NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5: <5> Talent (4)
Chapter 5: Talent (4)
"I'm home!"
"Welcome back! You're home a bit early today. Did something happen?"
"We had some tests today, so I came back a little early. But Mom, the coach said that if I want to focus on batting, I can choose to be either a pitcher or a catcher. He also mentioned that I'll be promoted to the first string."
"Really? We should celebrate that! Do you have anything special you'd like to eat for dinner?"
"Beef curry! With extra beef!"
"You really do love meat, don't you?"
"Of course! Humans are carnivores, after all!"
"Alright, I'll make you some beef curry."
"Yes!" Sendo clenched his fist lightly, muttering to himself in excitement like the food lover he was.
The next day's practice started right after school. Coach Nakani assigned the older players to practice fielding while he led the new recruits in batting drills.
Once again, Sendo was last in line. There were five pitching machines set up, each throwing fastballs at 80 kilometers per hour. Each player was expected to hit dozens of pitches.
For the new recruits, an 80 km/h fastball was already quite challenging. Most of them swung and missed, with only a few managing weak ground balls.
But as they got more opportunities, some started making contact.
"Alright, it's time for the last group: Sendo, Sasaki, Yamada, Sato, and Kimura. Put on your helmets!"
"Yes, sir!" The five responded in unison, though Sendo, as usual, drew out his response with a bit more flair.
One by one, the five pitching machines fired.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Ping!
The sounds of missed swings echoed through the practice area. Only Sasaki managed to make contact, sending a weak ground ball. As for Sendo, he didn't even swing—he just stood there watching the ball sail by.
Once again, Sendo had zoned out. He hadn't been paying attention to the others' swings, so he used the first pitch as a chance to gauge the speed.
"That idiot!" Coach Nakani cursed internally. He knew exactly what had happened—this wasn't the first time Sendo had zoned out.
Still, he held back his frustration. After all, this wasn't new behavior from Sendo.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The second pitch came.
Thwack! Ping! Ping! Thud! Clang!
This time, everyone except one player made contact. Sasaki had now managed to hit a long drive out of the infield.
Sasaki was one of the top new recruits, someone who had earned a tuition waiver due to his potential. After all, anyone bold enough to apply to the Wild Cats either had deep pockets or a lot of confidence in themselves, even if their test scores weren't perfect.
For most new Little League recruits, an 80 km/h fastball was almost impossible to hit consistently. Only the first-string players could manage regular hits at that speed.
However, for these Wild Cats, it only took a few pitches to start adapting.
But then, everything else faded into the background.
All eyes were now glued to the ball that had just been hit—soaring far and high, crashing into the fence that marked the home run boundary in center field.
If this weren't an enclosed batting cage, that ball would have easily sailed over the outfield fence.
Even Coach Nakani was frozen in place, staring at the ball.
He never expected that the "slight batting talent" Sendo's father had mentioned would turn out to be this.
Right now, all Coach Nakani wanted to do was shout. How could hitting a home run after observing just one pitch be considered "a bit of talent"?
Since when did the bar for baseball talent get this high?
For the kids watching, this was simply incredible, almost too much to believe. But for Coach Nakani and the recorder tracking these results, it was downright terrifying.
If a beginner high schooler, around 15 years old, hits a home run off a 100 km/h pitch and manages to consistently hit line drives or base hits off pitches above 120 km/h during their first batting practice, they could already be considered a once-in-decades batting prodigy.
But what is this? Sendo, born in November, is only 9 years old!
(A/N: In Cross Game anime/manga, the protagonist had just turned 11 years old. He hit a home run off a 100–110 km/h pitch on the second pitch from a live pitcher, though there was some luck involved. Hitting a long drive came naturally to him. But even though he'd been swinging a bat since he was 3 years old, he still couldn't compare to hitters at Kou's level.
The strongest hitter in MIX anime/manga should be on par with Kou, and his younger brother is also a talented hitter. As mentioned earlier, even these top players managed to hit stable home runs off 100 km/h pitches and long drives off 120 km/h pitches from their first year of junior high through high school.
The protagonist of this story is set to be even more talented than them, considering that currently in this book, no Japanese player has reached the level of a top-tier MLB hitter. The protagonist's talent is supposed to surpass even that, based on a comparison with an MLB powerhouse. So a 9-year-old with no formal training being stronger than Cross Game's 11-year-old ace pitcher Kou Kitamura, who had been swinging a bat since the age of 3.)
From here on, it was all about Sendo's solo performance. With the pitching machine's fixed pitch type, speed, and trajectory, hitting wasn't too hard as long as you timed it well. But Sendo was the only one who could consistently hit the ball that far.
Even Sasaki, who had performed the best aside from Sendo, only managed to hit one home run. For a fourth grader, hitting a home run is challenging unless they've been swinging a bat since a young age.
Sendo, however, relied purely on the explosive power from his natural strength to forcefully blast the ball out of the park.
Out of the 20 pitches he faced, excluding the first pitch he watched, Sendo hit 13 massive home runs. The remaining 6 were just shy of the fence.
There's a saying about batting against a pitching machine: if you can maintain an 80% hit rate, you're qualified to face a real pitcher at the same speed.
But that's just for keeping up. When you're consistently hitting home runs or near home runs off every pitch, it's not even a fair contest against real pitchers at that speed—you're simply in a different league.
Coach Nakani was now seriously considering how to integrate Sendo into the first string.
For elementary schoolers, 110 km/h is already the upper limit of speed they can handle. Even 100 km/h is considered fast for middle school players.
For junior high baseball, speeds of 120 km/h are not considered slow, and 140 km/h is seen maybe once in a decade.
Meanwhile, in junior high softball, you still find teams with pitchers throwing around 80 km/h.
Given Sendo's results, his chances of hitting a home run off a real 100 km/h pitcher would be quite high.
This batting session was meant only to test potential, and then work on correcting everyone's batting form.
In elementary and junior high baseball, the goal is to develop correct techniques and prevent players from harming their careers with bad form.
However, none of this applied to Sendo. Coach Nakani had already pulled him aside for individual instruction.
Though Sendo was still a novice, despite having undergone some training and showing remarkable performance, it was all done on raw talent.
If he got used to the proper techniques being taught, he'd perform even better, and more importantly, he wouldn't develop bad habits that could harm his progress.
For Sendo, Coach Nakani no longer planned to follow the usual step-by-step training process.
Instead, he would individually explain the theories behind pitching and catching to him, and forcefully drill proper mechanics into him.
While pitching requires a lot of practice and relatively little theory, catching requires more theory, which is Coach Nakani's specialty.
Batting and pitching skills would come naturally with hands-on practice, but for catching, the knowledge had to be ingrained early on.
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