The First Changeup

"...That's it. I only moved a few seams. The arm swing and release are exactly the same as a Straight Ball. Only when releasing the ball, use a little more force with the middle finger. Every pitcher's hand is different, so adjustments may be needed."

Hayakawa Aki silently watched the pitchers discussing in the distance with their backs to him. He had been here for five minutes, and none of the pitchers had paid him any attention. 'Am I invisible? Is that why they can't see me?' Hayakawa Aki mentally complained.

"I feel like I'll get it mixed up with the Straight Ball." Kōshū gestured a couple of times, and Sato nodded in agreement beside him.

Coach Fujii had just left, and Shibasaki said worriedly, "That's why I said, if you haven't stabilized your Straight Ball, you can't learn other pitches. Did Coach Ninomiya really let you learn a Changeup?"

"Don't worry, don't worry, I already asked him yesterday, and it's basically okay."

"What does 'basically okay' mean?"

"It means it's okay."

Shibasaki worriedly corrected Kōshū's grip again, and Hayakawa Aki drawled from across the way, "Are you gooone yet?"

Because the other substitute catcher had followed Coach Fujii, leaving only a junior catcher who was about to enter middle school, Hayakawa Aki was the only one left in the Bullpen who could oversee the pitching.

"Coming right up, but it's my first time pitching to a catcher, so I don't know where it'll go."

"Okay..." Hayakawa Aki mentally complained about these willful pitchers. They were confidently throwing balls that they didn't even know where they would land. These pitchers...

Then he saw the pitcher across from him smoothly lift his leg, stride, and release the ball, as usual.

A Straight Ball? A high-speed spinning ball with horizontal seam shadows in its afterimage.

'Where is this ball going? Does he only have accuracy control with Straight Balls?' In a flash of thought, Hayakawa Aki's mitt began to move to the left.

However, unlike Kōshū's usual Straight Ball, Hayakawa Aki, who had watched his Straight Ball for two months, keenly felt that the spin axis was off. As the ball flew close to Home Plate, it suddenly began to veer towards the Right-Handed Batter's outer corner from a certain point, with a slight downward drop.

'What?' Amidst the surprised gazes of the crowd, Hayakawa Aki's mitt barely touched the edge of the ball. Before he could catch it securely, the ball fell.

"Hiss—" The first to gasp was Kōshū: "Why did you move your mitt? I was throwing at your mitt!"

"Huh? Didn't you say you didn't know where it would go?" Hayakawa Aki's tense shoulders relaxed. He had thought he would miss it completely.

"Yeah, so I wasn't throwing at your mitt. It was probably a bit to the left, about a third of a mitt's distance, I felt like it could land right in your mitt after the change." Kōshū mimed throwing twice on the Pitcher's Mound, searching for the feeling from just now.

It took him two seconds to notice the silence around him.

"What's wrong?" he asked strangely.

"Senior, can you control where you throw on your first time throwing a Changeup?" Sato stepped forward and suddenly inexplicably touched Kōshū's hand: "Lend me some."

"Sato... what are you doing?" Kōshū looked at Sato's shining eyes, and his back prickled.

Even Shibasaki took the opportunity while the two were fooling around to step forward and 'borrow' some of Kōshū's talent, only to be pulled away by Hayakawa Aki.

"Kōshū, the last ball's displacement was about one and a half balls. This time, my mitt won't move. Please be more accurate with your feeling. Keep the same amount of movement. I don't want to get hit." Hayakawa Aki placed his mitt on the Right-Handed Batter's inner corner, "And a wild pitch could directly walk the batter."

"Okay..." Kōshū complained about the pressure Hayakawa Aki was giving him, aimed at a spot about one and a half balls away from the batter's inner corner, and threw his second ball with the pitching motion he had practiced enough over the past two months.

Hayakawa Aki resisted the urge to move his mitt until he felt the ball's impact in the center of his mitt. Only then did he exhale, "NICE BALL! Again!"

So when Coach Fujii returned, Kōshū had already thrown half of his 80-ball limit for the day on Changeups.

"Didn't we say to practice Changeups after the physical test?" the coach said with a headache. These kids had too many ideas. Their feet were about to flatten Coach Ninomiya's office.

"Ah—that's what we said, but I feel like there's no need to wait for the test at all. My weight has reached the expected level, and so has my ball speed. My Straight Ball and pitching form are also fixed." Kōshū imitated Hayakawa Aki's hearty laughter, seemingly unaffected by the worried coach, "Besides, isn't there another practice match this weekend? I want to bring everyone a surprise."

"Well then, let me take a look," he then turned to Sato, who had been watching all along, "Sato, why aren't you practicing?"

Sato turned his head in surprise, "Shibasaki-senpai, when did you..." He saw Shibasaki, who had taken off his black jacket, practicing catch with the little catcher. Hearing this, he turned his head and said with a smile, "Nakajima-kun hasn't officially entered the junior high division yet, so let me, the senpai with the lowest ball speed, help him adapt."

Sato, who wanted to say something, felt the resentment from Coach Fujii again. He wasn't Kōshū, and he had been spending a lot of time and energy on him lately.

The reason was that he couldn't control the ball well in the second half of his pitching. Coach Fujii had been looking for problems in his pitching motion. Finally, by comparing his pitching posture before and after, he found that the angle of inclination of his torso changed slightly.

Generally, when twisting the body to face the home plate, the pitcher's torso will tilt slightly outward to drive the pitching side arm that falls behind. The angle formed with the vertical line is generally between 10 degrees and 25 degrees, which can bring space for increasing the ball speed.

In the second half of the ball count, Sato's body tilt angle will slightly increase. This is a bad habit that Sato developed when he was a child in order to increase the ball speed. It was corrected in Kinoshita Little League, but when his physical strength is not good and he still wants to maintain the ball speed, this subconscious habit will surface. His body will unconsciously deviate a little more. Although it is only a little, it will still cause problems in the overall action chain, and finally become a situation where it is difficult to control the ball.

Coach Fujii drove Sato to pitch with his eyes, and nodded to Kōshū: "Pitch."

The first ball, as soon as it was released, Coach Fujii, who was used to Kōshū's Straight Ball, felt the difference. 'Hayakawa's glove didn't move at all.' Then he saw the ball quickly shift, as if it had eyes, and plunged into Hayakawa Aki's glove.

"Can you already control the accuracy of the Changeup?" Compared to suspecting that the players were practicing privately, Coach Fujii decided to believe in Kōshū's talent.

"Maybe, I have a vague feeling, but I still need to practice more."

"Do you feel any awkwardness in your pitching motion?" Coach Fujii still had to consider the impact on the pitching posture.

"Not at all."

"You alternate between Straight Ball and Changeup for a while, and I'll film it with a camera." Out of concern for beginners, Coach Fujii still had to check it more, otherwise many bad habits would be developed, and it would be difficult to remove them, just like Sato, who would have to spend a long time correcting them in the later stage.

After throwing dozens of balls, Coach Fujii called a stop to Kōshū's pitching, and couldn't help but clap his hands, "Not bad, this ball now looks very well integrated with your Straight Ball."

This is really an amazing talent. God is so partial. For the children he doesn't like, he not only closes the door, but also seals the windows. For the children he likes, he will directly feed them by hand, for fear that they will be hungry.

In the lively Bullpen, Shibasaki's brain was like being placed in ice water, with a feeling of water pressing on him, making him suffocate. He had clearly told Kōshū before that he understood the path of his future development, so he was not jealous of others at all, and said such beautiful words, but seeing others instantly integrate the ball he taught and play it better, he inevitably felt a little uncomfortable.

'Jealousy is very ugly, and envy is completely useless.' Shibasaki silently recited it more than a dozen times in his heart, and slowly returned to normal, but the continuous thinking did not stop, 'How can I make my pitching more useful?'

That night, Coach Ninomiya's office was extremely lively, and people even had to queue up to come. Kōshū leaned against the stairwell, seemingly standing for a while.

He pointed upstairs: "Shibasaki-kun, are you also here to find Coach Ninomiya? Lang Zhi is inside now."

"Lang Zhi?" Shibasaki leaned against the side with Kōshū, "What's wrong?"

"He wants to get a training plan from Coach Ninomiya so that he can go to Seido as a Sports Student," Kōshū shrugged and said helplessly, "His studies are really not very good. Tutoring him these days has almost exhausted me."

"Oh—you brothers want to be together, that's great."

"What about you, what's the matter with the coach? You've been preoccupied all day."

"Well—although I haven't confirmed it with the coach yet, I may switch to Sidearm Pitch." Shibasaki predicted that Kōshū would be shocked, but he would know sooner or later, so he said it directly.

"Eh—why?" Kōshū thought for a while, Shibasaki is a left-hander, and if he adds a Sidearm Pitch, it is equivalent to stacking buffs, which will make the batter very uncomfortable, but the question is why change it now.

"Actually, Coach Ninomiya suggested that I switch to Sidearm Pitch before. My height has almost stopped growing. It is very disadvantageous for a short person to be a pitcher, so I need to tap into every bit of my potential. Now I understand that if Sidearm Pitch can increase my Deviation Value, then I will do it." Shibasaki said these words with a bit of ruthlessness, and Kōshū increasingly felt that this seemingly friendly guy had a very hard heart.

Before they could say a few words, the sound of the door opening came from upstairs. Lang Zhi came out, he was a little happy, jumping forward while walking, the vibration was transmitted from the stairs to Kōshū and Shibasaki.

The two: ...

Turned the corner, about to go downstairs, and saw Lang Zhi leaning on the side: ...

Lang Zhi recovered his composure, because he was too calm, he seemed a little flustered: "Brother, why are you here, and Shibasaki-kun."

This kid, flustered, even called out 'bro'. Kōshū compassionately patted the kid's head, not shaming him, but made way for Shibasaki, and even gave a thumbs-up gesture.

"Yeah." Shibasaki smiled and walked up.

"Hey—hey—why is Shibasaki also going to the coach's office?" Lang Zhi, who was dragged to the preparation room to clean up, kept asking incessantly.

Kōshū got annoyed. He stopped, faced Lang Zhi, and performed the way he had been happily jumping around just now, and then exaggeratedly and dramatically shouted, "Bro, why are you here?"

"Ahhh—" The collapsed Lang Zhi couldn't care less about asking about Shibasaki's affairs.

Work is like a roller coaster, so exciting. It's been a while since I complained about work. Let's continue complaining today.

[Happy thing] The project concluded in first place, with a total bonus of 4000. I can probably get over a thousand, but half of it has to be left for the department for team building. In the end, I can only keep a few hundred, which is fine, since it's all free money anyway.

[Annoying thing] I deleted it when I was revising the text today. It's probably because the leader thinks our work is not saturated enough, so the department has to set up a project and report every two weeks. Everyone involved yesterday collapsed, including me. I wrote half a page of bad things about the leader in my diary, haha.

I watched some touching videos last night and cried. I started writing after getting rid of all the emotional waste. I highly recommend this method of venting. It's very efficient. Don't be shy. What about 'men don't easily shed tears'? Cry when you need to cry!