Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 416 - 62: Bountiful Harvest

Inside the Fukuoka Yahoo Dome, the stands from all directions were bustling with people at the moment.

Generally speaking, due to the tight official game schedule and numerous matches, many times there wouldn’t be so many people choosing to come to the venue to watch the game in person.

But today was rather special.

On one hand, today’s game was scheduled over the weekend, allowing most fans, usually tied up by busy work, to finally have some free time to come with their families to the site to watch the game and enjoy a warm family time, while also satisfying their desire to watch the game live;

On the other hand, the visiting team today was none other than the famed Tokyo Yomiuri Giants—the top prestige of Nippon Professional Baseball, with 31 Central League victories and 22 Japan Series victories, having cultivated countless hall-of-fame caliber players.

The outstanding achievements naturally brought about a large number of supporters, even in locally in Fukuoka, there were quite a few loyal fans who grew up watching the Giants’ games.

Of course, although the Giants were dazzling, the protagonist of today’s game was still the home team, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks—this was not just an ordinary home game against the Giants, but a game with a major ceremonial significance involved.

"In the game the day before yesterday, the SoftBank Hawks defeated the Yakult Swallows at home, securing a crucial victory—this victory also earned them the exchange game championship. Before today’s game against the Giants, there will be an award ceremony held at the Yahoo Dome..."

The announcer explained the current situation to the TV viewers in a gentle voice; meanwhile, the players of the SoftBank first team were also walking out from the players’ area to the field and lined up around the home plate.

Among the densely packed crowd, Lin Guanglai was naturally the most prominent and eye-catching person: not only because of his exceptionally tall height, but also because of his unparalleled contribution to the entire SoftBank team during the exchange games period.

The SoftBank team’s ability to win the exchange game championship was largely due to their leading powerful batting lineup in the entire league, therefore the best player was naturally to be chosen from the lineup—as soon as the SoftBank team secured the victory, various professional baseball-related media began predicting the selection for the most valuable player award in the exchange games, and related betting agencies also set up odds, eventually narrowing the candidates down to two people.

Candidate No. 1, Lin Guanglai, a dual-swordsmanship player, had a 3-1 record as a pitcher during the exchange games period; aside from the loss against the Yakult team, he only allowed 1 run in Koshien in all combined remaining games, which was already quite formidable. Among all 12 teams from the two leagues combined, only Tanaka Masahiro was stronger than him;

And as a batter, his performance was even more extraordinary: during the exchange games he had a batting average of .337, 4th place at the time; 5 home runs, 2nd place at the time; 19 RBIs, 3rd place at the time—it can be said that the SoftBank team’s victory in the exchange games was heavily attributed to Lin Guanglai’s outstanding performance on both offense and defense, directly contributing to more than 5 wins.

The other candidate was the SoftBank team’s main outfielder, Hasegawa Yu: during the exchange games, he achieved an average batting rate of .418 and 41 hits, both ranking first among all players of the 12 teams, and actually records high in the history of the exchange games. Besides that, he also contributed 18 RBIs, only slightly fewer than Lin Guanglai; furthermore, Hasegawa Yu’s defense was also very reliable, having performed numerous outstanding outfield plays during this time.

"Firstly, we congratulate the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks for winning this exchange game..."

An official from the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization held a microphone, delivering a speech to all players in the field and the audience in the stands, expressing congratulations with a rather official-sounding remark, then handed over both the trophy and the large check for the winning prize to the coach Akiyama Koji and the captain Nakagawa Seiichi.

Nakagawa Seiichi raised the trophy high, showing it off to the home fans present, and soon the subject moved to the individual player awards.

"The best player of this exchange game is..."

The broadcast director controlling the camera live also understood well, panning back and forth over Lin Guanglai and Hasegawa Yu, the two hot candidates, trying to capture any slight change in their expressions, maybe hoping to create some newsworthy highlights!

The host responsible for announcing the best player award didn’t keep the suspense too long and quickly read out the final name:

"——Congratulations to player Lin Guanglai!"

Almost at the same moment as the result announcement, the music for Lin Guanglai’s exclusive appearance in the Yahoo Dome started playing; and for Lin Guanglai standing in the middle of the lineup, it was the first time he experienced the feeling of more than a man:

Various seniors approached him to congratulate him one after another; even Hasegawa Yu, who regrettably missed out at the last moment, came over with a smile to high-five him and gave him a big hug.

"This award is deserved by you, Guanglai—go on, don’t keep the home fans waiting too long!"

Urged forward by the pushing hands and in the thunderous applause from the home fans, Lin Guanglai took off his baseball cap, waved to the audience on all sides of the Yahoo Dome, then jogged to the forefront where the award ceremony was taking place.

Nobody would dislike winning an award, let alone a newcomer like Lin Guanglai who just joined the professional team, and even more needed tangible achievements to solidify his stable position in the team—Within less than half a year of joining the SoftBank team, he garnered the trust of his coach and teammates, and the love of home fans, while competitive awards came into his hands one after another, first being awarded the monthly best player, and now the exchange games MVP, even for Lin Guanglai, who was used to victories, it was hard to not feel a bit excited at this moment.

Not to mention, besides the obvious honor, each award carried significant prize money: just by receiving today’s most outstanding player award in the exchange games, Lin Guanglai could earn a pre-tax income of 2 million yen— even for Lin Guanglai, whose starting salary for joining was as high as 15 million yen, this number was already quite substantial.

"Well, regarding the result of the best player award, I think anyone with discerning eyes who have watched the games during this period would not have any objections—Lin Guanglai secured the best player of the 2013 exchange games, an undoubtedly well-deserved honor!"

"Hopefully, the victory in this exchange game will bring luck to the struggling SoftBank team throughout this season, allowing them to challenge higher ranking positions in the latter half of the season!"