The Whole Family Watches the Seido Match (1)

"Kokubunji City, huh." Kōshū thought in his mind, consulting his mental map, Isn't that just next to Kodaira City, separated from West Tokyo City by only one city?

"I grew up there. Lang Zhi's grandparents used to live on the outskirts of Seido High School. If you opened the window, you could see the baseball field in the distance."

Lang Zhi next to him nodded, "That's right. Later, my grandparents moved to my aunt's house in Gunma, and I haven't been there in a long time."

"Is there a difference between high school baseball and club baseball now?" Kōshū leaned back in his chair, shaking his head and muttering.

"That depends on whether you go to a baseball powerhouse or not."

"Pfft—powerhouse or something, so chuuni, hahaha." Kōshū couldn't help but think of the trashy 'rich family's daughter' novels in domestic pop-up ads.

Lang Zhi, who was laughed at, touched his nose and retorted in embarrassment, "It's pretty normal, everyone calls them that, don't laugh."

"Sorry," Kōshū suppressed his laughter. In front of Mr. Sasaki, he still had to show enough kindness to Lang Zhi. "You mean a high school with a very strong Baseball Club, right?"

"...That's right, most of them are private schools now. They recruit baseball talents everywhere for baseball 'study abroad' programs. Public high schools don't have that much funding, and they don't have excellent students, so the Baseball Club is slowly declining. If you go to a private school Baseball Club, the practice will probably increase tenfold compared to the current club..."

"Ten times, Mr. Sasaki used to be in a private school Baseball Club, right? Is there really that much practice?" Kōshū turned to Mr. Sasaki, who was smiling mysteriously.

"Well~ although baseball values talent the most, the basic condition is the amount of practice. The First String members are all practice fanatics. I was an interest club member, and I'm ashamed to say that I always left early when others were still practicing. In the end, I didn't want to tolerate being a misfit in the team, so I quit the Baseball Club."

Mr. Sasaki, facing children much younger than himself, frankly revealed his high school journey, as if he had no doubt that the children would have any contempt for him.

"But, medical school is difficult to get into, I imagine Mr. Sasaki's practice in medicine is no worse than the Baseball Club members," Kōshū complimented from the side, and Lang Zhi opened his little accounting notebook in his heart again.

'October 23, sunny, Kōshū said some adult-like compliments again while chatting with Dad today, which made me seem very immature. By the way, do I need to do these hypocritical things with my biological father?' Lang Zhi's mind was now a mess.

Mr. Sasaki revealed his past retreat because he was not ashamed of it. Now, unexpectedly receiving the child's understanding, he was a little moved, so he pulled Lang Zhi and Kōshū to talk about various interesting things about entering school until bedtime.

The next morning's practice, Kōshū was arranged to practice outfield defense because he had pitched a complete game yesterday. He passed the Pitcher's Mound where he had pitched yesterday, and stood on it on purpose, facing the empty batter's box, and made a pitching motion.

His actions were quickly captured by nearby teammates.

"Kōshū, you can't pitch today."

"What's wrong, Kōshū, are you reminiscing about yesterday's pitching?"

"Okay, okay, I won't pitch—" Kōshū quickly ran to Left Field, the feeling he didn't say out loud was, 'As expected, the pitching feeling is different from when I'm in a game. When there's a batter, the strike zone feels narrower.'

This morning was still an enhanced practice of defense for the First String members. The coach hit high flies to the outfield, and the fielders quickly rushed to the landing point, caught the ball, and threw it back to Home Plate. If the arm strength was not enough, they also needed to cooperate with the Second and Third Base and Shortstop for a two-stage throw. However, for Kōshū, this situation of insufficient arm strength did not exist. The only thing he was asked to do was—

"Kōshū, don't throw it directly back to Home Plate, bounce it in front of Home Plate. How long have you been practicing as an outfielder?" Coach Ninomiya shouted at Home Plate. Although it was best to throw it directly back to Home Plate, it was still necessary to bounce it in front of Home Plate at the appropriate time for insurance, giving the catcher time to handle it.

"Okay—" Kōshū in Left Field raised his hand, noticing the complex gazes of some players. Rather than saying Kōshū's throw was fast, it was better to say his throw was accurate. No matter where he picked up the ball, it basically landed right in the catcher's glove at Home Plate, which was more than enough for junior high school baseball.

"Amazing, that guy." Every time Kōshū's return throw passed between Second and Third Base, Lang Zhi felt that it was a living ball that could pounce right at the catcher.

As the boys practiced on the baseball field, the sun gradually rose, and the time came to about 11 o'clock. The sun-baked sand and lawn were a little hot. When Kōshū wiped his sweat, the sand particles on the back of his hand rubbed his face a little painfully. He wanted to loosen his hat a little to reduce the contact with the stuffy sweat, but this was not the Pitcher's Mound, and wearing the hat like that would definitely fall off, so he could only endure it.

After another half an hour of training, Kōshū finally ushered in his first Sunday afternoon that did not belong to baseball after joining the Little League Team.

"Why are you washing first?" Kōshū and Lang Zhi were blocking the bathroom door, whispering and deadlocked.

"Why?" Kōshū compared his position, which was obviously one step ahead, "First come, first served."

"I want to wash first too."

"Either I go first, or we go together." Kōshū had said this sentence twice.

"No, let me wash first!" Lang Zhi started acting unreasonably.

"Why? It should be first come, first served." Considering the two adults were cooking not far away, Kōshū originally didn't want to resort to violence this time. This guy had psychological shadows from being bullied, but a brat should be disciplined when necessary.

Lang Zhi looked at the very oppressive Kōshū, swallowed, and continued to be arrogant: "I want to wash first."

A brat is just like this, understanding all the principles they should, being very well-behaved when alone, but once they have a backer, they'll make up for all the sensible behavior they usually show.

Of course, Lang Zhi was mostly a good kid, but he had an urge to make up for things when facing Kōshū, probably because Kōshū usually behaved too well.

Kōshū didn't have time to care about Lang Zhi's feelings, held his shoulder and pushed him into the bathroom, "Come on, let's wash together."

"No, I don't want to wash together, Mom—"

"Bang—"

Shen Qing, who was chopping vegetables, paused and asked her husband, "It sounded like Lang Zhi was shouting something about not wanting to shower together just now."

Mr. Sasaki was clanging around, getting things ready for cooking, and upon hearing this, he said nonchalantly, "They're really close, huh? I'll take them to the bathhouse later; our bathroom is too small."

The details of Kōshū disciplining the brat are not described for now. At one o'clock, when the Sasaki family arrived at the baseball field, Lang Zhi seemed quite normal, except when buying drinks for the whole family, he deliberately bought Kōshū a strange flavor.

They sat on the First Base Side Seido High School's cheering section. Because they were late, they could only sit at the back. As soon as they sat down, they were surrounded by cheers.

"Eh? What happened?"

It turned out that Seido's second batter had hit a single, and Kōshū saw a flash of blue holding up his hand at first base.

'Seido, the lining is blue.'

'It feels like high school students are generally more physically fit than middle school students.'

Just as Kōshū was distracted, thinking about the various team uniforms and lining colors he had encountered, another cheer came from beside him. Mr. Sasaki, who was closest, also got into the spirit very quickly, startling Kōshū's ears.

"Eh? What happened again?"

Looking into the field, the situation had become runners on first and second. The public school playing against Seido today had already started an infield conference on the Pitcher's Mound.

A burly figure was slowly walking towards the batter's box, and a new batting cheer song rang out not far away. Amidst the noisy chatter, a female voice from the loudspeaker cut through.

"Fourth batter, Dong Jun."

"Go for it!"

"Hit it out!"

"Give it a good hit!"

The atmosphere in the audience was noticeably more agitated, as if they had great expectations for this fourth batter.

'He looks like a sumo wrestler, I can feel his size even from this far away,' Kōshū muttered to himself, 'Is he really a high school student?'

The players gathered on the Pitcher's Mound dispersed, and the game resumed.

At this moment, Dong Qingguo, who was setting his stance in the batter's box, was like a mountain, pressing down on the pitcher and catcher. During the infield conference just now, the two had discussed using an intentional walk to send this batter to first base.

'The first pitch has to be low enough,' the catcher patted the ground with his mitt. The pitcher threw the ball, digging a sweet potato right on Home Plate. Fortunately, the catcher was prepared and blocked the ball, immediately glancing at second base. The runner on second base retreated to the base.

"What, are they going to walk Dong Jun again!" Some people around booed.

Sasaki also took the opportunity to educate the brothers, saying that this batter had already hit dozens of home runs in his second year of high school and was one of the best in high school.

"Hoo--" The first ball passed safely. Ignoring the audience's voices, both the pitcher and catcher breathed a sigh of relief. Now, with one out and runners on first and second, and one base open, intentionally walking the cleanup hitter and then trying for a double play against the fifth batter might concede one or two points, but it would be better than allowing a home run to the cleanup hitter.

'Second ball, outside ball,' Dong Qingguo didn't move, clicking his tongue at the pitch. This was to intentionally walk him and have the fifth batter face off. The further into a major tournament, the more this happened. Dong Qingguo thought of the current gap in the team's batting power and the poor crop of players in his next year, and he couldn't help but feel anxious.

"Another bad ball." Kōshū's mood, which had just been set on carefully watching the game, also fell. High school games seemed to be just like this.

'Third ball, outside ball,' the catcher's mitt was positioned near the foul line. Even if it was an intentional walk, they had to have some backbone and not make it too obvious.

The pitcher nodded at the signal. The situation was now two balls and no strikes. The opposing cleanup hitter probably knew their intentional walk strategy, so if they could graze the foul line and steal a strike, that would be great. Thinking this, the pitcher controlled his body to the limit, aiming for a spot on the outside edge of the strike zone, slightly off from where the catcher wanted it by a quarter of a ball.

'Good, the batter doesn't seem to want to swing...' The pitcher was secretly pleased as he released the ball, but before he could be happy for even a second, he saw the opposing batter reveal his fangs. Dong Qingguo saw the ball grazing the foul line and swung without hesitation.

"Clang--" The sound of the baseball hitting the sweet spot was drowned out by the noise. Kōshū saw the ball flying further and further until it hit the protective fence, and he shouted out with the crowd, "Home run!"

Then he saw the cleanup hitter, who looked like a strongman, running around the bases with his hand raised.

'This physique, this hit, it's not good,' Kōshū, who was usually prone to zoning out while watching games, perked up at this moment. 'This kind of batter, I really want to face him.'

[Recently discovered my writing problems] Writing about games timidly, writing about emotional scenes with full force

Every time I write about a game, I only want to write the most important part, and speed through the other parts

[Secretly complaining about work] I find that I really like to babble in the author's notes. Recently, I can chat with anyone for a long time. A new colleague said I was very approachable, so am I getting old and becoming kind...?

Back to complaining about work, the project report is next Wednesday, and we're starting meetings after work again. She calls us over again, and then she just types without saying anything, and I host + record + divide the work for the whole process. What the heck? Why don't you just let me do the ppt directly? Why go through this discussion format? And I'm not even the project manager, only getting 25% of the bonus.