Baseball: A Two-Way Player

After the first game against the Houston Astros, Lin Guanglai was immediately pulled to the sidelines—a massive crowd of media surrounded him, each one fighting to get to the front, hoping to extract some words from him.

"Lin, congratulations on your opening victory! Hitting four home runs in the first game of the new season, it's an incredible performance in your debut as a full-time batter, what do you have to say about that?"

At the forefront of the crowd, a journalist from Major League Baseball took the prime spot and stuffed the microphone in front of Lin Guanglai, asking him this question.

Lin Guanglai pondered for a moment before responding, "After last season's results, everyone in the team felt very disappointed, but it also strengthened our determination to make a comeback this season—let today's game be a gift to the Yankees fans, and I hope they'll have more confidence in this new season after seeing this game."

"Absolutely—for heaven's sake, we are going to charge into the championship again and win!" At the fan bar in New York, Yankees fans raised their glasses again, talking to themselves as they watched Lin Guanglai on the television screen.

Led by the fan leader, every Yankee fan present raised their glasses in unison, cheering, "This one for Lin, for our upcoming new season—Long Live the Yankees!"

At Minute Maid Park, reporters continued to encircle Lin Guanglai: "Lin, because of the TJ surgery, you cannot pitch this season, what are your expectations and goals as a pure batter for this season?"

This question is one that countless experts, media, and fans are very concerned about, since, in most people's eyes, Lin Guanglai's value as a baseball player is predominantly in his role as a pitcher.

As a batter, in his previous 7-year Major League career, Lin Guanglai has "only" claimed two Silver Slugger Awards and one Hank Aaron Award, although these achievements would overwhelm most batters, compared to the five gleaming Cy Young trophies in his trophy room, these accolades simply don't measure up.

It's exactly for this reason that when the Yankees and Lin Guanglai himself announced he would be batting full-time this season, there was considerable skepticism from the outside world—a Lin Guanglai who lost his pitching ability and doesn't go on field for defense, can he truly deliver an offensive performance worthy of his staggering contract with an average annual salary of 73 million US Dollars?

Who would have thought that with just the first game of the season, Lin Guanglai would smack them in the face with his performance on the field—scoring four home runs in a single game, achieving this feat in a single match where fewer than 20 people in the entire Major League history have done, and yet Lin Guanglai accomplished it on the opening day of the 2024 season.

The Astros used five pitchers in relay today, except for one who got KO'ed before even facing Lin Guanglai, the remaining four were all struck by Lin Guanglai with a major hit.

This performance is enough to astonish this group of media, at least it proves that Lin Guanglai, at full swing, can still make a huge impact on offense; if this form keeps up, breaking the season 60-home-run mark seems highly probable.

Lin Guanglai certainly knew what the reporters wanted to hear, nothing more than hoping he would "talk big," contributing some arrogant remarks worthy of taking the headlines.

If it were a few years ago, Lin Guanglai might have catered to their wishes, but this season he does not intend to do so:

"It's only the first game of the season, this is really no big deal at all. Hitting has always been extremely unstable, maybe today I hit four homers in a single game, and in the following series, I won't even get a single hit... The season is still very long, this question should at least wait until September?"

To such a nearly evasive answer, the reporters were unsatisfied; but Lin Guanglai didn't give them the chance to further question, waving at his nearby teammates, he found a reason to leave swiftly, leaving this heap of reporters staring at each other in confusion.

China has this saying, "Silent wealth brings great fortune," and this is Lin Guanglai's approach now: He won't boast about his entire season's goals at the very start, doing so would only attract undue attention and even resentment from other players, easily landing in the crosshairs.

Take a recent example: In the 2022 season of Nippon Professional Baseball, the 22-year-old genius batter Munetaka Murakami tied Wang Zhenzhi's single-season 55-home-run record with 15 games left, only 5 homers away from the historical number one, Valentine.

Considering at the time he held a triple crown and his batting average was a whopping .337, it seemed breaking the record was just a matter of time—including Nippon Professional Baseball officials, Yakult Swallows, and much of the Japanese media started relevant promotional activities early.

Perhaps such behavior annoyed the opponents, in the following games, many opponents preferred to lose matches and let others hit freely, denying Munetaka Murakami even a tiny chance to strike out;

Under the distinct targeting, Munetaka Murakami himself fell into an unprecedented slump at this critical moment, achieving only 2 hits across 10 consecutive matches, nearly forfeiting his triple crown title; it wasn't until the last inning of the final game of the season that he seized the opportunity to surpass Wang Zhenzhi.