Chapter 25 : Night Conversation & Hell Week
As he read through the reports, Katakoa's mind was a whirlwind of emotions, especially when his eyes landed on the pitcher's page.
Tanba Koichiro – Hardworking, stubborn, chaotic under pressure. Recommendation: Do not use him as a starting pitcher against a strong opponent.
Kawakami Norifumi – Has the best control out of all the pitchers, timid, lacks of leadership ability, flexible, and can follow the order. Recommendation: A good reliever for the team.
Reading the brief introduction for the pitcher's characteristics, Kataoka sighed, unwilling to read the more detailed report about them. The report about Tanba and Kawakami was not something he didn't know before, yet he couldn't help but feel disappointed at the lack of charisma the two had to become the ace and the backbone of the team.
As a former pitcher, he knew what it meant to have the characteristics of an ace for the team. Even though the team could have a lot of leaders, it wouldn't matter too much if it didn't come from the pitcher, since the fielders were just passive players on the field. Their job is just to wait for the ball to come in their direction and act according to the situation, so they couldn't influence the game too much from that perspective.
But it was different for a pitcher. The one who stood on the mound was the most active player as the ball started on his hand. He could influence the game much more than anyone else, including the captain or even the coach. That was why having a stable pitcher with good leadership ability was a blessing for any team. And vice versa, not having an ace pitcher would do more harm than good to the team in the future.
To be honest, this ace characteristic could be trained properly, and Kataoka had tried to do that for Tanba and Kawakami. However, the result was exactly opposite to what he hoped. Instead of growing up to be the leader of the team, they became more timid and easier to get pressured, making him doubt his capability to train a pitcher. And since both were third year and second year, he had no plan to train them to be an ace once again, thinking it would be contra-productive for the team.
He was about to give up on this ace issue until the arrival of the newcomers, when he saw a glimmer of hope in three of his new pitchers.
Furuya Satoru – Has the fastest pitch yet the worst control out of all the pitchers, a good two-way player, weak foundation, lacks of game experience, lacks of stamina, has a problem with acknowledgment. Recommendation: A good backup when Tanba is crumbled on the mound, but cannot be used for more than three innings. Might be worth using him as a designated hitter or a pinch hitter when needed.
Sawamura Eijun – A completely amateur pitcher, has a strong will and ability to learn, has the potential to become a good leader, rapid improvement, does not have any shining point on his pitching, strong mentality, can surprise us when we put him under pressure. Recommendation: Worth to train, maybe giving him one or two game experiences this summer would help him get better in the future.
Tojo Hideaki – ….
...
...
Even though below Sawamura's report, Tojo's report had a better resume, his performance during the intra-game and the training session after that didn't move Kataoka at all. Instead, it was two completely amateur pitchers who caught his interest.
Furuya Satoru and Sawamura Eijun.
Two completely different styles of pitcher. One was the silent assassin, rather use his ability on the mound than talk, and the other was a natural leader, who could always lift up the mood of the team. One had the talent in fastball with his cannon arm yet lack of control, while the other couldn't even throw a straight fastball yet had nasty breaking balls.
Even though right now, Furuya had the edge due to his monstrous cannon arm, Sawamura's potential was not lower than him. In fact, if trained right, they both had the ceiling of Narumiya Mei or even higher, depending on their motivation.
Or so that was what he thought.
However, after reading this report, he had to take a deep breath and not rush in recklessly.
Kataoka sighed once again, rubbing his temple tiredly. His eyes still focused on the report, didn't register the presence of two of his partners in the coaching team, Rei Takashima and Oota Kazuyoshi who entered the office quietly. But as the two approached the desk, his gaze shifted to them, and he nodded slightly in acknowledgment.
"Tough night, Sensei?" Rei asked sympathetically after looking at the content he read on the report.
"Yeah." He groaned. "What is the deal with Furuya's problem on the last part of his report, by the way?"
"Ah, that is the collaboration report between Hiroto-kun, Ryousuke-kun, Yuuki-kun, and Kazuya-kun," Oota said, offering him a cup of coffee. "It seems the three had a hypothesis about why Furuya-kun's pitches sometimes go out of control and to convince Kazuya-kun, they did a little experiment with the team."
"And?"
"He has no problem with receiving praise and accepting critiques, but he couldn't stand being ignored by the others. So, whenever Kazuya-kun forgot to give him feedback, it would affect his emotion slightly and it would also reflect his next pitch too."
"I did some digging into his hometown and found something interesting there," Rei added, pushing up the glasses above her nose. "I asked his parents and apparently, his condition in each team he joined since he was a child was far from ideal. In elementary school, he joined the local team close to his house, yet the main pitcher was the son of their head coach, and the other pitchers could be said to be abandoned by the team. When he was in middle school and joined the school team, his new coach put him out of the team without giving any reason until he was in his third year when Furuya-kun knew the reason. It seems his fastball was too fast that no catcher could deal with it, so the coach took the easy path and abandoned Furuya-kun instead of training the catcher to deal with it."
"What a bastard," Kataoka grunted angrily.
"Well, that is the reality." Rei shrugged. "That's why Furuya-kun always wants acknowledgment. He is afraid that if he didn't get the feedback, he would be abandoned once again by his team. Even though he didn't think like that, at least his subconsciousness recognized the shadow his former coaches created in the past."
"I hope this will not be Tanba's situation all over again." Kataoka groaned.
"Don't worry, I don't think it would happen." Rei chuckled. "For one, Tanba was a boy who yearned for praises but couldn't handle critiques well. But Furuya-kun is different. He can accept any feedback no matter how good or bad it is, so he isn't that thirsty for praise. His mentality is stronger than Tanba's. Just make sure he received the feedback he wanted, you can even ask Yuuki-kun to do that during the game, and everything will be alright. And don't you think that your evaluation is a bit harsh to Tanba?"
"No." Kataoka shook his head without hesitation. "If Tanba is just a rookie pitcher, his mentality would be alright. But he is in his final year and planning to make a career in baseball, so I think my evaluation is not out of place. He is lucky high school baseball always tried to cultivate teamwork, or no one would care when he crumbled after getting critiques from the others. He needs to solve this mentality problem or he won't go too far, whether in baseball or life."
"Well.. Let's wait and see if Tanba could surprise us once again."
Seeing the atmosphere was getting heavier, Oota tried his best to bring down the tension, changing the topic of the conversation. "How about Kawakami-kun and Sawamura-kun? How do you plan to use him?"
After pondering for a second, Kataoka answered, "Kawakami's status wouldn't change that much. He is a good reliever for us and his adaptability in a critical situation after Tanba messes up is on a top notch. It is a pity he is too timid to be the ace of the team." Oota's eyes beamed with delight at Kataoka's praises toward Kawakami. It was no secret for the team that the second-year pitcher was Oota's favorite player. Some even joked that Kawakami was his illegitimate child, which of course not true.
"As for Sawamura-kun…" He turned his head to Rei. "What do you think?"
Even though he always followed Sawamura's development, Rei who was involved and even gave Sawamura advice here and there would give him a better opinion regarding the loudmouth pitcher.
"Let him improve his pitching and fielding ability first, and when you deem it is enough, give him more playing time," Rei said bluntly. "Sawamura-kun is the type of player who will grow under pressure, so he would gain more on the game rather than in daily training."
"Is that so?" Kataoka asked, intrigued. "How about his pitching? Is it stable enough?"
"Not yet." Rei shook her head. "But Chris works hard to improve his ball control, so you just wait for the good news."
"Hmmm…" Kataoka leaned his body against the chair, his brain spinning fast. "Let's wait first. If their performance in this hell week is acceptable, I would give Furuya-kun and Sawamura-kun some proper playing time before the summer tournament begins. Their chance to play in the inter-high would depend on their performance on the field, so tell them to not disappoint themselves."
-----------------------------
- The next day . . . -
CLANK!
"Nice catch, Shirasu!"
CLANK!
"Quicker, Kuramochi! Where is the speed you are proud of?!"
CLANK!
"Talk to each other, Ishashiki! Hiroto! Always communicate with each other!"
CLANK!
"Nice cover, Kuramochi! Yuuki, dive! What are you afraid, dirt?!"
Kataoka's shout resonated on the field, ranging through every player's ears. Coupled with the hot temperature that was the indication of summer, it drained them quicker, both physically and emotionally.
"What happened? Are you tired already?" Kataoka asked sharply.
"NO, SIR!" Everyone shouted, showing their determination.
"Good! Let's continue for another three rounds!"
Since no one voiced their dissatisfaction, Kataoka continued the fielding training. Standing on the batter's box, he asked one of the players from the second team to toss him the ball, and he would send it toward the fielder through several ways.
Ground ball, fly ball, and line drive would be sent randomly on the field to simulate the game-like situations for the team. And when they all started to show the declined state, Kataoka would show them no mercy, putting up several runners on the base to make it harder for everyone.
And that was when the real training began.
Kataoka would combine a lot of complex situations at the same time without telling the first team players to test their reactions. Sometimes he would send a ground ball in a bases-loaded situation, the other times he would just stand and let the runner steal the base. He wanted to keep everything as real to the game as possible to make it easier for everyone to adapt when it was their time to play.
To be honest, this training wasn't that exhausting. However, since it was done right at noon when the sun's position was straight above their head and after two hours of torture in the name of physical and endurance training, this was like hell for the players.
Furuya, Sawamura, and Haruichi who were excluded from the fielding training because they couldn't follow the rhythm of the others could only have their mouth gaped in awe and shock, couldn't believe the awesome senpai they always looked up to be beaten to death like this by their coach.
"This is insanity…" Sawamura murmured like a broken record. "The big boss sure is the big boss. He is so cruel even though toward his own players."
Even though Furuya and Haruichi didn't voice their opinion, just by their expression, they agreed with Sawamura's statement.
"You think this is too intense?" Chris's voice suddenly came from behind. "Then, you need to brace yourself, because today is just a warmup for Kataoka-sensei"
"Shisou!" Sawamura shouted as he and the other two turned around to Chris. "What do you mean by just a warmup?"
"Just like I said, this is just an appetizer for them," Chris exclaimed once again, his expression still flat. "If you think the intensity of the training since you joined the first team is normal, this would be a good wake-up call for you. The fact is, Kataoka-sensei always lowered the intensity for about a week or two after new players were promoted to the first team. And now you see it, how the highest level of Seidou baseball team training every day."
Sawamura and Haruichi shuddered at the thought of harder training while Furuya was about to pass out on the spot.
"Do you know why they are training this hard?" Chris asked, ignoring their exaggerated reaction. "It is to clean up the mess you pitchers would create during the game."
"Eh?!"
"Oh, don't look at me like that." Chris chided the two pitchers who were looking at him with eyes wide. "Even though baseball is a sport where the pitcher would always be in the spotlight, once the ball got hit, as long as it is not a home run, it is the fielders who have to clean up the mess. This is the reality of baseball, where the pitcher is the king and the others are just mere servants for him. So, the better the fielders behind the pitcher are, the more it would make the pitcher shine."
"This…"
Sawamura looked at Furuya for a moment, not knowing what to say. In fact, it wasn't just two of them who were speechless. Even Haruichi who was the only fielder among the three was stunned, couldn't believe that extreme opinion to come out of Chris's mouth.
"Well, this is the reality of baseball. That's why the pitcher would always be the 'prima donna' of this sport." Then suddenly, Chris's expression darkened as he smiled gloomily at Sawamura and Furuya, making the two pitchers gulp nervously and take a step back unconsciously. "And that's why if with this kind of amazing servants behind you you still messed up during the game and led the team into a losing situation, that spoke enough about your capability as a pitcher."
The last part was like a slap on their face. Never in their life, has someone doubted their capability as a pitcher this bluntly. Usually, no matter how badly they performed, no one would be cruel enough to do so. Hell, even Furuya's head coach who abandoned him only said it was because no one could handle it. So, being questioned so openly like this, not only were they insulted, but fire also burned inside their heart, reflected through their eyes.
"Furuya-kun, let's start running again."
"Sure."
Chris sighed secretly, glad that this shock therapy worked. To be honest, what he said before was biased against pitchers. The relationship between a pitcher and his fielders usually was not as exaggerated as a master and a servant. But sometimes, when a talented pitcher surged from out of nowhere and managed to be promoted to the first team, their arrogance would rise astronomically and whenever they played badly, they would always blame the infielders.
That was why this was one kind of mandatory speech to the pitcher. Talking about it when they were still nothing on the team would make it easier for them to remember when they were on the top that in fact, fielders were not their servants. They cannot be blamed for every mistake that the pitcher made. In fact, just like Chris said, if even with the talented Seidou players as the fielders they still messed up, it wouldn't be too harsh to question their capability as an ace.
"Good thing that it doesn't backfire," Chris murmured softly, his eyes were on Furuya and Sawamura who started running on the running track while the sound of Kataoka-sensei shouting and roaring toward the first team players resonated all around the field.
"The hell week is starting, huh… I hope everyone can survive until the end without injury just like me.." Chris sighed once again, walking away silently without anyone noticing his disappearance.
-------------------------------------------
Author note :
Hey! I have written a few next chapters of this new story and posted it already on my patreon account. If you want to read it in advance, you can visit patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes .
You can read this story up to chapter 34, and I will try to update it faster.
You can also read my other fanfiction, Kuroko no Basket: The Sixth man of Seirin Basketball Team up to chapter 172 on that page.
Thank you for your support! I appreciate it! :)
-Zeta Faes-