The Scout Arrived

On the day of the weekend practice match, the continuous gloomy clouds finally passed, and the sun began to shine brightly on the young baseball players. Kōshū, wearing a helmet, stood on the sidelines, picking up balls that rolled out of bounds and putting them back into the basket.

Today, Coach Ninomiya wasn't the one acting as the umpire. He seemed to have taken a few people to the video room. The floor-to-ceiling windows of the video room, adjacent to the playground, provided a great view of the game on the field.

"Isn't that ball boy your ace?" Takashima Rei pushed up her glasses. Within the West Tokyo area, Kinoshita Little League was a Little League Team she scouted every year.

"Hmph, Miyuki Kazuya, that catcher, is one of your freshmen this year, right? He was practicing changeups with Kōshū during Christmas. I specifically told him to let his arm rest fully during the holidays."

A drop of cold sweat trickled down Takashima Rei's forehead. This old man was still so abrasive in his speech, starting with an accusation. However, she wasn't one to be outdone in terms of momentum: "I'm truly sorry about that, but Scouts can't interfere too much in a player's private life. Coach Ninomiya can do more in terms of disciplining players."

"Hahaha, are you two still hung up on that matter?" A Scout from a famous school in East Tokyo chuckled.

Years ago, Takashima Rei had just graduated and returned to Seido to work as a Scout. Kamiya Manager had not been gone long at the time, and Coach Ninomiya had strongly recommended his prized student to her. However, due to Seido's circumstances, that student went to another school. Originally, this was nothing more than a student's path.

But one day, that student suddenly called Coach Ninomiya to apologize, saying that his arm was severely injured and he had to quit the Baseball Club. From then on, Coach Ninomiya's words to Takashima Rei were barbed.

Both knew that the blame for this kind of thing lay with the manager of that school, but they just couldn't let it go.

"His parents are Seido OB."

"Yes, I understand. I'll come to scout more often in the future."

I really don't know if these two have a good or bad relationship, she thought as they suddenly started a normal conversation again.

"Well, actually, I didn't really want him to go to Seido. Your manager is still too young. Since taking over, you haven't been to Koshien except for the first year, right?" Coach Ninomiya didn't think Seido's strength was poor, but this was a good excuse to attack.

Takashima Rei said seriously, "Changing the team manager will inevitably bring changes in style and team turmoil. Although it's cruel, it's normal not to achieve results for several years after changing coaches. Now, after experience, Kataoka Manager's overall coaching has also formed its own style. I believe that next year or the year after, we will definitely be able to represent Tokyo in the competition."

Next, the match at the bottom officially began, and everyone stopped talking.

This time, the team practice match still used the method of drawing lots to divide into Team A and Team B. Sato was the pitcher for Team A, and Shibasaki was for Team B.

As soon as it started, Sato threw a hit-by-pitch at nearly 140 kilometers, which was a million miles away from the position that catcher Hiramiy wanted.

"Time!" Hiramiy took off his mask and ran to the pitcher who had taken off his hat.

"What's wrong, Sato? Are you not in shape at the start?"

"No, it's just that this is my first start."

Hiramiy was stunned for a moment. It seemed that it was indeed the case, so was it a control problem caused by nervousness?

"Is there anything wrong with your fingers?"

"No, I'll adapt well below."

Hiramiy looked at the pitcher again, patted his chest and said, "It's okay, you've already made the worst situation, it won't get any worse."

Next, Sato gave up thinking and struck out the Second Batter and Third Batter in succession. Although Hayakawa Aki, the Fourth Batter, hit a super long hit, he only scored one point, leaving a runner on Third Base, and the top of the first inning ended.

During the warm-up of Team B players, the Scouts in the video room began to discuss: "That Fourth Batter is good, his power is very strong."

"He was a Second String catcher last year, right?"

"This movement of throwing to Second Base is very smooth, about how many seconds?"

"About 1.88 seconds." Coach Ninomiya replied to the Scouts' questions about Hayakawa Aki.

Except for a small number of people, most of the players didn't know when the Scouts would come, so what the Scouts saw was the normal level of these children.

'This catcher is not bad, but what Seido needs most now is a pitcher.' Takashima Rei was also assessing Hayakawa. Although the team already had catchers like Chris and Miyuki Kazuya, the idea of a prestigious school is to hope that each generation has representative players, with strong shoulders and strong batting. What level will this catcher grow to? 'I'll probably give him a recommendation for a reduced admission score.'

After that, there was a discussion about Shibasaki.

"This child wasn't a sidearm pitcher before, was he, Coach Ninomiya?"

"That's right, but in order to solve batters more easily, he asked to practice sidearm pitching himself. He has mastered the new posture in about a week, and now his ball speed has also increased to 130 kilometers."

"The ace is an orthodox right-handed pitcher, 138 kilometers, a left sidearm pitcher, 130 kilometers, and a first-year backup, 140 kilometers. The Kinoshita Little League's pitching lineup is really luxurious."

These words won the approval of others. Coach Ninomiya stood aside and just nodded without speaking.

Takashima Rei sat among a group of Scouts. In recent years, she has slowly understood the old man's insidiousness. Just like on Black Friday, everyone is buying, and you are also aroused by the desire to buy. Scouts are the same. When they sit together, they are easily affected by each other, forming a so-called 'pressure' effect. This does not violate the rule of 'not being able to contact players in advance' and allows the players to receive the greatest attention.

Today, the ace of Kinoshita Little League will not play, but someone can blurt out his latest ball speed. It can be seen that everyone knows Kōshū's situation very well. 'Fortunately, Kōshū's father is an OB of Seido, so things will be much easier.' Takashima Rei has already begun to think about how to contact Kōshū's father indirectly through the alumni association.

Kōshū downstairs could feel that he was being looked at from time to time, but looking around, he didn't see any strange figures.

"The legendary Scouts? Damn it, today I'm just a sideline ball boy, too lame."

The bottom of the first inning ended, Shibasaki's ball today was very powerful, three up and three down. Currently, Team B is leading with a score of 0:1.

The first thing Team A's pitcher, Sato, did when he came to the Pitcher's Mound was to tidy up the sand under his feet. He still looked a little abnormal, always looking down, shoveling the soil back and forth.

"Sato—" Kōshū shouted from the sidelines, "Do you want me to help you tidy up?" He raised the tools in his hand.

"Haha, it's okay." Sato looked at Kōshū holding the tools, and for some reason, he found it very funny, the ace becoming a Pitcher's Mound sand organizer or something, and his mood relaxed a lot. He finally looked up and started communicating with the catcher.

"Ah—so envious." Hayakawa Aki walked to his side at some point, providing commentary for him.

"I'm not envious at all." Kōshū retorted, and then he saw the sixth batter of Team B hit a ground ball in the direction of the infield Shortstop. The ball was very strong, and Lang Zhi was right behind the route. He stretched out his glove just about to catch it, but the expected direction of the bounce changed, and it bounced directly from below the Shortstop's glove to the top of the Shortstop's head.

"Ah, it's going to leak past." Kōshū was one of the few people who noticed that there were Scouts today. If Lang Zhi let this ball leak past, would it give them an E in their evaluation?

It is recommended that everyone not order takeout

I have encountered two Waterloo incidents in the past few days. One was eating something similar to a leg from the filling of a pan-fried bun, and the other was finding a bug in the noodles. The key is that both of these restaurants redeemed the Meituan expansion coupon, and now that the meal has been refunded, those two coupons are useless.

Takeout is really not as clean as making it yourself.