Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 446 - 76: Nakamoto Ango’s Ambition

"Hello to all professional baseball fans, welcome to today's morning news commentary, I'm your host..."

"The first round of the 2013 professional baseball climax series has come to an end. In the two completed series, both the Central League and the Pacific League have seen rare sweeps..."

"However, there is a difference. In the Central League, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, ranked third in the Central League's regular season, achieved an upset at Koshien, sweeping the second-ranked Hanshin Tigers with scores of 8-1 and 7-4. Their opponent in the final round will be the Yomiuri Giants, who are aiming for consecutive Japan's Number One titles..."

"In the Pacific League, the SoftBank Team ranked second in the regular season, fully displayed their explosive and enduring batting power, winning 11-1 and 15-0 in two massive victories to eliminate the Seibu Lions. Awaiting them in the final round is the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, the top favorite for Japan's Number One, led by the 'Divine Son'..."

When Nakamoto Ango walked into the Rakuten rookies' dormitory dining hall, the morning news on TV was broadcasting the report of the climax series first round; and among the endlessly repeated news, the name "Lin Guanglai" appeared with particularly high frequency.

Nakamoto Ango slightly lifted his head, looking towards the TV: appearing on the screen at that moment was the handsome face of Lin Guanglai—some organizations specializing in professional baseball say that even if Lin Guanglai's abilities are ignored, just his face alone has created a value of hundreds of millions of yen for the SoftBank Team that selected him.

As a rookie chosen in the same draft and a rival in the same league, Nakamoto Ango has mixed feelings about Lin Guanglai:

On one hand, he genuinely admires the abilities exhibited by Lin Guanglai as a high school graduate player—his rookie season statistics alone are goals that many players strive for their entire lives.

But on the other hand, Lin Guanglai's excellent performance also somewhat invokes a feeling in Nakamoto Ango of "why was Zhu born and why was Liang born"—isn't this feeling called... jealousy?

25 starts, 15 wins, 8 losses, 134 strikeouts, ERA 3.34—this is the data Nakamoto Ango posted this season, and for any pitcher's team, producing such data is enough to rank them among the starting rotation leaders and earn them a massive renewal contract during the offseason.

This kind of data, in any past year of Nippon Professional Baseball, would be enough to secure him a rookie of the year award—unfortunately, not this year.

In terms of pitching performance, Lin Guanglai has comprehensively overwhelmed him in victories, winning percentage, strikeouts, and ERA, not to mention he is an unprecedented "Dual Swordsmanship" player, with excellent batting skills as well.

Lin Guanglai's comprehensive performance and terrifying statistics mean that in his rookie year, although Nakamoto Ango also performed outstandingly, he will end up with nothing.

It's certainly not true that he doesn't care about these honors, because who would mind winning more awards? However, there's no particular frustration either, because a player like Lin Guanglai is so unique that every step he takes is challenging people's conventional understanding of baseball, making it difficult for Nakamoto Ango to develop any competitive feelings towards him.

But this does not mean he wants to concede defeat when competing against Lin Guanglai, at least in one aspect, Nakamoto Ango believes he surpasses him:

The team that chose him is excellent and highly competitive, allowing him to join the ranks of veterans and become another player who can win Japan's Number One as a key pitcher in his rookie season!

To achieve such a goal, the Tohoku Rakuten and Nakamoto Ango are only two steps away—and coincidentally, the opponent standing in their way is Lin Guanglai and his SoftBank.

Although in individual honors competition, Nakamoto Ango knows he is one step behind, but in terms of team honors, he has extremely strong confidence in himself and his team.

His goal is not only to win this series against SoftBank—he wants to help the team win this series and secure victory in the game where he starts!

Not long ago, Tanaka Masahiro announced to his Rakuten teammates that he would challenge the Major League after this season—his intention was simple, to inspire his teammates' fighting spirit with this news, hoping to end his 7-year Rakuten career perfectly.

"This season, Senior Tanaka is absolutely not going to fail—which means that as long as I can secure a win in the second game of the series, with our inherent 1-0 lead, we will be directly on the verge of victory and invincible!"

"Whether for the team, the seniors, or myself, I must strive to win the game whenever I am on the mound!"

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"In the series against Rakuten, although the format has changed from best of three to best of seven, because the opponent is the first place in the Pacific League with an inherent advantage of 1 win, this means we must win 4 out of 6 games to beat them and advance to the Japan Series—honestly, this is not an easy task."