Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 575 - 137: Absolute Domination, Unmatched in History! (Part 2)
However, today at the venue, this legend, who had hit 3085 hits in his career, personally apologized to Lin Guanglai for his previous offense and offered his advice on Lin Guanglai's current batting.
Just like last year, the first awards presented at the ceremony were the titles of the Second Army of the Professional Baseball East and West League. The SoftBank Team, which had successfully won the championship last year, once again demonstrated the depth of their lineup, defending the title of the Second Army West League champion this year.
Subsequently, after announcing the awards including Best Umpire, Most Outstanding Manager Award, and Special Commendation from the League, Lin Guanglai took the stage for the first time tonight:
"The awards now being presented are for the Pacific League pitching department—Most Strikeouts, Best Winning Percentage, Outstanding ERA, Most Wins, SoftBank's Lin Guanglai; Best Reliever, Orix's Sato Tatsuya; Best Save, Orix's Hirano Yoshihisa. Congratulations!"
Amidst music and thunderous applause, Lin Guanglai buttoned up his suit and walked onto the stage under the guidance of staff, accepting a small bronze commemorative trophy from the award presenters—a trophy he had won last year, though last year's was significantly less prestigious than this one.
Logically, each title should correspond to one trophy, but the professional baseball side realized that Lin Guanglai couldn't possibly hold four trophies in both hands, so they specifically altered the banner on the front of the trophy, condensing it from individual titles to simply "Pitching Quadruple Crown."
Since it was not particularly significant (at least not to Lin Guanglai), there was no speech segment; Lin Guanglai simply walked down from the stage back to his seat and placed the trophy beside him without giving it another glance.
Wang Zhenzhi's teasing voice came from beside him, "Such minor honorary titles don't interest you anymore, right? I see you looking distracted, your mind must be on the Eiji Sawamura Award and MVP, am I right?"
Lin Guanglai smiled somewhat sheepishly, acknowledging the statement—indeed, he might have felt a bit of satisfaction from such titles last season, but after delivering a historically exceptional season, such simple pitcher titles no longer satisfied his growing ambitions.
"Young people shouldn't fear having a big appetite, they should fear having opportunities they can't seize!" Nagashima Shigeo, from another side, gazed approvingly at Lin Guanglai, "After all, it's rare to encounter a genius that can seize multiple honors in his second year. It'd be odd if such a player lacked a competitive spirit?"
After presenting the pitching awards, the hitter awards followed: Although Lin Guanglai's batting performances generally ranked among the league's top, restricted by his number of appearances, it was difficult for him to compete with full-time batters for titles, an unavoidable sacrifice under the current system.
This is precisely why there's been ongoing discussion on the popular topic on baseball forums: "If Lin Guanglai didn't pitch and focused entirely on batting, how high could he go?"
Once the pitching and hitting awards concluded, the ceremony transitioned into a brief interval, as supervisors from the Japan Samurai national team of various tiers took the stage to face scrutiny from media, players, and legends present.
This appearance also acted as a preview for the WBSC Premier12 set to take place at the end of next year's season:
Earlier last year, the WBSC announced the launch of a new event similar to the World Baseball Classic, where teams are organized by nations/regions. As the leader in world baseball, the Japan Baseball Association had begun building its teams at all levels for this competition—for Team Japan, the goal at the Premier12 is nothing less than championship glory.
The upcoming segment was somewhat unique—
This year marks the 80th anniversary of Nippon Professional Baseball, and to commemorate this, the NPB held a special segment that was rich in sentiment:
In addition to the annual selection of the Best Nine/Ten Players from both leagues, this year featured the "All-Time Best Nine" segment—the NPB statistically compiled the number of Best XI nominations over the past 80 years to produce such a lineup.
This is why so many historically legendary figures were present today: aside from the deceased Bessho Akihiko, Chiba Shigeru, Yamaguchi Ichiro, and Nomura Katsuya, who couldn't attend due to illness, the remaining seven attended, bringing the older supervisors, coaches, and journalists present back to bygone times.
Following the appearance of these old-generation All-Time Best Nine, came the new season's Best Nine honorees: one by one, young faces lined up, receiving plaques engraved with their names and defensive positions from their predecessors.
Among the crowd, Lin Guanglai received a commemorative plaque from Chairman Wang Zhenzhi, marking his first career Best Nine honor, which he firmly believed wouldn't be his last.
Once the players received their awards and took commemorative photos, they quickly moved on to the most exciting segment of the ceremony:
At the invitation of the event host, last season's Central League Most Valuable Player Sugano Tomoyuki and Pacific League MVP Lin Guanglai stepped onto the stage simultaneously; they received silver trophies from the guests, exchanging handshakes.
Typically, pitchers have a slight disadvantage competing for Most Valuable Player compared to hitters, yet this season, the titles were claimed by two second-year rookie pitchers, a first since the new century began, signaling the rise of new generation forces.
After the awards ceremony, Sugano Tomoyuki left the stage, but Lin Guanglai remained in place, as the remaining few awards were almost all related to him.
Looking at the trophy held by the ceremony assistant not far away, Lin Guanglai felt his mouth go dry:
The Eiji Sawamura Award is one of the toughest awards to obtain, even in global baseball terms, to the extent that even the Major League Cy Young Award is incomparable—one must deliver a dominant performance over a season, achieve various statistical benchmarks, and gain unanimous approval from a committee of former award winners to secure it.
On camera, Japan Baseball Association Chairman Kumazaki Takehiko took the Eiji Sawamura Award from the assistant, then turned to face Lin Guanglai.
"Congratulations, Lin, on completing an extraordinary season. This is your deserved reward."
He then handed the trophy to Lin Guanglai.
"Thank you, Chairman Kumazaki."
Lin Guanglai accepted the trophy encased in a wooden transparent box, at the center of which was a golden baseball, with the words Eiji Sawamura Award boldly written beneath—inspired by seeing Tanaka Masahiro receive this award last year, Lin Guanglai hadn't realized the trophy's weight until he held it himself, finding its weight far exceeded his expectations.
The weight was not just the physical weight of the trophy but also the significance it represented: receiving the Eiji Sawamura Award signified his recognition as Japan's strongest pitcher today, and it also meant countless others would strive to dethrone him to gain fame; this was both pressure and motivation—but Lin Guanglai had reason to believe this wasn't his last Eiji Sawamura Award; it was only the beginning!
Almost immediately after the ceremony ended, major news outlets published the news; each website's front-page headline unanimously chose the same photo provided by the NPB to the media.
At the center of the photo was Lin Guanglai, handsome and composed in a suit, with his hands resting on the table in front of him, and before him were aligned trophies for the Quadruple Crown, Best Nine, Gold Glove, Most Outstanding Player, and the Eiji Sawamura Award; behind him were the flags of the 2014 Pacific League victory and Japan's Number One.
As for the headlines, many outlets opted for a uniform choice—
[Unparalleled History: Complete Domination! SoftBank's Lin Guanglai, Coronation Night of the New Generation King!]
