Chapter 105: Chapter 4: Pitcher or Batter?
Leaving the bullpen, Lin Guanglai greeted everyone before parting ways and heading alone to the batting training field.
After completing pitching practice, the three catchers would undergo specialized training on basic skills such as squatting and blocking under the guidance of dedicated coaches;
Meanwhile, the remaining pitchers would head to the gym for weight training—however, due to his age, Lin Guanglai was not quite ready for heavy weight training, so he would join the fielders in receiving advanced batting technique instruction from professional coaches.
Because the exchange match is taking place in the United States, the bats used are the mainstream low-elastic bats from high school and college leagues in the U.S.—compared to the metal bats used at Koshien, these bats, while made of the same material, have a much lower elasticity coefficient, requiring some adaptation.
In the batting training field, Lin Guanglai was receiving guidance from the National Youth Team’s batting coach.
Compared to his highly praised pitching, the coach found plenty to critique about Lin Guanglai’s batting.
According to the National Youth Team coach: "The reason you managed to hit four home runs at Koshien is mainly due to your excellent dynamic vision and timing ability—but in reality, your batting technique is quite rough."
Before the official training started, the batting coach asked Lin Guanglai a question:
"Guanglai, if you want to develop as a batter, first you must decide what type of batter you want to become?"
"Do you want to be like Ichiro, who can hit over 200 base hits each season, with a batting average over .400, consistently propelling the team forward as a hit machine?"
"Or would you rather be like Matsui, with a batting average around .300, frequently swinging and missing, but capable of delivering a devastating blow when connecting with the ball, as a medium to long-distance batter?"
"Only once you determine your path, can I tailor a training plan to suit your aspirations as your coach."
Lin Guanglai initially wanted to ambitiously ask "Can I have both?", but seeing the coach’s serious and earnest expression, he refrained from speaking it out loud; after some thoughtful consideration, he posed a question back to the coach:
"Coach, what do you think baseball is as a sport?"
Before the coach could answer, Lin Guanglai quickly answered himself: "To me, baseball is a sport full of uncertainty and unpredictability, while also being full of expectations."
"If it’s just about scoring by hitting the ball to the ground, wouldn’t that make the sport incredibly dull!"
"After all, I prefer aiming for distant targets, swinging towards the sky—even if there’s a chance of missing or being caught, the anticipation makes it worthwhile, isn’t it?"
Looking at the genuinely youthful face before him, the seasoned coach couldn’t help but be touched—he then chuckled and said:
"Alright, since you’ve made your choice, your training will follow the path of developing a medium to long-distance hitter; I’ll warn you beforehand, the training will be tough, complaints won’t help."
In the next few hours, the National Youth Team’s batting coach personally taught Lin Guanglai batting techniques—from the most basic grip posture to how to maintain wrist flexibility, to keeping body stability during hitting, and how to swing against different pitches, bat discipline, etc., Lin Guanglai accomplished each task as required.
After completing these exercises, Lin Guanglai felt an ache coursing through his entire body, with not a single part feeling comfortable, as if his bones were about to fall apart, collapsing directly onto the ground.
Not far outside of the batting cage, the batting coach felt his heart jolting as he looked at the data-filled chart in his hand:
As the batting coach for the Japan National Youth Team, he had seen numerous talented batters with excellent pitch selection skills and adept batting techniques at a young age—but Lin Guanglai’s rapid improvement still startled him:
Many actions he grasped instantly without needing a second explanation—in just one afternoon, his batting posture and movements had improved significantly.
Filled with admiration, the coach stroked the few remaining beard on his chin, already considering ideas:
"With extraordinary dynamic vision, highly precise swing timing, and such rapid learning of batting techniques, he’s simply a natural-born batter, being a pitcher is a waste;"
"No, I must find a way to make this kid spend more time on batting—with such a promising talent not being a batter, I’d feel heartbroken!"
After the afternoon training, ensuring all the accompanying kids were washed up and safely returned to their rooms, the leading coaches gathered to drink a little wine and discuss the players’ situations.
The accompanying members of the coaching team were mostly middle-aged men in their forties and fifties, looking at these young kids as if they were their own children, naturally caring greatly about the players’ conditions.
As the team leader, Supervisor Wakayama Yu took a bite of a dish to accompany his drink, sipped a little wine, and then slowly spoke:
"The coming period will be challenging for everyone, how are the kids doing, are they alright?"
Keiji Monma, responsible for organizing and analyzing relevant data, leisurely said:
"On the pitching side, Mukai, Ooshima, and Nakagawa are in good shape, they can definitely enter the starting rotation; Our Shintaro and your Shimada, due to the high exhaustion from Summer甲, shouldn’t pitch too many innings coming up."
"On the fielding side, the performance is decent, but we still need to see during tomorrow’s field practice; Regarding batting, quite a few seem uncomfortable with the low-elastic bats, Mae Hira and Yashiro among others expressed a lack of power in using these bats."
"The baseball philosophy between our side and the United States is quite different, I think after the games, it’d be good for both sides to train and exchange tactics—after all, as coaches, we must keep up with the times, can’t be those stubborn old-timers stuck in the past."
Monma’s words received the approval of all the coaches present—indeed, Japanese and American baseball have significant differences in the cultivation approach for young players, most coaches present are supervisors or coaches of high school teams, naturally wanting to seize this opportunity to learn some cutting-edge new knowledge.
"By the way, I think we can give Lin Guanglai a bit more responsibility in the upcoming games." The coach responsible for pitching guidance seemed to recall something and quickly said:
"This kid is a born pitcher, his speed approaching 150km/h in his first year, and it’s not just empty speed without control or substance; the types of pitches are exactly what is suitable for fundamental distribution at this age stage—just with a little fostering, this kid would undoubtedly be the next Darvish..."
Before the pitching coach could finish, the batting coach interrupted: "Don’t lead him astray, Lin Guanglai is clearly born to be a batter—with outstanding dynamic vision, precise timing control, and a tall physique, once he finishes developing and starts strength training, I promise you, he can absolutely become the firm fourth batter of the national team in the future!"
The two, having diverging views on Lin Guanglai’s future development, quickly turned the conversation into a debate over which position—pitcher or batter—was more important:
"Pitcher is the core of the team!"
"Without batters scoring, can pitchers secure a win regardless of how good they are?"
...
Watching the two middle-aged men argue like children, Supervisors Wakayama Yu and Monma Keiji ate while drinking, watching with amusement.
Perhaps, this is the unique dilemma of a genius?