Baseball: A Two-Way Player

The history of the Japan-US friendly high school baseball tournament can be traced back to 1998. In years without the U18 Asian Championships, the Japan High School Baseball Federation selects standout players from the Summer League Champion Team as representatives to participate — to some extent, these players represent the strongest capabilities of Japanese baseball at this age level.

According to past selection criteria, most of the players chosen for the representative team are third-year players with good Summer甲 results. Lin Guanglai's selection was indeed an exceptional promotion — not without some subtle intentions from the Japan Baseball Association and Takano Ren:

Being able to achieve such results in the Koshien tournament as a first-year, Lin Guanglai's performance naturally caught the attention of the Japan Baseball Association — after thoroughly researching his family background, the relevant staff discovered that although Lin Guanglai's nationality is not Japanese, he does have one-eighth Japanese blood;

As widely known, the International Baseball Association has low requirements for the qualifications of naturalized players to promote the sport's development; as long as there is a blood relationship, naturalization is possible.

Such a level of talent, how could the Japan Baseball Association be willing to let it go to others — precisely because of this, selecting him for this Japan-US exchange game representative team was not only a form of early planning and goodwill.

If nothing unexpected happens, next year's U18 Asian Championship, the Japan Baseball Association will issue an invitation to Lin Guanglai for participation — their staff are confident in this, after all, in their view, when choosing between a baseball desert and a Baseball Kingdom, any player would make the right choice.

Led by staff members, Lin Guanglai stood at the dormitory door of the training center — selected players must convene in Tokyo from all over the country and head to the United States after gathering.

Pushing open the dormitory door, Lin Guanglai found that someone was already there — taking a closer look, he realized he knew the person, so he extended his hand and greeted politely:

"Yamada-senpai, nice to meet you, please take care of me."

Yamada Tetsuro, who was tidying up his luggage, heard the voice and promptly looked up — seeing the handsome face that appeared, Yamada Tetsuro quickly stood up, wiped his hands on his clothes to ensure there was no sweat, and then reached out to shake hands:

"Ah, Lin, please take care of me."

Feeling the other party's politeness, Lin Guanglai scratched his head with a smile: "Senpai, you don't need to be so formal, just call me Guanglai."

Yamada Tetsuro nodded: "Speaking of which, this is our first meeting — Guanglai, your Waseda Real played really well this year, especially you, hitting four home runs as a first-year at Koshien, truly enviable!"

"It's a pity, if I were a year younger, maybe I'd get to compete against you next year."

"Have you decided on your path after school, senpai? Are you going to continue honing skills in university, or go directly into the professional draft?" remembering the related reports seen before, Lin Guanglai steered the conversation towards future choices.

Upon hearing this question, Yamada Tetsuro did not hesitate for even a second, immediately responding:

"I've already made up my mind, after graduation, I'm going to enter the professional draft — this has always been my goal."

"Not to hide anything from you, Guanglai, and hope you won't laugh, I had a dream the other day where I hit a '333' in the professional league — 30 home runs, 30 steals, and a batting average over 30% — and was selected as a starter for the Japan Samurai Team."

"I want to turn this dream into reality — if I go to university, I wouldn't know when I would accomplish this goal."

Seeing the sincerity on the other's face, Lin Guanglai too felt somewhat moved by Yamada Tetsuro, and the atmosphere in the dormitory instantly warmed up.

While the two were having a lively chat, there was another knock at the door — with three people sharing a dorm room, it was likely the last person arriving.

In the next moment, the door opened to reveal someone standing there, an old acquaintance of Lin Guanglai:

Izumura Yasuhiko, the main catcher from Chukyo University.

Standing at the doorway, Izumura Yasuhiko first exchanged a glance with Yamada Tetsuro, nodding in greeting; then his eyes locked directly with Lin Guanglai's.

Lin Guanglai's eyes flashed awkwardly, feeling a bit embarrassed: After all, just half a month ago in the second match against Chukyo University, Lin Guanglai's Waseda Real thoroughly swept Izumura Yasuhiko's Chukyo University; additionally, in that game, Lin Guanglai's starting pitch prevented Izumura Yasuhiko from even reaching first base.

For Izumura Yasuhiko, who also decided to participate in the professional draft at the end of the year, being thoroughly suppressed by Lin Guanglai in that second match might affect his draft ranking.

The two "rivals" faced off and locked eyes without speaking — ultimately, Izumura Yasuhiko broke the awkward silence, putting down his luggage and throwing a friendly arm around Lin Guanglai's shoulder:

"Haha, Guanglai, we meet again."

"Haha. Long time no see, Izumura-senpai..." although the other came with a smile and appeared amicable, for some reason, Lin Guanglai felt there was a hint of grit in his tone.

Of course, it was all in jest — the three, having similar ages, and being key players from strong teams, quickly got familiar with one another and started chatting about everything under the sun.

Noticing the approaching gathering time, the three hurriedly changed into the same training baseball uniform to head to the training ground.

Due to the nature of the friendly exchange match, the uniform of this high school representative team was not the standard uniform of the Japan National Team's age-group teams but simply embroidered with an English letter "J" on the cap.

As for the player numbers, they were uniformly assigned according to positions — the champion team's pitcher would get the number 1, then follow the defensive positions' sequence; as the youngest of the selected seven pitchers, Lin Guanglai naturally got the number 7.

Arriving at the training ground, Lin Guanglai and his companions found that other selected players had mostly arrived — among those he recognized were several: Shimabukuro Hiroshi from Konan, Ichiyotai Shintaro from Tokai University Sagami High School, Nakagawa Ryosuke from Narita... all outstanding performers in the recently concluded tournament.

On the empty ground by the field, the filming crew responsible for recording daily match events was also ready — starting today until the exchange match concludes, the event's daily activities would be recorded by the cameras.

Led by the coaches, the players formed a lineup at the field's edge, and the two coaches responsible for leading the team first introduced themselves:

According to standard practice, the team would be supervised by Wakayama Yu from Konan High School, the champion of the Summer甲 league; the assistant supervisor, serving also as the head coach, would be Menma Keiji, the runner-up coach from Tokai University; additionally, there were pitching and hitting coaches sent by Takano Ren and the Japan Baseball Association.

Next was the self-introduction and interaction session for the players — within the upcoming half-month, players from various regions, who were competitors half a month ago, would now be teammates to uphold the dignity of Japanese baseball; thus building rapport and cultivating mutual understanding was essential.

With the players gathered, tomorrow they would board the plane, heading across the ocean to the birthplace of modern baseball to begin their journey.

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Appendix: 2010 Japan-US Friendly High School Baseball Tournament Roster

Supervisor: Wakayama Yu (Konan)

Coach: Menma Keiji (Tokai University Sagami High School)

Pitchers

Shimabukuro Hiroshi (Konan)

Ichiyotai Shintaro (Tokai University Sagami High School)

Nakagawa Ryosuke (Narita)

Ooshima Ichiro (Hodokusho Academy)

Ikedada Jun (Niigata Myokin)

Mukai Kenji (Sendai Yuuying)

Lin Guanglai (Waseda Real)

Catchers

Yamakawa Daisuke (Konan)

Izumura Yasuhiko (Chukyo University)

Yamaguchi Genki (North Otsu)

Infielders

Maezono Hideaki (Konan)

Guoji Continent (Konan)

Koshimura Jiro (Konan)

Fukuyama Ryo (Tokai University Sagami High School)

Yamada Tetsuro (Luzheng Society)

Outfielders

Ijuin Shun (Tokai University Sagami High School)

Yashiro Kazuma (Hodokusho Academy)

Goto Junta (Maebashi Business)