Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 573 - 136: The Monster Returns (2)

The grandeur was such that Yanagida Yuuki, who followed Lin Guanglai to attend the award ceremony, seemed like a small celebrity in the entertainment world trying to "ride the wave to boost their status"...

Lin Guanglai was in an exceptionally good mood today. During the process of walking down the red carpet, he occasionally waved to the screaming and cheering fans on the sidelines and to the cameras of the photographers, with a radiant smile on his face.

Just as all the professional baseball media predicted at the end of the official match, Lin Guanglai would be the biggest winner at tonight's award ceremony: compared to last year's regret of achieving outstanding performance but only receiving the Rookie of the Year title, this year Lin Guanglai achieved an all-around leap—

The Pacific League's season MVP, Best Nine, Golden Glove, and the Eiji Sawamura Award, the highest honor every pitcher dreams of, were all included in his accolades.

More importantly, according to the official announcement made by Nippon Professional Baseball this morning, Lin Guanglai was even awarded the prestigious Shoriki Matsutaro Award Special Award by the baseball officials to commend his achievement as the youngest quadruple crown winning pitcher in history and his outstanding contribution to the promotion of Japanese professional baseball.

It should be noted that before him, only Ichiro Suzuki, who set the MLB single-season hit record in 2004, and Tanaka Masahiro, who was undefeated last season, had received this honor, making Lin Guanglai the third in history.

Walking into the magnificent hall, many people had already arrived before Lin Guanglai; today's New Takarazuka Hotel was said to gather the full strength of Japanese professional baseball—all the managers from both leagues' teams, star players receiving awards, those legendary figures Lin Guanglai often saw on the newspapers in his childhood, league officials wielding power, and influential media representatives.

Yet, when Lin Guanglai and Yanagida Yuuki stepped into the venue, all eyes simultaneously shifted to their direction, filled with curiosity, scrutiny, and unmistakable admiration and amazement.

Unable to endure the treatment of being stared at as the focus beside Lin Guanglai any longer, Yanagida Yuuki almost immediately left his side to catch up with old friends from the same cohort, leaving Lin Guanglai standing alone.

At that moment, he heard a voice from behind.

"Guanglai, good evening."

The moment Lin Guanglai turned back and saw the other person's face, he showed a delighted smile and quickly extended his hand towards them, "Ah, Brother Zhe Ren, long time no see!"

The visitor was none other than Lin Guanglai's friend, this season's Central League's best second baseman, and one of the current star players of the Yakult Swallows, Yamada Tetsuro.

"Congratulations, superstar! Not only did you win the league victory and Japan's Number One this season, but you'll also probably be the biggest winner tonight, right? Winning all the personal honors you can in just two seasons, Guanglai, you're truly incredible..."

Yamada Tetsuro slightly raised his head, looking at the younger brother before him who was three years his junior, with eyes filled with obvious envy while offering his blessings—in fact, considering the normal development speed of high school graduates, Yamada Tetsuro becoming a major team player and achieving Best Nine in his fourth year of professional baseball already makes him a genius among geniuses, but there are always those who are even more extraordinary, like the super genius Lin Guanglai.

"But..." Thinking about the team's active reinforcements after the recent start of the off-season, Yamada Tetsuro smiled, "Next season, your SoftBank won't win the championship so easily again; trust me, the new season's Yakult will definitely surprise all of Japan, perhaps we might even meet in the Japan Series!"

Seeing Yamada Tetsuro's confident demeanor, Lin Guanglai's curiosity was piqued, and he couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean by that? Brother Zhe Ren, you better not be kidding me, while Valentine is still as fierce as ever, hasn't your Yakult been hitting rock bottom early these past years..."

Yamada Tetsuro smiled knowingly, exhibiting a "young fellow, still too green" expression, "Actually, it's almost finalized, so telling you is no harm. This year's top management did quite well with the signings, they've nearly wrapped deals with Rode's Naruse Yoshihisa senpai and Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters' Oki Kiyoshi senpai, and they're reportedly set to sign the Reds' relief pitcher Roan—with so many reinforcements, next season will absolutely yield great results!"

Seeing his friend's contented look, Lin Guanglai also revealed a subtle smile on his face; after a moment, he slowly said: "Such extensive reinforcements indeed make for considerable competitiveness in the Central League... But Brother Zhe Ren, even if you and your team beat teams like Giant and Hanshin to reach the Japan Series, you'd still end up losing to us, SoftBank!"

Yamada Tetsuro was unconvinced and immediately retorted: "Your SoftBank team is strong, no doubt, but definitely not unbeatable. Take, for example, Settsu senpai, isn't he struggling to adapt to the series intensity now? Also, don't forget, you guys still haven't found Manager Akiyama's successor yet! With such a champion head coach setting the bar, any successor would feel intense pressure, don't you think?"

"Heh heh..." Lin Guanglai revealed his subtle smile once more, "Well, let me tell you something too, Brother Zhe Ren—guess what our team's recruitment team has been busy with lately? Here's a hint, it's an exceptionally high-profile signing..."

This question stumped Yamada Tetsuro a bit, as he guessed several prominent local stars who gained free agent status this year, but each time Lin Guanglai just shook his head in response; finally, Lin Guanglai revealed the answer himself. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"I won't drag this out, anyway, the team will be holding a press conference in a couple of days, and the news will go wild by then—this off-season, our biggest signing is none other than the returned 'Heisei Monster' from the US!"

"Hei...Heisei Monster?! You can't mean," hearing the title, Yamada Tetsuro widened his eyes, "Matsusaka Daisuke-san, right?"

"Bingo!" Seeing the shocked expression on the other's face, Lin Guanglai couldn't help but laugh, "Of course, who else could 'Heisei Monster' refer to besides him?"

Due to recurring arm injuries and disputes with American coaches and catchers regarding training methods and game-calling, the 34-year-old "Heisei Monster" Matsusaka Daisuke announced at the end of this season that he would return to Nippon Professional Baseball. Almost immediately after his announcement, the SoftBank Team offered a large 3-year, 1.2 billion yen contract, overwhelmingly defeating other bidders, adding this Japanese legendary pitcher to their rotation.

By signing Matsusaka Daisuke, SoftBank not only valued his fame and skills, but more importantly aimed to use his experience to impart techniques and knowledge to the younger generation of the team, represented by Lin Guanglai; in other words, this 1.2 billion yen contract could be considered a player+mentor "Dual Swordsmanship" contract.

"As for Manager Akiyama's successor..." Lin Guanglai glanced across the hall for his target, waving a greeting, "Supervisor Kudo, hello there—please guide us well in the new season!"

What Yamada Tetsuro said earlier did hold certain truths: After all, since Akiyama Koji began coaching SoftBank in 2009, he achieved 3 league victories and 2 Japan's Number One titles within 6 years, never falling out of A-Class standings, and such impressive achievements naturally place undue pressure on his successors.

But just a few days ago, Seibu's and Daiei's legendary figure, nicknamed "Victory Mentor" Kodama Komei accepted SoftBank's invitation, choosing to take up the mantle left by his longtime player-phase teammate Akiyama Koji, becoming the new Supervisor of the SoftBank Team.

Even though this season could be deemed as a resounding success for SoftBank, neither the club's top management nor the players were satisfied with the current achievements, continuing lavish spending to strengthen potential team weaknesses.

Their appetite is far from satiated by just one championship; some within the team believe that the goal should be to harvest as many honors as possible during this core group's prime period!

The nine consecutive championships of the Giant V9 dynasty may not be repeatable, but surely a three-peat isn't out of the question, is it?