soul of baseball

Chapter 452 The Game Begins

Yellow, eyes full of yellow!

Even the aisles on the court were full. The spectators were waving yellow towels with black stripes and cheering one after another.

Amidst the thundering music, Shen Qin clutched his chest and huddled beside the stairs, nervous. He had never experienced such a unified scene!

In high school, everyone was quite chaotic, and there were many parents and senior alumni mixed in. Everyone was in the presence of old gods, so there was always a piece of music in the lively scene.

And in the World Baseball Classic, it's playing for the country. In addition to the personality, the most outrageous thing is probably shouting for cheer, right?

But today's opening game is completely different. The only ones who will buy tickets and a full set of equipment to watch the game are the alumni and local fans who support it!

After all, the open-air stadium, and now the lounge where they installed the heater is freezing, so one can imagine how cold it is in the auditorium!

He felt that the fans who were so enthusiastic in this weather were definitely loyal!

"UMBC Head Coach Ponny Carra!"

With the roar of the radio, Carla, who was startled, ran softly into the field amidst the suddenly passionate music, and as the home team stood in the direction of the head on the third base side, which is the extension of the right strike zone position, and by the way took off his hat to greet the audience.

"Salvador Perez!"

"Pepe Seeger!"

"..."

The introductions are in the order of fielding, and then they stand next to the head coach and line up neatly along the third base sideline.

As a DH, Shen Qin is naturally the last one. With the appearance of the front one by one, he is naturally too nervous. His hands are itchy and he really wants to pull up the scarf.

This kind of necessary equipment for cold weather is amazing. It can cover from the neck to the lower half of the face, and then wrap the entire head, which has a first-class thermal effect.

"It can't be like this! I'm also very nervous, take a deep breath! Take a deep breath!" Papa pulled his scarf off, and then ran to the field with two jumps.

Seeing the other person's hand and foot, Shen Qin suddenly became less nervous, hahaha~ You have to be better than this stupid kid, right?Um!Target!Walking normally!

"DH! Qin Molina!"

Fans have unconditional support for home players, and unlike professional baseball where there are so many off-field factors that influence other people's preferences, there is naturally no support for distribution!

After all, everyone supports the school first and the players second!There will be no big or small cheers to embarrass the children!

The applause is still as loud as before!The few cute sounds mixed in were quickly covered up in just a few seconds.

Starting from the coach, Shen Qin bumped fists with his teammates one by one. When Papa finally got to his side, he said in a low voice, "I just thought something was wrong with you. You didn't wear eye cream."

When Shen Qin touched his face, it turned out to be bald, he really forgot, and no one reminded him all the time, it seems that everyone is still quite nervous.

"Take off your hat." Papa reminded him again. Shen Qin hurriedly took off his hat to listen to the national anthem. When he went to the lounge after the end, he noticed the big school initials behind the home plate.

The black and yellow superimposed on the ground are very eye-catching.

~
The commonly used black eye paste can be imagined as an enlarged version of lipstick. Girls have different ways of applying lipstick, such as biting their lips and applying one or two layers of smudge. Boys also like to use black eye paste. The paste is applied on the face to create different pictures. A simple horizontal bar is the basis, some are elongated, some are painted with wings, and some are added with various shapes on the horizontal bar.

For example, Nolan, a child with a wild and coquettish heart, does not use black eye cream, but sticks on it with two hearts on it. Forget it, he actually uploaded it to Twitter, a bunch of cute little ones. The fans sent out a string of love hearts, which aroused the public outrage of the teammates!

~
Today's batting is very interesting. Facing the opponent's ace right-hander, he didn't try to use the left-hander as much as possible, such as Coach and the like.Instead, right-handed hitters were used in all of the bats from one to nine, except for left and right.

According to Kara, we are not afraid of left-handers at all!The new generation is completely invincible!
Well, this was what the two sides said to the other coach when they handed in the form to the coach. It was a complete provocation. I don’t know if this flame will burn to the players.

The NCAA game is different from the major leagues. The major league's opening game is included in the regular season series, but most of the university's school opening games are also counted as results but are played separately, which means that today's game ends. After that, the Maine Coon Cats and Banana Bears will immediately go to another school to officially start the first series of the new season.

The same goes for UMBC. Their first series is also on the road, serving as an opening match foil for the other half of the team.

The college game is actually very close to the minor league model. This is probably a semi-professional adaptation model, trying to create a similar environment for the players to make their future easier.

Perhaps because of this outstanding result, in recent years, the majority of draft picks have been college students, with only 15 exceptions in recent years. Except for the top three picks and second place picks, Tanhua is a high school student.

But by 17, the other two have already established themselves in the major leagues, and only the third overall pick is still in the minor leagues. This fully demonstrates that going to college does not delay playing ball.

Of course, there are exceptions. It is not uncommon for people to be good at the age of nineteen or twenty, but it is not a big problem whether to gamble with such a one in ten thousand chance.

Of course, in baseball, it is definitely better to play as early as possible. After all, this is related to future salary, but if you are not absolutely sure, it is better to follow the steps step by step.

~
"Wow! It's out, it's out!"

Shen Qin, who was not on guard, lay down on the guardrail and looked over at the screams of the audience. The catching partners in the bullpen had come out together, accompanied by cheers, applause and lights.

Porcello has long hair tied up, his face is expressionless, and his long legs are very imposing as he walks.Salvador on the side was much gentler, with a smile on his whole face, and he waved to the sidelines, looking easy to talk.

Shen Qin desperately wanted to team up with Porcello and wanted to have the opportunity to have a pleasant chat with him.But the other party is really difficult to contact.

Absolutely cold!
It's really cold!
As a team, ACE has no personal contact with his teammates at all, and at most he only communicates with El Salvador.

Shen Qin thought that it would be impossible for him to go to the Yankees after he became a professional, even if he was a New Yorker.

After all, Porcello's hair is very long. According to Yankee regulations, players are not allowed to grow beards except for some on the upper lip, and their hair cannot reach shoulders.

And his waist is over.

Before Shen Qin knew about Major League Baseball, he had already seen the New York Yankees logo countless times in China.

At least half of the baseball caps walking on the street, whether real or fake, are wearing this. Now it seems that I still have to lament this strong cultural export.

~
Porcello is indeed the type who can attract attention only by standing there. The action of throwing the ball lifts up his body significantly. Although his long curly hair has been tied up section by section, it still sways along the way. Yes, with that ascetic face~
Sherze, who was standing next to Shen Qin, clicked his tongue twice~ "People often come to give him a trunk full of flowers~ One gift will last a month!!!"

"A trunk? How much does that cost? It must be very beautiful!"

"Why is your focus here?"

Shen Qin blinked: "Then what's the point?"

"Shouldn't you ask who gave him the flowers at this time?" Sherzer peeled off the bubble gum and handed it over: "The team girl, Porcello is the team girl, the team girl who is coveted by the beauties outside, almost every time Even on a date, I watched them being intimate together."

Shen Qin was a little surprised. The people outside were adults from other schools. Well, although the Persian cat lived in the same dormitory with him, why did this person talk so much today? He hadn't even talked to him before.

Sherzer seemed to see it, and pointed to himself: "Number two will figure it out first, right?"

Baseball has entered the modern stage, and each team has adopted 5 starting rounds. Each starting pitcher takes a rotation of 1 day and 4 days off, and then there is a so-called bullpen after five fixed starting rotations. It means bullpen pitchers, whose scheduling is based on the pitching content of the starting pitcher.

Of course there are exceptions.

Just like the popular Japanese player Shohei Otani, because he wanted to implement the double swords style in the major leagues, the Angels let him shoot one day and take six days off in order to protect him.The initial purpose was good, but it unexpectedly disrupted the entire starting rotation.

The pitchers who had long been accustomed to pitching 1 rest and 4 were collectively scrapped and injured, and the team continued to recruit players from the minor leagues. Even so, Shohei Otani's two-sword style still persisted for only two months before he could not continue.

The ligament damage is further aggravated~
After resting for two months, I went to the board at the beginning of September, but after a few shots, the speed of the ball began to drop wildly. Finally, I had to undergo TJ surgery.

50 major league innings in the rookie year, and the ligaments are useless.

Putting aside all emotional aspects, the blunt statement is that Shohei Otani's pitching principles in the future will be very difficult.

It's only the rookie year, and every team doesn't know much about a rookie's details. This year is the best time to brush up on data, otherwise the second year will be a period of hitting a wall.

And Otani will have to support him for at least one and a half seasons before returning to the mound. It’s hard to say what will happen by then. After all, major league hitters are not afraid of his fastball at all. Small and full of tail power.

Otani must put more effort into this aspect, otherwise he will be blown away as soon as he takes action.

The Houston Astros leadoff man even called out his hit ball directly on the mic before the broadcast.

There are also people who can be easily blasted out among those who fight for the first time.

Everyone is really worried about this crunchy child now.

And in American universities, they naturally imitate the professional world where everything is perfect. Shooting, resting, and resting, this point cannot be changed in the regular season.

~
"It's the two of us who will start the game? I'm squatting to catch?"

"It will be announced tomorrow. Porcello got the order first."

Shen Qin became happy: "Is there a prescribed number of rounds?"

"There was none in the first game. Last year, oh, I forgot that you were not there last season. We didn't even have a few games."

Shen Qin has never been embarrassed to ask this question, because in fact, among the third-year players, there are super players like Nolan. How could he lose so badly in standby last year?Seeing someone bring it up now, I got closer curiously: "What happened last season?"

"Satisfying the hopes of the third graders and the fourth graders who failed the draft and returned. If they achieve some results, it will be easier to be drafted again."

Huh: "No one objected?"

"Of course not. Didn't Kara secure qualifications for various international competitions during the holidays for us? After all, they will no longer be members of the team after June."

This is also the case~ "Was it a bad fight?"

"Very bad! It's just a team of amateurs!"

Shen Qin was very puzzled: "After all, it is the first level of the NCAA, no matter how bad it is..."

"Just because it is NCAA D1, if a school wants to be promoted to this level, it must have a certain number of team events to participate in. The previous baseball team has such a nature. But it is also because of them that the school is still in D1 now. Our team still exists, maybe this is the suffering of the sports miscellaneous fish school? After all, everyone is here to do research. After all, academic clubs are more popular and allocated more funds! So, at that time It’s not just bad that can be used to describe it. The players still have to study and work. Before we came, there were probably only a few people who were practicing seriously! I heard from Porcello that the reason why they have made great progress is that they invited The reason for the private 1V4 small classroom."

So you still have to be rich!Shen Qin clicked his tongue, this is really a difficult living environment, he was just thinking about how these people practiced in that environment!
"So we have to play hard. The future of UMBC's baseball is actually on us. If we can't get results, we won't be able to recruit good seedlings in the future. You can see that there are still no one this year, and you know last year's record What an impact."

Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
~
There were muffled noises in his head, Shen Qin raised his head and turned around, and saw the cheerleaders in short skirts dancing hard on the top of the lounge, although they were skirt pants, but~
Shen Qin didn't respond. Whether it was a man or a woman, he had cut them open. For him, the difference mostly refers to the part under the skin.

His eyes moved to the tall, fluffy dog ​​beside him. This is the school mascot hound. It's just that the dark brown curly hair on this doll's body doesn't seem very eager to be hugged. Do you want to poke it?
As soon as one hand was stretched out, the dancing girl knelt down and poked her head out: "Hey, cutie!"

This Asian girl looks familiar!Shen Qin thought for a while and suddenly jumped up in surprise: "Xi, Xichuan's girlfriend!"

Scherzer: Do you have girlfriends like those strange stories like Nishikawa?

The girl knelt on the lounge and stretched out her hand: "Park Mi-joo!"

(End of this chapter)