CHAPTER 360: CHAPTER 12: DILIGENCE IS A GIFT

Miyazaki City, Ikime no Mori Sports Park Training Ground.

Lin Guanglai held the bat in his hand, continuously engaging in repetitive batting training, with almost no break between each ball. As soon as the previous ball was hit, he had to quickly return to his batting stance to prepare for the next incoming ball.

Similar training wasn’t unheard of for Lin Guanglai in high school, but the intensity of the training with the professional first team still greatly exceeded his expectations. Even though his physical condition far surpassed other players his age, he inevitably found himself worn out by such high-intensity training.

After finishing this set of batting practice, he felt his mind go blank, and simply lay down on the ground, taking deep breaths.

"Get up!!!"

"Is that all you’ve got!!!"

"Continue!!!"

He hadn’t rested for long before the sharp voice of the batting coach was ringing in his ears. Seeing this situation, Lin Guanglai could only muster the strength to get up, then pick up the bat and begin swinging again.

This was the typical routine for Lin Guanglai during spring training.

SoftBank indeed fulfilled their promise to train Lin Guanglai in the "Dual Swordsmanship" style, but this also meant that the training he had to endure was twice as much as his teammates.

It might be because of the pre-season physical examination and the data on the reports being in the hands of the coaching staff. Whenever they planned training for Lin Guanglai, the coaches were always able to accurately exhaust him physically while avoiding injuries due to exceeding limits.

And it must be said, Manager Akiyama’s demands on him were incredibly strict, so strict that it seemed as if he were not treating a rookie at all:

When he performed well in training, Akiyama wouldn’t say much; but whenever his performance slacked or declined, what awaited him was a storm of fierce criticism—such an attitude that even the veteran players who had known Manager Akiyama for years found intimidating.

However, Lin Guanglai also understood that the reason Akiyama was so tough on him was largely because he valued him—if he truly were a hopeless case, Akiyama probably wouldn’t even bother to look at him.

After doing another two to three sets of batting under the guidance of the batting coach, the morning training finally came to a temporary halt—at the moment he put down the bat, Lin Guanglai felt that his body and arms were no longer his own, immediately followed by a strong hunger signal from his stomach.

"So hungry so hungry so hungry—!!!" Lin Guanglai shouted as he dragged his exhausted body towards the cafeteria. After serving himself a full meal high in carbohydrates and calories, he found a spot to sit and was ready to dig in.

The satisfaction from the first bite after tough training hadn’t completely faded when a voice came from above his head: "Guanglai, there’s no one here, right—can I sit here?"

Lin Guanglai looked up, confirmed the person’s identity, and said, "Ah, it’s Senior Yanagida—there’s no one here, please sit down."

The person was Yanagida Yuuki, SoftBank’s second draft pick in 2010, and born in 1988, he was seven years older than Lin Guanglai, considered an older rookie—he had been bouncing between the top and second teams for several seasons, now striving for a permanent spot.

Among the seniors in the team, he was one of the first to take the initiative to talk to Lin Guanglai. It was thanks to his help that Lin Guanglai could integrate into the SoftBank team more quickly.

Seeing the quantity of food on Lin Guanglai’s plate, Yanagida Yuuki couldn’t help but marvel at his appetite: "Guanglai, you really can eat—no wonder you’re a super talent who hit over 100 home runs in high school; being able to eat is definitely a gift too, right? If only I could eat like you back then, maybe I wouldn’t have waited until I was 23 to enter professional baseball..."

His words sparked Lin Guanglai’s curiosity: in his understanding, baseball, compared to other sports, didn’t require as much natural talent in terms of physique—whether tall or short, fat or thin, everyone could find their strengths in this game;

Moreover, just from outward appearances, Yanagida Yuuki was one of the most physically fit people in the entire SoftBank First Team, often seen in the gym. Lin Guanglai had observed his batting practice, and his muscular explosiveness was undoubtedly strong.

Seeing Lin Guanglai’s interest in this topic, Yanagida Yuuki didn’t hold back and started to share his past:

"Haha, don’t laugh, but when I was a senior in high school, although I was 186 cm tall, I weighed only 60 kg, thin as a stick."

"I still remember when I retired from the baseball club, the high school coach advised me to give up on baseball early, saying that with my physique, the most I could hope for was to play amateur baseball for life."

Just hearing this made Lin Guanglai shocked enough—186 cm tall and only 60 kg, what kind of person was that? He really couldn’t reconcile those physical stats with the muscle-bound and powerful figure in front of him.

"But I was not willing to give up, I refused to resign myself! After entering university, I still didn’t give up on baseball. To put on weight, I ate as much in one meal as what others consumed in three or four meals, and I spent more time in the gym than others. Even then, it was not until my fourth year that I truly became one of the starting nine on the team."

"It was thanks to that year’s performance that I joined professional baseball and came to SoftBank—I am really grateful to President Wang for choosing me then, and I hope to repay the team with my performance."

After hearing this story, Lin Guanglai was so moved from the bottom of his heart that he forgot about eating and said:

"Senior, that’s truly remarkable..."

For Lin Guanglai, who was an ace pitcher in high school, he clearly understood how painful gaining weight could be—at the beginning of weight gain, just the thought of stuffing food into his stomach made him feel nauseous involuntarily.

Lin Guanglai had purposely reviewed the profiles of professional players from previous seasons to understand the team’s personnel structure. When Senior Yanagida Yuuki first joined SoftBank, his official weight was listed as 90 kg.

In four years, from 60 kg to 90 kg, while ensuring the simultaneous growth of muscle and strength—what kind of perseverance and determination does it take for someone to achieve such a thing!

Indeed, the last thing professional baseball lacks is talent—in many cases, merely having diligence is the greatest gift.

By the time afternoon training began, the coaches were surprised to find that after the high-intensity training that morning, Lin Guanglai’s condition had not declined but rather improved.

What happened in between, who knows?