February's biggest event was the Kanto League gathering the East and West Tokyo branches for an internal skills competition. It included a review of the junior high baseball league's operations for the year, coaching-level exchanges on training techniques, and player activities such as a visit to the Baseball Museum, meeting Japanese Professional League players, and speed measurements for pitchers of different age groups.
Such a grand-sounding event naturally drew plenty of media attention. The final player activities were the biggest draw, and major outlets even published lists of the most popular players in each age group on their front pages. It remained a hot topic for weeks.
The East and West Tokyo branches had a combined total of one hundred Little League clubs. Even counting just twenty people per club, that was over two thousand people. So for this annual event, only players about to enter their third year of junior high were invited, bringing the number of participating students down to a few hundred.
As a result, on the day of the event, there wasn't a parking space to be found within three kilometers of the venue. Besides the media, there were parents who had come to cheer their children on. Though they weren't allowed inside, they could watch the live broadcast outside. Every year, the parents sitting on car roofs, inside tents, and beneath barbecue canopies outside the venue became targets of media attention as well.
Shen Qing's condition did not allow her to go out right now, so the two children of the Sasaki Family planned to take Coach Ninomiya's chartered bus home later.
"Wow—what a huge place." It looked like an abandoned racetrack, with stands all around. No grass grew on the ground; it was gray and dusty, but the area was indeed enormous.
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