Chapter 23: 10 Fingers

"Because we are a team!"

This sentence did not directly answer Oda's question, but it was extremely heartwarming.

Like them, Sawamura is a member of the Akagi Middle School baseball team.

"With good training facilities, great companions, and professional guidance, such a team will certainly be strong. If I go there, I might have a better chance of entering the national stage. But is that really baseball?"

"In my opinion, baseball can be played as long as you have a glove, a bat, and a partner. Even if you are successful, what's the point of success if you don't have friends? So, I want to join you all in the country. Show those strong teams the power of our dreams!"

These words, Sawamura said with sincerity.

In his previous life, because he had been pursuing his dreams, he had lost touch with his friends in the countryside.

In this life, he will never do this again!

"Woooo~woooooo~"

Yamaguchi was moved to cry, and all the friends around him also had red eyes.

Obviously, Sawamura's words came into their hearts.

"Don't cry and cry, show some manly spirit."

Sawamura smiled and encouraged.

Fengxiang and Oda looked at each other, and their hearts were inexplicably relieved.

At the beginning, they rejected Nagano Metropolis' invitation because they couldn't understand the style of Nagano Metropolis.

Don't be frivolous against young people!

As a weed like Chicheng Middle School, to challenge the flowers all over the world, how self-defeating does it seem? But if young people don't even have the courage to break this world, how can they create miracles?

"But, I'm afraid I'll drag everyone down!"

Yamaguchi said.

He finally opened his heart to Sawamura and his friends.

"What are you afraid of? A team is like a person's ten fingers. These ten fingers are long and short, and they perform their duties. They are flexible hands. Don't belittle yourself just because you are a little shorter than others. Just like You, you are our big thumb in Akagi. Although it looks the shortest, it may be the most useful."

Sawamura smiled and comforted, and at the same time he didn't forget to tease his partner.

"Look at our longest one, Senior Feng Xiang. It seems that he is the strongest in our team. But if you want to stretch him out alone, you will definitely be crushed."

"Fuck you! You're the longest one, aren't you?"

Fengxiang immediately understood what Sawamura meant, stood up with a smile, and kicked him.

Sawamura dodged lightly, and said with a smile: "How can I be a finger, I am a palm. I am the palm that takes you to fly!"

While the two were fighting, they ran on the playground.

Yamaguchi was stunned.

He understood every word of what Sawamura and Fengxiang said just now, but when they were linked together, why was he a little confused?

"Sawamura and Fengxiang-senpai, what are you talking about?"

If you don't understand, ask, Yamaguchi wiped away the tears from his eyes, looked at Feng Liang and asked.

Feng Liang looked at Yamaguchi's pure face and felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart, but he kindly explained: "Among the ten fingers, which one is the longest?"

Yamaguchi heard the words and looked at his fingers, the longest of course was the middle finger.

"You stretched him out alone!"

Feng Liang continued.

Yamaguchi stretched out his middle finger alone.

"I rely on!"

Unexpectedly, Sawamura and Fengxiang are such old drivers. If they are not careful, they will drive.

After the fight was over, everyone sat down again.

At this time, unconsciously, the goal of the Akagi Middle School baseball team was determined.

"Help Sawamura and enter the national competition!"

Why help Sawamura instead of reaching the national competition themselves?

Here,

Sawamura was also moved. For his few Faxiao and Yamaguchi, Feng Liang, it is too far to break into the whole country. If this is the case, in their opinion, the hoped goal has not been achieved at all, and they may give up after two days.

But helping Sawamura is different. They just need to do their best. Whether the rest is successful or not is entirely up to Sawamura himself.

This means that Sawamura put all the pressure on entering the country on himself. Of course, this is not a pressure for him.

Regarding this, Mr. Sano has doubts: "Pressure is the driving force. Isn't it better for Yamaguchi and others to bear the pressure? Maybe they will work harder."

Sawamura shook his head immediately.

He knew too well his little friends, who had never had such high ideals in baseball. Such pressure is not only not a driving force for them, but it may become poison.

Really targeting the whole country. Yamaguchi, Nakagawa, and Oyamazaki are not that material at all.

Rather than burdening them with the pressure themselves, it is better to help Sawamura, and they can play more easily.

After winning game after game, their confidence comes out!

Only Sawamura will transfer these pressures to themselves and let them bear it by themselves.

Once you have a goal, it's time to practice.

"There are two basic exercises in baseball, one is passing and receiving the ball, and the other is swinging the bat. Neither of these two things can be improved overnight. You can only get results by practicing hard day after day. From today onwards, we will practice these two more, in addition to the two and a half hours of practice, we will practice 100 passes and catches before the practice starts, and 100 swings after the practice.”

This kind of training is relatively easy for everyone. According to Sawamura's request, everyone started to practice these two things.

At the same time, in the remaining days of the week, Sawamura deliberately let his friends practice the defense of the fly ball.

In baseball, the goofy ball looks really cool. In fact, among all the defenses, it is the easiest to practice and produce results.

Hold the ball high yourself and catch it. Then a substitution takes the ball high and the other catches it.

This kind of practice is not boring at all, and once they are familiar with it, the success rate of their catch and kill high fly balls immediately increases.

For the next game, Sawamura asked everyone to do special practice.

He has already anticipated how the opponent will deal with himself in the next game.

In fact, it is not difficult to guess at all, Shi Lun has completely exposed Akagi's weakness before. The game that day ended in seven innings. If the game reaches nine innings, it is hard to say who will win in the end.

So Sawamura predicts that their opponents in the next game will definitely use a big stick to greet their pitches to the outfield.

As such, if Akagi wanted to win, he had to overcome his weakness of being unable to pick up Goofy.

At this time, Sawamura was a little annoyed. Before, he only wanted to let everyone feel the charm of baseball. He practiced loosely, and did not do targeted fielding exercises at all. Otherwise, there is no way to be intimidated by the fly ball in the outfield.