Short Summary[]
Shirooka explains where he first encountered Johnson. Tokuchi gives up his first run.
Long Summary[]
Saikawa asks his Secretary to contact Tokuchi immediately. The next game's rate will be set to 20x higher. At the match, the Lycaons starting pitcher is Kinoshita. The commentators speculate whether they’ll get to see Tokuchi and Johnson go up against each other today. At the Bugaboos’ dugout, the trainer asks Shirooka where he found Johnson; he wasn’t on the list of foreign players they’d prepared during the off-season. Shirooka laughs and says of course he wasn’t- Johnson is not a baseball player. He used to be a track-and-field athlete.
Three years ago, when he was a sport commentator, he had the opportunity to see him run at the men’s 100m race in the all-America track-and-field Championships. While everyones’ eyes were drawn towards the winner and world-record breaker, Carigan, Shirooka was focussed on the runner-up in the 2nd preliminary round, Dennis Johnson. He made sure to video-tape him in all the subsequent rounds. In the semi-finals, Johnson ranked fifth and didn’t qualify to continue, but Shirooka was still thrilled. The video shows that Carigan didn’t start winning until he sped up at the 50m mark. The man in first place from the start of the race to the 30m mark was Johnson, in every round. The other commentator mocks him, saying there’s no competition for a 30-metre run. Shirooka points out there is another sport where a 30 metre sprinter would serve as a weapon- baseball. The distance between bases is 27.43m, and Johnson would be faster than the current 100m world-record holder.
At the bottom of the fourth, the Bugaboos have one out and runners on first and third base. Coach Shirooka announces a player change and Johnson comes out. Saikawa chuckles in his office. As instructed, Manager Mihara also announces a switch and Tokuchi takes over as pitcher. Kojima is concerned, but thinks Tokuchi must have a way to overcome him.
Before he’s started his pitching motion, Johnson taunts Tokuchi by taking a huge lead. Tokuchi does a check throw, but Johnson gets back to third base on time. Tokuchi faces the batter again and Johnson takes his lead back. He throws and the batter goes for a bunt, but the pitch goes wide and Ideguchi catches it. He brings his hand down, but not in time. Tokuchi gives up his first run in the Pro league.
Characters[]
- Tokuchi Toua
- Saikawa- Owner of the Lycaons
- The Secretary
- Johnson
- Shirooka
- Kojima
- Ideguchi