Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 387 - 36: I’ll Teach Him a Lesson

"Fans at Yahoo Dome, thank you for your patience! Today’s home heroes are the three players who hit home runs in this game—Lahai’er, Yanagida Yuuki, and Lin!"

After interviewing Lahai’er and Yanagida Yuuki, the MC at Yahoo Dome approached Lin Guanglai. Before the MC could even speak, the SoftBank fans in the stands erupted in cheers and screams, welcoming the team’s hero who hit the game-winning walk-off hit.

Seeing the enthusiastic support from the fans, the MC smiled broadly and immediately turned to Lin Guanglai and asked:

"Lin, even though you haven’t been with the team long, judging by the noise from the SoftBank fans, you’re already quite popular. Do you have anything to say about the fans’ feelings?"

After hearing the MC’s question, Lin Guanglai nodded, then raised his hand and waved at the audience in all directions around the dome, eliciting another wave of cheers and screams.

"Thank you to the SoftBank fans for your support and love. In the upcoming games, I’ll perform even better to repay your support; I hope this game can start a successful away series, and we’ll strive to reverse the current ranking and climb into the A class before the end of the month."

"Yes, yes, I believe Lin can definitely deliver on his promise, and we SoftBank fans will always support the team! Now, onto the next question..."

Watching the young man speaking eloquently to tens of thousands of people on TV, Tanaka Masahiro’s face did not show any particular expression. He leaned back, lying on the soft sofa at home, quietly thinking.

Even though he is the ace pitcher for the Rakuten Golden Eagles, because the team is playing away games in Sapporo and Saitama, and he is not needed in the starting rotation, Tanaka Masahiro has finally gotten a relatively long break and can spend time with his wife.

After a bit of sightseeing with his wife during training breaks, the somewhat tired couple was at home today watching the live broadcast of the professional baseball game.

"Mr. Ma..." his wife, Tanaka Mai, looked at him with a hesitant expression.

"What’s up, Mai? If you have something to say, go ahead, it’s fine." Seeing his wife appear worried, Tanaka Masahiro knew she was overthinking again.

"Mr. Ma, actually, I’ve been wanting to ask you for hours—there’s a game between Rakuten and the Fighters today, why are we watching the SoftBank versus Orix match instead? It’s not that I dislike watching, just a bit confused..."

Faced with his wife’s question, Tanaka Masahiro chuckled heartily; instead of directly responding to her question, he pointed at Lin Guanglai on the TV screen and asked her:

"Mai, honestly, what do you think of the young man on TV?"

"Do you mean Lin Guanglai? Hmm..." After pondering for a while, Tanaka Mai slowly responded, "I only know a little about baseball, so I don’t quite understand the strategies you professional players talk about..."

"At least from where I can understand, how to put it... this kid has an aura about him, a presence that assures his teammates and troubles his opponents when he stands on the field—just like when you’re on the pitcher’s mound, Mr. Ma, you have that aura too, so handsome!"

Talking about her husband made Tanaka Mai’s tone soft and enthusiastic, making Tanaka Masahiro feel quite gratified. He lightly kissed her lips as he embraced her.

After a moment of tenderness, Tanaka Masahiro raised his head again, focusing once more on the young man on the screen.

Tanaka Masahiro was not unfamiliar with Lin Guanglai; in fact, he might have been one of the earliest professional players to take notice of him, having heard his name in the media repeatedly before Lin became the main player and achieved the spring-summer championship double in his second year of high school. After Lin won the Summer League championship again in his third year by defeating Osaka Tsubaki, their names appeared together even more frequently.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, only two schools have completed the summer championship double: Kumamoto University from 2004-2005 and Waseda Industries from 2011-2012. Among the players who played for these teams and are still active in professional baseball, there were Lin Guanglai and Tanaka Masahiro himself.

After Lin completed the summer championship double, many media outlets compared him to Tanaka Masahiro at that time, and both of them were often asked questions about it.

Even when Lin announced he would challenge playing as a dual position player in professional baseball, many media asked Tanaka Masahiro for his opinion. He remembers that his response was similar to that of his mentor, Mr. Nomura Katsuya, meaning that it seemed impossible, and he hoped Lin would respect professional baseball.

Who would have thought, since the start of the new season, Lin has excelled in both pitching and batting, becoming another phenomenal figure in professional baseball today—though whether this can last remains to be seen. But being able to adapt quickly to the intensity of professional competition and securing a starting rotation spot with SoftBank already makes him a prodigy among prodigies.

But Tanaka Masahiro wasn’t concerned about these aspects.

Now, he was solely focused on one thing: based on the performance since the season started, Lin Guanglai had become his biggest competitor at the pitching position!

Because of participating in the classic games in summer and struggling with form, Tanaka Masahiro has only pitched in two games this new season, both yielding 7 innings with 1 run, maintaining his consistent stellar performance, living up to his reputation as Rakuten’s ace;

However, newcomer Lin Guanglai was even more brilliant than him, who had been pitching in the professional league for a full six years: In the opening game, he pitched 6 innings with 11 strikeouts, giving up 1 run; in the game against the Fighters, he pitched 7 innings with 15 strikeouts, no hits, no runs, and even set a record with 10 consecutive strikeouts—his strikeout count in one game was much higher than Tanaka Masahiro’s total in two starts.

This made him take this young player even more seriously.

Tanaka Masahiro, who would celebrate his 25th birthday at the end of this year, had an idea that he hadn’t shared with anyone except his wife: For him, there were no more challenges in Nippon Professional Baseball, and the money was limited—after turning 25, he planned to exercise his free agent rights to challenge Major League Baseball in the United States!

For his future, he had to produce impressive results this year to attract MLB teams and secure a large contract—not only Lin Guanglai, but any opponent standing in his way was a target to be conquered.

Feeling her husband’s breath quicken, Tanaka Mai, snuggled in his arms, looked up and followed his gaze: On TV, Lin Guanglai was being cheered by the SoftBank home fans, exuding charm.

"Mr. Ma, what’s the matter?"

In response to his wife’s inquiry, Tanaka Masahiro squinted and replied, "Next week’s home game against SoftBank, I’ll likely be scheduled to start."

"In that game—"

"I’ll make sure to give this junior a proper lesson!"