Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 419 - 64: Dream Baseball Feast (Super - )

Time flies by quickly, and in just the blink of an eye, July is already halfway through, and the entire 2013 season is halfway over—the All-Star game day has arrived.

Starting from July 18, the professional baseball official matches will take a week off—players not selected for the All-Star game can enjoy a relatively long mid-season break, spending time with family, relaxing, and preparing for the end-of-season sprint; as for players like Lin Guanglai, who were selected for the All-Star team, they still have to follow their team on further expeditions.

This year’s All-Star game will be held in three matches, the first at the Sapporo Dome in Hokkaido, the next stop in Tokyo at the Meiji Jingu Stadium, and the third match will fully showcase the professional baseball league’s concern for less developed baseball regions, to be hosted at Pancheng Green Stadium in Fukushima Prefecture.

After the away game with the Chiba Lotte Marines, most of the first team’s main players boarded a plane back to Fukuoka; while Lin Guanglai followed Manager Akiyama and a few other selected veterans, heading north to meet up with the Pacific League team in Sapporo.

After returning to the Pacific League’s matches, SoftBank Team experienced a short honeymoon period and then reverted to the form from before the interleague play:

The batting lineup was relatively stable, with significant bursts and impact at critical moments, but this still couldn’t offset the shortage in the starting pitcher rotation—still the same old problem, besides Lin Guanglai and Shetsu Shou, the remaining pitchers in the team could not consistently pitch more than six innings in each game.

Affected by these factors, for almost the past month, the SoftBank Team basically relied on two aces to consistently secure wins, occasionally relying on other pitchers’ personal bursts and batting line support to scrape some crucial matches, maintaining a win rate barely below fifty percent.

With the season reaching 84 games, the SoftBank Team’s record of 41 wins, 42 losses, and 1 draw, with a deficit of 1 game, isn’t great, but also not terrible; ultimately, it was the Pacific League’s teams being too close in strength and too competitively intense—put the same record in the neighboring Central League, and SoftBank could even secure a steady position in the A class.

In response to the scarcity of pitchers, the team management finally started to make mid-season reinforcements:

The team first signed American pitcher Paul Oseguera from the independent league on a short-term contract, then upgraded development pitcher Edison Barrios to a registered player, subsequently reaching a transaction with the Orix, trading second-team relief pitcher Kato Keisuke for veteran Yoshino Makoto—mid-season it’s hard to make big trades or sign heavy hitters, so these moves are already quite commendable.

"Alright, stop looking so gloomy—although we performed relatively average in the first half of the season, your individual performances were beyond reproach, and the losses weren’t your fault."

"The All-Star is an acknowledgment from the audience and industry insiders of you, and also a chance for you to relax, don’t look so gloomy—make sure not to show this demeanor when facing fans!"

On the plane to Hokkaido, looking at the low-spirited players around him, Akiyama Koji, the team’s manager, naturally took on the responsibility of comforting them—the players before him were key roles in preventing the team from collapsing in the first half of the season, and the subsequent sprint phase would rely heavily on their performances.

"Is this the first time many of you have been selected for the All-Star? Take this time as a holiday and enjoy it, go see friends if you want, play wherever you like, as long as you don’t get hurt, do whatever you want—I won’t intervene at all—of course, I don’t want to see any of your names in any tabloid during the All-Star, remember to keep things in moderation!"

And Manager Akiyama indeed acted as he said:

After the plane landed in Sapporo, the main group disbanded on the spot at the airport, with Manager Akiyama first going off to meet his old friends;

Meanwhile, the players left at the spot looked at each other and eventually decided to head to the hotel together, and then act separately.

The accompanying veterans were mostly seasoned players in the professional baseball circuit, naturally having their network of connections, and upon reaching the hotel, they went off drink and chat with their friends;

Meanwhile, Lin Guanglai wasn’t idle either, he took Chika Huangda, who was also entering the All-Star for the first time and had few peers due to his status as a development player, and went to have a meal with fellow All-Stars Ohtani Shohai and Fujinami Jintaro.

Compared to the well-acquainted "Takayama Trio," Chika Huangda, although the oldest in the group, didn’t speak much—after all, in comparison to these three high school baseball stars and the first pick heavenly talents in professional baseball, Chika Huangda, coming from a development player background and only just barely securing a position as a setup pitcher, felt somewhat inferior.

Seeing Chika Huangda’s slightly awkward demeanor, Lin Guanglai proactively engaged him in conversation during the meal, trying to enliven the atmosphere.

"Chika, have you ever thought about transitioning to a starting pitcher? I think you’re definitely capable enough!"