Chapter 3 Daddy Yiche

When I learned that my mother had a boy, I was overjoyed from the bottom of my heart, because I was sure I could finally escape that miserable life. Dad was no doubt more elated than I was as he waited at home with me.When I told him the news that the hospital came, he tensed his muscles like a bodybuilder, hummed for a full minute, and then uttered an earth-shattering cry: "Excellent, Akiko!" This loud shout caused the dogs nearby to startle and bark in unison. I went to the hospital with my dad to visit.Dad only offered a few words of condolences to the mother who had made great contributions, and then asked to see the baby.After the nurse brought the baby, he completely ignored his appearance, and his first reaction was to check his lower body.

"Oh, yes! There is indeed a dick! It's a boy, a real boy! Hahaha, great, my dream has finally come true!" Watching my dad yelling like crazy, my mood calmed down wonderfully.I glanced at my mother on the bed.Although she had just given birth, her expression also showed no excitement.The moment our eyes met, we both seemed to sense each other's thoughts, and we both sighed softly at the same time. "Oh, it would be great if you were a boy!" My father has been chanting this sentence to me since I can remember, and it made me not only get calluses on my ears, but even my ears became calluses.I might have been told that I would give up on myself. The reason why I didn't get to this point was because I thought his reason was really boring, but he didn't think so.

Dad's dream is to train his son to be a professional baseball player.Behind this dream is a very old story - he himself wanted to be a baseball player, but failed to do so. According to my mother, my father was not able to do so simply because he had no talent.That being the case, I'm afraid there is not much hope for his son to succeed.But Dad didn't think so. "I didn't achieve much in baseball because I started too late. As long as I practice hard from an early age, my son will definitely become a professional player in the future." Dad was sure of it.I heard that before he and my mother got married, he declared that as long as he had a son, he would put this idea into action.

It's a pity that things backfired. Not long after we got married, I gave birth to a daughter, and that was me.Dad was very frustrated and had to pin his hopes on the next child.To name me Famous Beauty implies the meaning of "expectation". But my name didn't work at all, and my mother's stomach didn't move anymore.Dad was so anxious that he tried to sow seeds every night (I guess), but he couldn't see any results. When I was five years old, my dad finally gave up.But he turned to whimsical ideas again, and one day he bought baseball gloves for children and said to me:

"Come on, Nozomi, let's practice throwing and catching." I have always played doll dress-up games, and answered after listening: "Huh? I don't want to practice." "Why don't you? Throwing and catching is fun. Now, change into your tracksuit!" Dad dragged me out the door and forced me to practice throwing and catching. Since that day, my life has been in a cloud of misery.Every morning when the sky was dark, my dad would wake me up and practice throwing and catching for at least two hours.Sometimes I get up earlier than the big brother who delivers the newspaper.He was stunned to see us, father and daughter, practicing throwing and catching sweat profusely early in the morning.

In short, my father used all the methods he planned to raise his son on me, as if he felt that since his son had no hope, he could only make do with his daughter. "By the time Nozomi grows up, maybe there will be a women's professional baseball game. If not, we'll organize our own group to play. Women have been stepping into men's territory lately, so it's not a fantasy." After throwing and catching the ball, my dad often said that to me when I was having breakfast.I always feel that he is actually talking to himself. Having to dream with my dad is really annoying.I tried to resist many times, and even said "I hate baseball the most!", but every time my mother advised me:

"Anyway, your dad will give up soon, so you can play with him." Being begged by her in such soft words, I couldn't bear to refuse.In this way, I continued to deal with my father reluctantly. After elementary school, I was forced to join the local junior baseball team.I was the only girl in the team, and some people teased me at first, but it turned out that I was the best among the kids in my age group, so no one wentssip anymore. Dad came to see our training whenever he had time. Sometimes he couldn't sit still, and he would guide me and other children on his own initiative.To be honest, the coach seemed a bit bored.

I didn't train too hard, but I became a regular player very quickly and played games.Needless to say, Dad is naturally my cheerleader.When I was eye-catching, he was even more excited than me. After dancing wildly for a long time, he would always add: "Oh, if only you were a boy..." Every time I hear his words, I thank God for not turning me into a man.At the same time, I secretly begged that I would be released from this annoying situation.I just want to be a normal girl.Although I was only in the third grade of elementary school, many of my friends around me were already dressed up in a feminine way, which made me anxious.All I wear are boys' clothes.Even if I want to wear a cute dress, but my face is tanned, my hands and feet are all bruised, and the dress doesn't match at all.

My mom got pregnant when I was about to enter fourth grade.From that day on, my dad and I prayed every day.Dad is to realize the dream that he has given up on, and I am to escape the current situation.We have only one wish - this time we must have a boy. And sure enough, a boy was born.This was named Yuma ("Yongma" is pronounced similar to "Flying Stallion" in Japanese). The masterpiece of baseball comics "Giant Star" tells the story of the star flying stallion stepping towards a baseball star under the strict training of his father Hoshiichi Toru. "Ichitoru" means "stubborn" in Japanese.)'s children, it can be said that their fate has been doomed since birth.

Like a child who sows a flower for the first time, Dad checks on the growth of Yuma every day.He measured from the top of his head to the tip of his toes with a tailor's tape measure, and then exclaimed, "Whew, I'm five millimeters taller than yesterday." He was already impatiently looking forward to the day he would play baseball with his son. As for me, I quit baseball the second month my brother was born.When Mom told Dad about it, he just responded casually with an "Oh, really."After being freed from baseball hell, I immediately started to grow long hair (it used to be a weird hairstyle similar to a sports head), and try not to go outdoors in order to whiten my skin as soon as possible.

When Yuma was three years old, his father gave him a soft baseball.He had been taught how to play the ball before, but the real full training began at this time. Dad asked Yongma to throw the ball left-handed. "In baseball, a left-handed pitcher is a very valuable talent. Even if the ball is ten kilometers slower than a right-handed pitcher, the power is still astonishing. If the opponent is a left-handed hitter, it will be more advantageous. In addition, it is easy to pin down a first base runner. , the final self-blame points (referring to deducting turnovers, catching and escape factors, and the points lost purely due to the pitcher’s pitching) will be very small.” How can a three-year-old understand these things, but his father is chattering endlessly. Later, Dad took various measures to implement the left-handed pitcher training plan.Yongma was right-handed, and soon learned to hold chopsticks and pencils with his right hand, but his father asked him to change even these details. One day, Dad bought a lot of glass balls, put them in a sea bowl, and put an empty sea bowl next to him, then gave Yuma a pair of chopsticks, and said to him: "Listen, Yuma, hold the chopsticks in your left hand, and put the glass ball into another sea bowl. You have to practice every day until you can pick it up quickly." Holding a glass ball with chopsticks is very difficult even for the right hand, let alone the left hand.Yongma practiced every day with a sad face, and his father was still sitting in front of him to count the time, yelling "no, no, five seconds slower than yesterday" and other things to motivate him. My father couldn't stand this kind of behavior even my mother could not stand it, and couldn't help protesting to him, but he blatantly said something completely out of touch with the times, "Men's world and women don't intervene", and turned a deaf ear to my mother's protest.The helpless mother had no choice but to let Yongma use his right hand as much as possible while his father went to work during the day.The difference in educational policy between the parents made the young brother a little at a loss at first, but with the unique flexibility of children, he finally overcame this complicated situation.Later, he was able to use chopsticks and write with both hands, which is why. When I arrived at Yongma Kindergarten, my father's special training was intensified day by day.The first is running. Every morning after throwing and catching, the father and son will run on the street until the kindergarten bus arrives.Originally, my father planned to go directly to the kindergarten because "children can take any bus, just run over."But the kindergarten tactfully advised that this is not safe in terms of safety, so my father gave up. Next is leapfrog.The drill comes after the evening's throw-and-catch practice, a non-stop back-and-forth leapfrog on the road in front of the house.Seeing this, the neighbors began to talk about it. My mother and I felt that we couldn't hold our heads up, but my father didn't care and insisted on training regardless of the weather.Not only that, he also found an old tire from nowhere, and asked Yongma to use a rope to drag the tire to practice leapfrog.According to him, if you want to train a child to be a baseball player, dragging old tires to practice leapfrog is the most basic means.Why he would recognize this deadly reason, I really don't understand. But I learned from my high school physical education teacher that leapfrog only causes pain in the waist and knee joints, and has little effect on strengthening muscles.After I took these words home, the special training was over.But when I first mentioned this, my dad was furious, as if his existence value had been denied, and shouted: "Impossible! You actually said me, my special training... the special training of dragging tires and practicing leapfrog This kind of thing, this, this, this, this kind of thing is absolutely, absolutely impossible!" He closed his mouth until he read the copy of the exercise training book that the teacher gave me, his face turned red and then pale, I couldn't cheer up for three days in a row. It can be seen from the old tires that Dad is very keen on exploring training methods by himself.Iron clogs are one example.I remember that when Yongma was in the lower grades of elementary school, one day my father brought back two small iron plates, put on clog laces by hand, and made iron clogs.He told Yuma to put on these shoes and run along his usual route.The younger brother just put it on and ran for a while, and said with a sad face, "The toe hurts", but the father replied: "You must have perseverance! If you show perseverance, it will not hurt!" As a result, the iron clogs were thrown away in three days, because Yuma's toes were so red and swollen that he couldn't even wear the spikes necessary for training. Among the training methods that my father figured out, the most outstanding one is "that".He locked himself in the house for a long time, and just when I was curious, he took out "that". At first glance, it looks like a strange-shaped tension device. There are several thick springs on the intricately sewn belt, which should be modified from the springs on the tension device. "Yongma, come here." Hearing his father's greeting, Yongma walked over tremblingly.At that time, my younger brother was in the fifth grade of primary school. "Take off your clothes and put this on." "What is this?" my brother asked anxiously. "This? This." Dad took a deep breath, his nostrils swollen with pride, "This is a professional baseball player training enhancer." "Enhancer?" "Yes. As long as you wear this in your daily life, you will naturally develop your muscles and develop a strong physique like a professional baseball player." "Wait a minute, husband," Mom said with a frown, "don't dress him in such outlandish things!" "What's so weird? You don't understand, this is a famous training equipment. Come on, Yuma, take off your clothes." "No!" Mom was rarely reluctant, "What if I hurt my body?" "It's okay, trust me. Okay, since you're so skeptical, I'll show you how to wear it first. Hehehe, I specially designed the length of the belt to be adjustable, so that adults and children can wear it, just to make Yuma grow up Works too." Dad took off his shirt and started putting the booster on.I only heard the spring clang clang clang, my mother frowned, and Yongma was also in a daze, while I watched the fun from the sidelines. After snapping on the last part, Dad puffed up his chest. "How is it? It's amazing!" As soon as the words fell, there was a strange muffled sound, and Dad's arms were stretched behind him, like a butterfly swimmer swinging his arms backwards out of the water. "Ah, pain, pain, pain! It hurts! Woooooo! Woooooo! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" "Ah, this is too bad." Mom and we worked together and finally took off the enhancer, but Dad kept crying in pain as soon as he moved his arms.He was sent to the hospital for an examination. The muscles of both shoulders and elbows were damaged, and his wrists were slightly contused. Because the spring clips caught the skin, his arms were bruised.Dad had to ask the company for two days off to rest. But Dad's advantage is that the more frustrated he is, the more courageous he becomes.As soon as his arms could move freely, he learned the lessons from last time and created the "Professional Baseball Player Training Enhancer No. 2".This time he did not use springs, but replaced them with bicycle inner tubes, and the tires were stretched quite loosely to prevent damage to his body.Yongma wears it when practicing throwing and catching, but apart from feeling very cumbersome, it doesn't seem to have much training effect.But for Dad, it seems that wearing the enhancer is the most important thing. There was a lot of bad training like this, but in the end it was an elite education, and Yong Ma's baseball ability improved a lot, becoming the main pitcher and fourth batter of the junior baseball team (the fourth batter is usually the best on the baseball team. A home run hitter, synonymous with a strong hitter, often plays a role in turning the game around.), also played in the national competition, which made Dad satisfied. After entering middle school, Yongma joined the baseball club as a matter of course.During this period, Dad’s pleasure every night was to listen to Yongma’s talk about the baseball club after dinner, and it was not just listening, watching the scene, it should be called the baseball club’s activity report meeting. "That means the coach transferred Matsumoto to third base?" "yes." "This won't work. Matsumoto's pitching ability is problematic. He guards third base, so it's difficult to hit the inside corner (the inside corner refers to the position where the pitcher throws the ball close to the hitter. The inside corner is easy to miss or throw into a touch ball, which is difficult for the pitcher. The ability to control the ball is relatively high. The "outer corner kick" below refers to the pitch farther from the batter's position.) The outcome is decided. Really, what is the coach thinking?" Dad looked at the ball in front of him with a straight face. notebook.I have glanced at his notebook a few times, and it is full of materials recorded while watching the Yongma practice and competition. "Who's the first hitter in the next game?" "Kosaka." "Kosaka? Well, he does run very fast..." Dad looked at the notebook, on which everyone's stealing percentage, batting average and other data were sorted out at a glance, "but the hitting percentage is a bit average. He swings hard. It's too fierce. If you get rid of this problem, you should be qualified to be the first hitter. Forget it, since the coach asked him to play, let's see his performance. Listening to Dad's tone, he seems to be the head coach of the team. When the game was approaching, Dad turned into a recorder again.He is just an ordinary office worker, I don't know how he finds the time, anyway, every time without anyone noticing, he scouts the opponent's training situation, and then teaches the battle strategy to Yuma. "Listen, you have to pay attention to the hitter named Dashan. He is tall and looks like he is good at pulling and hitting, but in fact he is good at the outside corner and is good at pushing the ball. Once he comes out, you will never He hesitates to shoot the inside corner. Don't worry, he won't even touch the side of the ball you throw." Later, I heard from Yuma that my father's opinion is indeed useful sometimes, but sometimes it is completely unreliable.For example, a certain player was rated by his father as "the most terrible hitter on the team in terms of performance", but he is actually just a backup player who just joined the club; sometimes his father said, "The opponent's pitcher can only throw straight balls and curve balls, so it's no big deal." , in fact, the opponent threw a spray ball, so that he had to run out of steam. In any case, Dad's hard work paid off, and Yongma was already well-known in the local middle school baseball circle.The evidence is that as soon as Yongma was promoted to the third year of junior high school, recruiters from various high schools came to visit. Hanshin Koshien Stadium was held named.) Once or twice a famous baseball school. Yongma's grades in school are also passable. If he is recommended for admission, he should be able to go to any high school without any problem, and he will undoubtedly enjoy special admissions treatment. The question is which high school to choose. My mother and I suggested that KK Academy is good because the high school is coeducational.With more colors of the opposite sex, Yongma's campus life will be happier. But this suggestion was rejected by my father. "Baseball doesn't need girls!" He said, "If you go to school with girls, you'll be too busy to focus on training. When he enters professional baseball and makes good grades, and reaches marriageable age, then he will consider getting a girlfriend." It's not too late." What's more, he also said to me: "If you have time to worry about my younger brother, it's better to worry about whether I will get married or not." By the way, I was aspiring to be a professional golfer and started working on golf courses.When reporting the incident to Dad, all he said was "oh yeah". Dad chose Wuguguan High School for Yongma.This is an all-boys school known for its tough style, and all members of the baseball club have short hair, so short that the scalp turns blue.I find it disgusting, but Dad likes it very much. On the day the school was decided, I said to Yuma: "You, you should have your own opinions. You can't listen to Dad in everything. If you have an idea in your heart, you should say it clearly. You are not Dad's puppet." My brother's reaction made me very anxious. "However, I don't have anything in particular that I want to do. I don't like baseball yet. There may be many problems, but as long as I follow Dad's instructions, well, I shouldn't go wrong." I couldn't help but want to pull him over and punch him on the head a few times. Such a dull Yongma has gradually changed after entering high school for a period of time, making people feel more energetic than before.He used to play baseball just to obey his father's will, but since he entered high school, he has gradually become a voluntary hard worker. "Yongma really seems to have been reborn." My mother and I sighed when talking about this incident. The reason for the change in Yongma is that it is said that he made a close friend——Banno, a classmate in the baseball club and a catcher. "Ever since I formed a shooting partner with him, pitching has become very fun. Maybe it can be said that we have a sympathetic heart, and we can understand each other's thoughts. When I thought, 'Okay, I should attack this hitter like this', Banye always Play the same code." Hearing Yongma's words, Dad was naturally overjoyed. "It's a good thing to have a good friend, especially if a good friend is a catcher partner, it's so ideal!" After finishing speaking, Dad suddenly remembered something and asked, "Who is your destined rival?" "A rival of fate?" "Yes. For a person who devotes himself to sports, friends who fight side by side are important, and rivals who sharpen each other in battle are also indispensable. Don't you have such rivals?" "No." Yuma replied. Dad suddenly showed dissatisfaction, and then muttered to himself that he had to find one as soon as possible. Soon Dad found it for Yongma.This gentleman is the fourth hitter of the strong team in the neighboring county, and he is very popular in the professional baseball world.Dad showed Yuma the newspaper clipping with his portrait, and announced at the same time, "From today onwards, he is your destined rival." I thought to myself, how unlucky this contestant is to be regarded as a rival by himself . Shortly thereafter, Yongma and the opponent met in a practice match.The day before the game, my father rushed to make a banner that read "Fight the Destined Enemy!" overnight.However, this cheer did not work, Yong Ma was hit by two hits.This contestant must have never dreamed that the "destined rival" written on the banner refers to himself. Yongma got the jersey number of the head pitcher when he was a sophomore in high school, but he failed to enter Koshien after all.The closest time was in the summer of the third year of high school, when they reached the finals of the regional preliminaries, and their opponent was KK Academy, which my mother and I had recommended to Yuma.I went to cheer on my younger brother for the first time, and my father planned to use this opportunity to make an appearance in Koshien and attract the attention of professional baseball scouts.From the first half of the first inning to the second half of the ninth inning, he stood in the front row of the stands, with his hands on his hips and his legs wide open, maintaining the majestic posture of a King Kong warrior to watch the game.He exuded a terrifying aura all over his body, and his whole body seemed to spew fire.The match ended with Wuguguan High School's defeat. After a long time, Dad was still standing still.He asked for leave the next day, and it seemed that he was really hit hard.He didn't even watch the high school baseball trivia program that he had to watch in previous years. Not long after this game, Yongma was not nominated by any team. On the day of the draft, my father asked for leave on purpose, expecting the team to call, but after the dream of playing in Koshien was shattered, he fell again. Abyss of disappointment.Before that, he vaguely saw the name of Yongma in the news of "this year's high school draft candidates" in a sports newspaper, and he had high hopes for it. "Could it be that the professional baseball scout is blind?" Dad yelled all night while sipping tea and eating steamed stuffed buns.Incidentally, Dad doesn't know how to drink. "Forget it, since you didn't get selected, let's go to the team's selection test." Dad said to Yongma, "Take a breath to show the draft team, even if you are a test taker, what's the matter, many people later became People of the hour, for example..." Dad listed a list of well-known players from previous years. It was not difficult for Dad to give up this random idea, because the rules of the draft had changed at that time, the selection test was held before the draft, and those who passed the test had to be nominated at the draft to join the team. "Oh, is that so? I was negligent." Dad had an expression of regret from the bottom of his heart. As a result, Yuma went to university, and that university had also trained many professional baseball players.Originally, my father was not willing to wait another four years to participate in the next draft, and wanted Yongma to go directly to find a job, but this time Yongma insisted on his wish, and his friend Fanno also entered the same university. During college, Yongma joined the baseball club as a matter of course, but he didn't perform well for a long time.After he entered the senior year of college, he suddenly began to shine. As long as he pitched in the college league, the team was invincible, so he quickly became an ace pitcher. At the same time, the catcher Fanye has also attracted much attention.He has strong pitching power and a high batting rate, and he can maximize the power of Yongma, which is highly praised by the outside world. Shooting partners work together to win consecutive battles Similar reports began to appear sporadically in the corners of sports newspapers.Dad always smiled happily, cut it out and pasted it in the clipping book with great care. Finally, the day my father had been waiting for was getting closer and closer.In the draft waiting list predicted by the newspaper this time, there is indeed Yongma's name.I think Dad should have hope again in his heart, and feel that this time he is sure. Fanno is more likely to be nominated than Yongma.It is rumored that he will definitely be nominated for a high position, and may even be the first. However, something unexpected happened.Fanye refused to join professional baseball, and the reason turned out to be: "I want to go to the United States, the kingdom of freedom." This is beyond the understanding of baseball fans.He also said he didn't want to be bound by the small world of professional baseball. In fact, long before the draft, he had already flown to the United States alone, and had also gone through the formalities of suspension of school. This incident obviously hit Yongma quite hard, and he often thought about it alone. But the father didn't notice the strangeness of his son, and he still lived happily every day.Ever since a team called and said "Maybe a son will be nominated, please take care of me at that time", he has become even more complacent.In his mind, his son seemed to have become a professional baseball player, and he was busy practicing and expressing his thoughts to reporters.In fact, in the golf competition held not long ago, I won the third place for the first time, but my father didn't care when he heard the news, he just responded with "ah, is it?" The fateful day has finally arrived.Dad asked for leave from the company as usual, put the phone in front of his eyes, and sat waiting for the good news. I happened to be at home that day, so I decided to check the results.Yuma was bored in the house and did not come out, and his mother was cooking in the kitchen. The draft will start at 11:00 noon, but only the first and second nominees will be notified by phone immediately. Judging from the newspaper's predictions, it is impossible for Yongma to be nominated early.But Dad was still fidgeting anxiously, staring at the phone with his arms crossed.At 11:50, the phone rang once, but it was from my mother's friend, inviting her to go to the kimono exhibition together.When Mom answered the phone, Dad stood in front of her and repeatedly gestured for her to hang up. The phone never rang again.An hour, two hours passed, and there was still no movement.Because the silence was too long, Dad picked up the microphone several times and stuck it to his ear to check if there was anything wrong with the phone.I watched from the sidelines while practicing putting. Two and a half hours later, Dad got up and went to the toilet.As if waiting for this moment, the phone rang.I pick up the microphone. The other party was a man. After confirming my name, he introduced himself as the deputy director of the scouting department of a professional baseball team. I don't know when my father has rushed to my side, and he didn't even zip up his trousers.I handed him the microphone, and he took it with shaking hands. "H-Hello, the call has been changed. Yes, I am his father, father.... Huh? Sixth nomination? Oh, so... no no, how could it be... we are very happy... um, It's really..." While listening, I stepped upstairs and knocked on the door of Yuma's room.No one responded.I was puzzled, opened the door and saw that Yongma had gone out, and there was no one in the room. Something is wrong.Thinking of this, I looked around the room and found a note left on the desk.When I picked it up to read, there was a message from Yongma on it: I can't afford it, I can't forget Fanye no matter what.I've liked him since high school and he loves me too.It's been a joy to be around him because I've been able to continue playing baseball to this day because of him.I will spend a happy life with him in the United States, please don't come to me.Goodbye. brave horse Dad was still downstairs happily calling on the phone. I shudder at the thought of how he will react to this note.