On the way to the station, Akio Yabe and Lee Motorang passed by a Lawson convenience store. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

"Wait a minute, I'll buy the ticket first."

While same-day tickets are also available at the Jingu Stadium ticket office, Yabe seems to be more accustomed to buying tickets at convenience stores.

"This must be the case?"

"It's the most convenient way to go."

With that, Yabe walked in.

"Welcome to ......"

As the automatic door opened, a familiar voice rang out at the cash register. Kazusa Aragaki, a part-time coach of the Peace School Baseball Club, is now in class. Convenience store clerk is her job.

The last week is exam week, and baseball club training is not mandatory. Therefore, Aragaki and Sand were not arranged to guide everyone. So she asked the store manager to schedule some shifts for herself in the afternoon to increase her income.

"Did you two take a long detour to take care of the business in this shop? It's a pity, no matter how much I sell, I only get an hourly wage. ”

Kazusha saw that the two guests who came in were Yabe and Li Yuanrang, so he said to them.

"We just stopped by on our way to the station to buy tickets."

With that, Yabe went to the ticket vending machine "Loppi" in the corner of the store and began to operate.

"To the shrine? /Welcome, do you have a loyalty card? ”

While talking to Yabe, Aragaki and Sa also received customers who paid the bill.

"You should know if you look at the equipment."

Yabe took out a plastic umbrella and shook it.

"Oh, then you also have to shout 'Yomiuri to death'?". / Does this need to be heated? ”

"Forget it......"

"Why 'Yomiuri to die'?"

According to Lee Wonrang, the evening match was Yakult vs. Yokohama. Nothing to do with Yomiuri Giant.

"Sort of...... Tradition bar......"

Yabe chooses the race and seat to buy, and the machine prints out the receipt. When he turned around to pay the fee, he found that there was already a long queue in front of the cash register.

"This has to be paid within half an hour, otherwise it will be invalid. / Looking for you one hundred and twenty-two yen, thank you for coming. ”

Aragaki and Sa said to Yabe at the end of the team.

"Is it okay to chat with us when there are so many guests in line?"

Li Yuanrang felt that the scene was a little strange.

"What's the matter, they're all acquaintances anyway."

Hearing Hesha's words, Li Yuanrang looked at the people in line. More than half of them are men in their fifties.

"We're going to watch the game with Sha!"

Looking at Li Yuanrang's puzzled face, one of the men with insufficient hair deliberately spoke.

This guy has been hanging around the store for a long time just now, and now he only has a box of strawberry-flavored Pocky in his hand when he queues up to check out.

It can be seen that Aragaki and Sa seem to be quite popular among the middle-aged men in the neighborhood.

After more than ten minutes, the team finally lined up to Yabe and Li Yuanrang. Aragaki Kazusa took the receipt and picked up the scanner to scan the barcode.

"You haven't said welcome yet."

Yabe said.

"Didn't ask if we had a membership card."

Li Yuanrang added.

"Welcome, do you have a loyalty card?"

Aragaki and Sa barely managed to squeeze out a business smile.

"Nope."

Li Yuanrang and Yabe replied in unison.

"Three thousand six hundred yen! Pay fast! There are still people waiting in the back! ”

……

When Lee Wonrang and Yabe arrived at the court, the game had already begun. The two of them are holding tickets for outfield free seats, which means that they can find an empty seat and sit down. Because there weren't too many spectators, I still found a location that wasn't too far away.

"It's smaller than you think."

After sitting down, Li Yuanrang sighed.

"Compared to what?"

"For example...... Tokyo Dome? ”

Tokyo Dome is the only large baseball stadium that Lee has ever seen other than Jingu. However, his motive for going to the Dome at the time had nothing to do with baseball.

After coming to Tokyo and before school started, his favorite voice actor group happened to hold a concert at the Dome, and Lee Won-rang went there to watch it as an ACG enthusiast.

"It can't be done whether it's small or old, after all, it's a stadium that was built 60 years earlier than the Dome."

Yabe explained.

"That's right...... Things built in two or six years are indeed more durable......"

Li Yuanrang muttered to himself.

……

In the first half of the game, the home team Yakult quickly took a four-point lead thanks to the slam cannon of the four-batter. Defensively, under the guidance of catcher Nishimura, the 36-year-old and not tall left pitcher Ishikawa firmly suppressed the opponent.

"That pitcher on the court looks about the same height as you, Yabe. So it's okay for your body to get into the professional baseball. ”

"If you have that level of possession, of course it's fine......"

The pitcher's ball speed can barely soar to 140 kilometers. But in actual combat, most of the straight balls are around 130. In professional baseball, that's a very slow pace.

The real weapon that Shihe survives in professional baseball with such physical conditions is the ability to control the ball freely. Not only can it be accurately thrown into the target position. And the trajectory is sharp, often close to home plate before it begins to change. Caught the beaters off guard.

Because of this pitching characteristic, Shihe does not capture many strikeouts per game, mainly allowing the opponent to play a fan to get outs.

This type of pitcher needs to work with the catcher during the game and rely on the ball to maneuver with the opponent.

"It's a shame that I can't see at all at this distance."

Although it is possible to get a rough idea of the pitcher's ball speed through the big screen and distinguish between straight and varied balls in this way. But the exact path of the ball is completely invisible from the outfield stands. Li Yuanrang originally maintained the mentality of learning the knowledge of ball matching to watch this game, but now it seems that the plan has fallen through a little frustrated.

"If you're on the scene, it's mainly to feel the atmosphere, and you can't see it clearly when you watch the concert at the Dome."

Lee listened to Yabe's answer and recalled his experience of watching a concert at the Dome when he first came to Tokyo. At the top of the left stand, you can really only see orange glow sticks waving all over the field.

"And ah......"

Yabe continued.

"Isn't it possible to see the overall situation on the field from a high place, and commanding and dispatching the whole team's defense is also one of the responsibilities of the catcher."

On the baseball field, the catcher is the only defensive position facing the whole field, so he is best suited to be the commander in charge.

So there is also the saying that the catcher is the "supervisor on the court".

In the history of the NPB, there are also the most examples of players who have served as supervisors.

……

As soon as the first half of the seventh inning was out, it was the turn of Yokohama's four-stick hitter Tsutsui. This season, the young outfielder exploded and hit more than 20 home runs just in June.

Pitcher Ishikawa lured his opponent with a beautiful outside corner jet. The infield rolling earth in the guerrilla direction turned into a double kill.

The three-out offensive and defensive exchanges, and the next half of the game will be the turn of the home team's attack.

On the big screen in the stadium, "Lucky7! ".

Yabe took out two plastic umbrellas that he had prepared a long time ago and stuffed one of them into Li Yuanrang's hand.

"Quick, open the umbrella."

Yabe said as he opened the umbrella in his hand.