Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 365 - 16: Oriental Express

In the second match against the Seibu Lions, Manager Akiyama showed complete trust in Lin Guanglai—he simply treated this game as training for Lin Guanglai, not following the usual rhythm of a practice game where various pitchers share the nine and a half innings; instead, Akiyama Koji kept Lin Guanglai on the field for practice until he gave up runs, before replacing him.

In the second battle with the Seibu Lions, Lin Guanglai pitched 4.1 innings, delivering 5 strikeouts, allowing 4 hits, and conceding 1 run. Considering the level of a high school graduate player, this was already quite an outstanding performance.

And on the SoftBank Team’s side, they also managed to win 2-1 against the Seibu Lions, thanks to Yanagida Yuuki’s two-run homer in the bottom half of the third inning, even in a situation of a lack of manpower.

The next morning, when Lin Guanglai entered the training ground as usual to start a new day’s training, he unexpectedly received new instructions from the pitching coach Takayama Yuuji:

"Guanglai, you don’t have to train with everyone today—do you see that training field over there? For today’s training, you go practice there; Mr. Guo will be your personal instructor."

After speaking, Takayama Yuuji walked up and patted Lin Guanglai on the shoulder, speaking to him earnestly:

"Young man, private lessons from someone like Mr. Guo, a former professional player, are not something everyone can enjoy; grasp this opportunity well, and then work hard—there might be a surprise waiting for you when the season starts."

Having said that, Takayama Yuuji didn’t say much more, just gestured for Lin Guanglai to hurry along, not to keep the coach on the other side waiting.

The SoftBank Team’s top-tier is wealthy and well-equipped, and this luxury includes not just the players but the coaching team as well.

The top-tier has two pitching coaches; the one just now, Takayama Yuuji, mainly handles the allocation of pitchers in various situations during games; as for the responsibility of enhancing the individual abilities of the team’s pitchers, it falls to the renowned senior figure in professional baseball whom Lin Guanglai is about to meet.

As soon as he stepped through the gates of the training field, Lin Guanglai found someone standing on the pitcher’s mound in the middle of the field. He quickly walked forward, took off his hat, and bowed in greeting to the person.

"Hello, Mr. Guo."

As he lifted his head, Lin Guanglai’s face showed an expression of excitement—after all, this elder before him was none other than the famous "Oriental Express"!!!

In the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, the Seibu Lions built one of the greatest dynasties in Nippon Professional Baseball history, comparable only to the Giant Team during Wang Zhenzhi and Nagashima Shigeo’s era—from 1982 to 1994, over 13 seasons, the Seibu Lions won the Pacific League championship 11 times and claimed Japan’s Number One 8 times, making them the absolute rulers of Japanese baseball in that era.

Within that legendary team, apart from the endless offensive firepower provided by the ’AKD Cannon’ composed of Akiyama Koji, Kiyohara Kazuhiko, and the foreign player Distelrand, the Seibu Lions most relied on their "Four Great Pitchers" combo.

Formed by the Watanabe brothers, Watanabe Hisayuki and Watanabe Tomoaki, and the super left-arm Kodama Komei, the remaining member was this elder now standing before Lin Guanglai—

Guo Taiyuan, from China Taiwan, nicknamed the "Oriental Express," truly endowed the number "18" jersey with the meaning of "ace" for the Seibu Lions.

In an era where pitchers being able to throw at 145 km/h could be called "fastball pitchers," Guo Taiyuan’s fastest pitch already reached a terrifying 158 km/h, a figure that even in today’s professional baseball, not many pitchers can achieve.

As a non-native player, he claimed the 1991 Pacific League MVP, Best Nine, and Gold Glove, making him one of the most successful foreign players in Nippon Professional Baseball history.

Considering such a senior figure in professional baseball, Lin Guanglai certainly did not dare to be at the slightest bit negligent, maintaining a respectful attitude from start to finish.

"Lin, how did it feel to take the mound as the starting pitcher in the practice game against Seibu yesterday?"

Upon meeting, Guo Taiyuan directly asked Lin Guanglai about his feelings regarding yesterday’s game. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Hmm... It felt much more strenuous than high school games. Although I only pitched a little over 4 innings yesterday, it felt particularly exhausting, even more tiring than completing an entire game at Koshien..."

"Every batter in professional baseball, even at the second-team level, is much stronger than the strongest high school batters—you have to give your all with every pitch, and the number of times you tussle with opponents increases as well. Sometimes it feels like I don’t have as much control standing on the mound as I did before."

Lin Guanglai didn’t hold back, honestly expressing his truest feelings.

"You’re right, why do we often say it takes a high school graduate player two to three years, or even four to five years to stand out in professional baseball? This is the reason—especially for aces from teams that have won the Koshien crown, overcoming the sense of disparity alone requires some time."

"But you should also know that as the strongest player to emerge from Japanese high school baseball events over the past ninety years, and as one of only two Dual Swordsmanship players in the world today, the organization can afford to wait three to four years for you to gradually grow, but would you want that for yourself?"

"Today we’re solely discussing matters related to pitching—tell me, Lin, what kind of pitcher do you aspire to become? Please tell me honestly, because that will determine how I will train you moving forward."