Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 403 - 52: Turmoil

The game between the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and the Hanshin Tigers has ended, but outside the field, various factors from this game have sparked further public debates.

[SoftBank·Hanshin Chaos! Lin·Messenger Direct Conflict!]

[Randy Messenger: Lin Lacks Respect for Opponents, He Shouldn't Be Celebrating]

[Akiyama Koji: Retaliatory Hit-by-Pitch Actions Are More Disgraceful]

[Bat Flip Celebration vs. Intentional Hit-by-Pitch—A Discussion on Baseball's Unwritten Rules]

As is well known, due to national characteristics and what is imbibed from a young age, compared to the wild style and prominent player personalities in Major League Baseball, most local players in Nippon Professional Baseball, aside from foreign players, are relatively mild-mannered and seldomly cause large-scale bench-clearing incidents. Situations like the one yesterday between SoftBank and Hanshin are indeed quite rare, naturally leading to broader discussions.

The older baseball purists believe that Lin Guanglai's home run against Messenger had already harmed the opponent, and his subsequent bat flip was completely unnecessary and provoked the opponent, leading to a large-scale conflict between the two teams.

Therefore, as the person involved and the catalyst of the entire incident, Lin Guanglai must take responsibility for the conflict, must apologize and ensure that such behavior does not happen again; the Nippon Professional Baseball should also fine him for his inappropriate behavior, either financially or with a suspension.

After voicing such opinions, these old gentlemen were somewhat surprised by a strong opposition from the younger crowd, including those young fans who also believed Lin Guanglai should be responsible.

To the young crowd, they spent a lot on tickets to watch the game on-site, not to see players interact politely like elementary school students. If even the young players just entering the league lose their sharpness, what's the point of watching a bunch of sly veterans play?

Since it's a competitive sport, conflict itself is a part of the game—Lin Guanglai chose to celebrate with a bat flip after hitting a home run, and he was retaliated against with an intentional hit-by-pitch. The matter should end here; there's no need to make a fuss;

Moreover, if you really want to start analyzing the whole situation, Hanshin's fans should be the ones who initially provoked the dispute—especially that group of hardcore Tigers fans in the right field stands, as many believe their behavior far exceeded what normal cheering should look like.

Besides, what does "unwritten rule" mean—aren't these so-called unwritten rules those that haven't been formally included in the baseball regulations?

If that is the case, whether players follow these rules should be a matter of personal choice: you can choose not to celebrate and just quietly round the bases; however, for someone who barely hit a home run to have no freedom at all, isn't such old-fashioned thinking just a bit tyrannical?

Those who can rationally and impartially analyze the situation are considered pretty objective and neutral. Compared to them, the two groups formed by extreme Tigers and Hawks fans on baseball forums are even more formidable:

From the start of the game at Koshien, the online bickering between the two groups never stopped, and they seemed to have thoroughly insulted each other's ancestors; particularly after Hanshin fans sang short songs directed at individual players, the dedicated fan clubs of SoftBank players added fuel to the fire.

As the verbal war sparked by the conflict escalated, an even bigger storm suddenly hit Nippon Professional Baseball, ultimately overshadowing the conflict between SoftBank and Hanshin.

It is widely known that baseball itself is a "pitching-and-batting" sport; when the strength of both pitching and batting is equal, the pitcher is generally considered to have the advantage—this is accepted as fact. The recent uproar pertains to the baseballs currently used by players.

Prior to 2011, the policy was for manufacturers to produce balls, and teams would procure their balls for home games—hence, in the past, many power-hitting teams often acquired balls with higher elasticity to benefit the hitters, indirectly leading to the phenomenon in the early 2000s where Nippon Professional Baseball saw "hitters generally turning into power hitters, with teams having four 30 homerun hitters each, while pitchers' stats deteriorated, having a 3.26 ERA crowned as the ERA title."

The increasingly aggressive hitting phenomenon prompted the Nippon Professional Baseball league to make adjustments: starting from 2011, they mandated the use of a "unified ball" supplied by Mizuno across all Nippon Professional Baseball games, which directly led to the "pitcher-dominated" state in professional baseball:

Throughout the 2011 season, the number of home runs hit in Nippon Professional Baseball plummeted from 1,605 the previous year to 939, with the Chunichi Dragons winning the Central League pennant that year with an almost 1-to-1 runs saved/allowed ratio, the league's lowest batting average, and ERA, relying on a strong pitching lineup.

Dominant pitchers became commonplace, and no-hitters emerged frequently; those hitters who used to hit 20-30 homers suddenly saw their numbers plummet:

The legendary catcher Shiroyama Kenshi, who returned to Japan, had a slash line of .303 average, 28 homers, and 91 RBIs in 2010, but these numbers fell to .189/5/13 by 2011.

During this period, there were media outlets that sent balls for testing, and results showed that the elasticity coefficient of Nippon Professional Baseball's unified balls provided by Mizuno averaged 0.408, significantly lower than the prescribed range of 0.4134-0.4374.

When the "unified ball" was initially introduced, the old men of the professional baseball league claimed it was to "align with the world and adopt the WBC specifications." However, when MLB teams came to Japan for the season opener in 2012, Japanese players let MLB batters try the unified balls, only to receive the feedback that "it doesn't bounce at all";

By the time of the World Baseball Classic earlier this year, when Nippon Professional Baseball hitters swung the unified balls, they nearly lost to Brazil and China Taiwan, only then did the players suddenly realize that they'd been deceived by the league!

If the Nippon Professional Baseball league had simply stuck to the low elasticity coefficient balls indefinitely, it might have been acceptable—but as games lost the excitement of home runs and viewer attraction declined, the league authorities started meddling again:

They actually secretly switched the balls at the beginning of this season, increasing the elasticity coefficient of the unified balls!

Most importantly, when Nippon Professional Baseball's hitters found it much easier to hit this season and pitchers accustomed to low-elasticity balls began protesting to the league about the clandestine change, the officials maintained a steadfast denial of these claims from the preseason onwards.

The clash between the players' union and the Nippon Professional Baseball league persisted for some time, and it was only after the SoftBank vs. Hanshin game ended that the current president of the league, Kato Yoshiaki, finally admitted under player pressure that "the league had indeed requested the brand to adjust the ball's construction," triggering a widespread storm.

This high-stakes wave of upheaval instantly captured the media and public's attention, unwittingly easing the pressure and calming the situation for Lin Guanglai.

"So, I guess I should thank them then..."

Watching Kato Yoshiaki bow in apology on the TV screen, Lin Guanglai couldn't help but laugh.