Watching Miyuki's Game

Watching Miyuki's Game

As the final adjustment period before the tournament, the entire team focused its energy on the regulars. During the two weeks when other teams were playing their games, some Kinoshita Little League players traveled between various fields with cameras to scout, while others assisted the coaches with daily intensive training for the regulars.

However, as important reserve strength for next year, Second String pitchers like Kōshū still followed their original strength-training plans. Hayakawa Aki and the others were called in to make final adjustments to the First String pitchers' deliveries.

According to Hayakawa Aki, although they had not conducted further experiments on Kōshū, the coaching staff had verified the effects of the spin axis through various channels. For example, they consulted university coaches about the mechanics of the entire pitching motion. With the final analysis in hand, the coaches spent half a month correcting Senior Heishi's and Senior Nozawa's pitching mechanics.

Senior Heishi was already 1.85 meters tall, and although he had undergone multiple mechanical corrections, some habits formed earlier still remained. After analyzing the footage frame by frame, the coaching staff found that his shoulders opened up too much, while the side of his torso on the glove side was not being driven down. This caused Heishi's shoulders to rotate somewhat horizontally, exposing them to the batter too early.

After the correction, his side drove the glove-side shoulder downward, giving his pitching-side shoulder room for vertical rotation. It appeared later in the batter's sightline, and because the pitching-side shoulder moved outward less, his throwing arm stayed closer to his body. His pitches became easier to control and more accurate.

The final point was the focus of the adjustment. Heishi's current weapons were his fastball and Curveball. From the batter's perspective, both showed four seams. Now that Heishi's fastball spin axis had been straightened out, there was a good chance batters could tell whether it was a fastball or a Curveball just by sensing the spin.

Everyone believed what the coaches said, but hitters skilled enough to do that probably only existed in professional baseball. Even if high school players could tell, they might not necessarily be able to hit it.

To make the teammates more convinced, Coach Fujii chose Captain Ito, who had one of the best feels for the ball, to bat against him. Since they had faced each other many times in actual games, Captain Ito commented after batting, "The fastball is harder to hit than before, but the difference between the fastball's and Curveball's early spin is also more obvious."

So, to make up for that issue, Heishi needed to adjust his Curveball's spin axis over the final two weeks and make it overlap with the fastball's spin axis as much as possible.

"With high spin, a fastball creates a better illusion of rising. A Curveball drops. If we can overlap the spin axes of those two pitches, then in the early stage, both the fastball and Curveball will look like four-seam rotation to the batter. But in reality, they're completely different. One is a Four-Seam Fastball spinning upward, while the other spins downward. The batter will always be left guessing, which is extremely advantageous for us." Coach Fujii beamed. "Middle school hitters won't be able to deal with that at all."

Kōshū was happy for Senior Heishi too, but watching a group of adults spend all day studying how to deal with middle schoolers left him at a loss for words. How should I put it? These adults are pretty fired up too, huh.

Nozawa's overall adjustments had already been completed. As the team's ace, he had become much more serious lately. He used to come bother Kōshū and Shibasaki in the training room, but now he spent nearly all his time training or resting.

"The atmosphere on the team is really different now," Kōshū remarked.

Shibasaki nodded in agreement. Most of the Third Year of Middle School players would continue playing baseball in high school, but this was still their final year at Kinoshita Little League. Most of them had been taught under Coach Ninomiya since elementary school. Now, the elementary division members of Kinoshita Club trained at the Indoor Training Field. Their practice hours were much shorter than those of the middle school members, and quite a few of them would come to the outdoor field to watch the older players practice while waiting for their parents.

Those third-years must have gone through the same thing. Elementary school and middle school, all on this familiar field, watching generation after generation of seniors pour out their sweat. Now that they're about to leave, they must feel reluctant to go.

In that atmosphere, Kōshū gradually came to understand baseball's important place in a young person's growth in Japan. Of course, that change in mindset was also because Coach Ninomiya had made him keep score for several games. Coach Ninomiya understood that someone who had not grown up in a country steeped in baseball culture would find it difficult to grasp how important baseball was to young people. So during those two weeks, he had Hayakawa Aki take Kōshū to keep score at several games.

As Kōshū watched the losing teams leave in disappointment, the weight of victory and defeat in baseball grew heavier in his heart. But at the same time, because he invested more of himself in baseball, he gradually gave up on the idea of finding a close friend at school.

During basketball class, his accurate shooting caught the attention of a small group of boys, and they gradually became familiar with one another. But every day after school, Kōshū had to go to Little League, and after leaving Little League, he had Sasaki Rōchi trailing after him. He simply could not get away to hang out with them. Thus, that friendship ended with Kōshū's refusal before it had truly begun.

As a result, for an energetic young man, Kōshū's life consisted of nothing but studying and baseball. This must be how baseball idiots are made.

So when Kōshū received Miyuki's email, he genuinely considered the idea of finding friends in the baseball world. But the moment he opened the email and read it, he immediately crushed that thought. The baseball world was so vast—why would he make trouble for himself by seeking out this guy?

The email read: "Kōshū, come watch my game tomorrow. We're playing Great Victory Little League. You're not a regular anyway, so it's not like you have anything better to do. You might as well come watch me play."

What do you mean, I'm not a regular, so I have nothing to do? I have plenty of training to do too. For a moment, Kōshū had the urge to type out a sarcastic reply. Wait, didn't I say I was going to delete him? Could he be trying to provoke me on purpose so I'll reply?

Following his memories, he seemed to see that catcher talking to himself beside him, even seeing through his excuse to brush him off. Back then, he had practically been forced to give up his email address. Later, he had said he would delete him, but all sorts of things had delayed him, and he had forgotten.

But this is strange. How did he know so much about my team? And back then, when he had been pitching in the garden, Miyuki had not even known his name. Yet after the game, when Kōshū had been about to slip away, Miyuki had called out his name directly.

So, driven by the thought that even if he was deleting someone, he should satisfy his curiosity first, Kōshū replied, "How do you know so much about our team?"

"Secret. If you come watch tomorrow's game, I'll consider telling you."

Damn it. He really should not have replied.

Before Kōshū could tap delete, another message came through. "We should make a great battery. Aren't you called Self-Aiming Missile-kun? If we work together, you can carry out my strategy perfectly and pitch wherever I want. We can take down a lot of batters together."

All right, the answer was clear. Miyuki Kazuya's informant in Kinoshita Little League was Senior Nozawa. That Senior Nozawa was as unreliable as ever. And why had he added "Self-Aiming" in front of "Missile-kun" now? Kōshū did not even have the strength to complain.

Kōshū closed his phone, intending to take the evidence to Senior Nozawa and demand an explanation after the first game ended.

However, Kōshū never expected that he would still end up coming to watch Miyuki Kazuya's game. Hayakawa Aki had dragged him here by force. Today, Hayakawa Aki stood at the entrance to the training room and watched Kōshū dawdle, expressing "I really don't want to watch a game today" through every detail of his body language. Even then, Hayakawa Aki's expression did not change as he pulled him along.

"Miyuki Kazuya. Another strong-armed catcher drawing attention after Tokyo's Number One Iron Catcher last year." As usual, Hayakawa Aki explained things to Kōshū. The other players were already used to this babysitting scene. Their understanding of the pitcher-catcher relationship had broadened even further. Apparently, a battery could also be understood as a babysitter arrangement.

"Oh? If his arm is that strong, why doesn't he become a pitcher?" Kōshū nitpicked.

"Just watch how fast his throw to second is. It's a shame he didn't play in the practice game last time." Hayakawa Aki did not take the bait.

"The reason he didn't play last time could very well be because he was late."

"This time, we need to gather proper information on him. More than his strong arm, what we need to pay attention to is how well he guides different types of pitchers." Hayakawa Aki handed over the Scorebook, and Kōshū obediently accepted it.

Although he was far from the field, Kōshū still pulled his cap brim down a little farther, afraid Miyuki would later trash-talk him with something like, "You said you weren't coming to watch me play, but you still showed up."

Great Victory Little League batted first in the top of the first. Miyuki glanced at the leadoff batter's shallow grip on the bat and called for an Outside Low Corner fastball without hesitation. The opposing pitcher stared expressionlessly at the catcher's Signals, gave a slight nod, and hurled the ball toward Miyuki behind home plate.

Hey, Hasegawa, you're taking all your dissatisfaction out on your pitches. If you burn yourself out too early, I'll ask the coach to pull you. Miyuki's threat came through loud and clear in his hard return throw.

"Tch." Hasegawa sensed the catcher's displeasure and recalled what Miyuki had said before the game.

"Hasegawa, this inning, we'll mainly use fastballs paired with Cutters. Please seal away your other pitches for now."

"What, you still think my Slider can't fit into the mix?"

"Do you really want me to say it? Your Slider still isn't sharp enough, Hasegawa. It doesn't fool batters, and you keep missing your spots with it. You should give up on using it in games sooner rather than later."

"Tch. The coach didn't say anything."

"Haha, but during games, the coach trusts my judgment more."

Sure enough, he could not work well with this catcher. What Miyuki needed was merely a tool that could carry out his ideas.

On the next pitch, Hasegawa threw a Cutter to a similar location, and the batter grounded out.

I signed a contract, my heart pounding with anxiety.

I didn't know whether I could keep going, whether my writing was good enough, or whether I could gain recognition. Still, for now, the thought of "practicing persistence in one thing" kept me going.