Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 397 - 46: Devil’s Home Field

Some newspapers once conducted a survey among Nippon Professional Baseball players, asking "Which stadium do you dislike the most as an opponent?"—Surprisingly, more than half of the players chose Koshien as their answer, especially the players from the Giant Team.

This Holy Land of high school baseball, a place countless hearts yearn for, ironically becomes a place professional players avoid. So what causes this phenomenon?

The answer is simple: it’s the crazy fans of the Hanshin Tigers—especially the die-hard fans gathered in the right field stands of Koshien Stadium. Their passionate, loud, and strongly home-team-biased support has become a striking scene during professional baseball game days at Koshien Stadium.

But in the circles of players and fans of other teams, these Hanshin fans are notoriously infamous: throwing objects, verbal abuse, direct provocations, and sometimes even attacking away fans celebrating a win. These are all things they have done—even though Nippon Professional Baseball and the Hanshin Tigers have repeatedly condemned this uncivilized behavior and severely punished the ringleaders according to regulations, it has only slightly improved.

For high school players, playing at Koshien Stadium is the dream of their lives, and the on-site audience will wholeheartedly cheer for both sides, filled with warmth;

But once it becomes the Hanshin Tigers and their opponents on the field, this ancient baseball ground instantly sheds its guise of warmth and transforms into a man-devouring lair, a demonic home ground that terrifies many players.

Lin Guanglai had his first taste of how passionate the Hanshin Tigers fans can be during this match.

Since it was an away game, SoftBank Team started the attack first—Lin Guanglai was the starting player this game, and Hasegawa Yu replaced him as the leadoff batter.

As soon as Hasegawa stood in the batter’s box, thunderous sounds echoed from all directions of Koshien:

"じょう——ねつ! じょう——ねつ! じょう——ねつ!"

The entire crowd of Tigers fans chanted "passion" in unison. The sheer volume, orderly rhythm, and continuous repetition created an immense sense of pressure and psychological disturbance, putting enormous stress on Hasegawa Yu in the batter’s box.

Under such overwhelming pressure, facing Randy Messenger, the massive ace of the Hanshin Tigers, known for his top-notch strikeout ability in Nippon Professional Baseball, Hasegawa Yu, unsurprisingly, struck out.

The moment after the strikeout, another burst of boisterous laughter erupted from the die-hard stands in the right field. Thousands of die-hard Tigers fans collectively covered their mouths and began imitating farting sounds.

"Puff puff——!!!"

Suddenly, the loud, synchronized, and mockingly playful "puff puff" sounds spread like a virus from the die-hard stands in the right field, eventually becoming a storm sweeping across the entire Koshien Stadium. This was the home fans’ clear humiliation of the opposing player who had been struck out.

When Nakagawa Seiichi hit a single with two outs, making it to first base, the scene at Koshien abruptly changed—targeting this SoftBank star player, all the Hanshin fans began singing a short song:

"Nä~kagawa! Big chin! He has a big chin! Hey ho! Big chin!"

Before joining the Softbank Team, Nakagawa Seiichi played for the Yokohama BayStars in the Central League for ten years. For this former star player of the rival team, even though he’s no longer in the Central League, the Hanshin fans wouldn’t let him go, singing a mocking song about his prominent chin to try and affect his performance.

"Why are these Hanshin fans so pumped today? I didn’t see them like this when they played Orix a few days ago." Standing at the edge of the dugout at Koshien, Akiyama Koji couldn’t help but frown as he watched the dancing and singing Hanshin fans in the stands.

He wasn’t intimidated—after all, compared to the Koshien support during Akiyama Koji’s days as a player, today’s Hanshin fans are a far cry from what they were, not even worth comparing to before, let alone scaring him.

His concern was for Lin Guanglai, who was about to take the mound:

In Akiyama Koji’s eyes, those spectators in the right field at Koshien are like old hooligan fans who don’t care whether you’re a veteran or a rookie. They treat all visiting players the same, with no shortage of insults and jeers.

Veteran players, after years of grinding, have long gotten used to such abuse and have naturally learned to let it go in one ear and out the other, so Akiyama Koji wasn’t worried about them;

But the problem is, Lin Guanglai is just entering professional baseball, and his high school experience at Koshien was so successful—someone like him, a prodigy of the heavens, probably has never encountered such treatment in all these years, right?

What if those Showa old-timers in the stands make up more songs like earlier, directly blowing up the mindset of this young genius—considering Softbank Team’s current situation, Akiyama Koji can’t afford to lose a stable starting pitcher in the upcoming games.

The top of the first inning ended quickly. Randy Messenger is indeed one of the most intimidating foreign pitchers in today’s Nippon Professional Baseball, with a fastball averaging over 148km/h and an extremely rich arsenal causing quite a disturbance for Softbank batters; coupled with the relentless scene from the Koshien home crowd, SoftBank’s offensive was ultimately halted at second base this inning.

Just as Akiyama Koji turned around, preparing to offer more guidance to his pitcher before going on defense, he surprisingly found that Lin Guanglai was smiling.

Yes, Lin Guanglai was smiling—this young genius player, like a newborn baby, was curiously gazing at the magnificent stadium and those roaring people in the stands.

"Huh? Is Lin... is he smiling?"

Not only Akiyama Koji, but the broadcasting camera also caught this scene, and the commentators in the studio were equally puzzled.

"Huh? Why is Softbank’s Lin Guanglai smiling, is he looking down on us—everyone, show him what’s what."

Soon, the sharp-eyed Tigers fans in the stands also noticed this, and alongside the comment, a tidal wave of boos erupted.

"Boo——"