone, "This season, we started off well, and I believe this team still possesses the strength to win the championship; it's just some unexpected events that have led us off the original path..."

"Now, with a whole month left in the season and a full opportunity of 23 games, I think we can preserve our triumphant fruit—but the premise is that we must come together as a team again, not be like now, falling apart..."

"Supervisor, my suggestion isn't because I want to embarrass you; I simply think this would be better for the team. Your actions were indeed somewhat inappropriate, Brother Yuuki has been struggling all season with his right elbow injury and does more extra practice than anyone, so I hope you can apologize to Brother Yuuki and everyone can join together for the goal we set at the beginning."

After finishing this long statement, Lin Guanglai bowed to Kodama Komei and then turned to leave the office; stepping outside, Lin Guanglai lightly sighed—he had offered what he believed to be a viable solution, now it was up to the supervisor's choice.

The afternoon training would soon begin, and Softbank's opponent tonight was the Orix team currently at the bottom of the Pacific League; with only a half-game advantage, it was a game they absolutely couldn't lose.

The players stood in the center of the field, waiting for the supervisor's speech—but judging from some players' expressions, they seemed to have comments about the process, or perhaps about the current supervisor himself, appearing somewhat indifferent.

"Brother Yanagida, please step forward." Before official training began, Kodama Komei rarely called out Yanagida Yuuki's name and asked him to stand at the very front of the lineup alone.

Yanagida Yuuki, looking puzzled and even with a hint of hostility, stepped out, while Lin Guanglai beside him raised his eyebrows.

Before all Softbank First Team fans, Kodama Komei bowed toward Yanagida Yuuki and said, "Brother Yanagida, regarding the earlier incident, I criticized you without knowing the situation and hurt your feelings; for this matter, I want to express my apology and hope you can accept it!"

Yanagida Yuuki was taken aback by this sudden situation; after all, Kodama Komei was his supervisor and a highly respected, accomplished veteran in professional baseball, giving such a grand gesture to a young man like him, made him feel uncomfortable.

Blushing, he accepted the apology from the opposite party, and amid some subtle gazes from the crowd, Yanagida Yuuki returned to the lineup.

"The team's recent state hasn't been great; these aren't anyone's fault, it's because of my failure as a supervisor that all this happened."

"Although the advantage we accumulated at the start of the season has basically been returned, at least we're still maintaining the league's top position; in other words, we're still winners."

"For each upcoming training and every game, if anyone has personal opinions or views, feel free to point them out right on the spot, as a supervisor, I'll try to listen to everyone's suggestions."

"There's one month left until the official match ends, let's sprint for the dream of a three-peat championship!"

"Not for anything else, simply for yourselves!"

"For victory, for the championship!"