Shinouka’s great sacrifice, Mihashi’s secret training, faded #1, when stage moms unite, Nishiura’s fighting spirit, cheering squad uniform and recruits, Hamada and little league, collecting Tosei data, morning of the first round game, and find out how twins confuse Mihashi in…

Ookiku Furikabutte 13 - Summer’s Big Start 「夏大開始」

An exhausted Shinouka slowly makes her way into the field. She hands the Tosei data she worked so hard to collect, before succumbing into a deep sleep in Momoe’s arms. Shortly, Momoe, the Nishiura coach, calls Abe and Hanai to analyze the data with her and instructs Tajima to work the bullpen. Abe tells a fidgeting Mihashi that Tajima will do fine, since it is only for practice. Mihashi, however, is not worried over that. He runs to get a block of wood and shows that he is now able to do his wind up perfectly on top of it. Rather than being praised, Abe asks him instead if this is what he has been doing after their late night practices. Mihashi’s head gets grinded after answering that he only does it during lunch breaks at school.

Mihashi sulks, thinking that Abe is angry with him. Tajima dismisses that idea because to him Abe did not sound angry at all. After seeing that the #1 on Mihashi’s uniform is starting to fade, Tajima volunteers to fix it. This gesture cheers Mihashi up. He expresses his thanks to Tajima, and both go off happily to practice.

The eve before the tournament opening, Hanai’s mother phones Mihashi’s mother to have a little chitchat. Momentarily, a fatigued Mihashi struggles to make his way to the bath. With his mom still busy talking on the phone, Mihashi’s plea for dinner is left unheard. The mothers wind up their conversation after agreeing to meet the next day. Finding Mihashi fast asleep, his mother goes to tend to more pressing matters—charging the battery of their video camera.

It is the opening day of the Summer Tournament. Shinouka meets up with a friend in the bleachers. After their small talk on Shinouka’s darker complexion and about the Nishiura boys, the speakers start to blare—the opening ceremony is about to start!

Outside the stadium, the different teams prepare themselves for the parade. Tajima wonders where Tosei is, since they should be assembling behind them. Izumi explains that normally that would be the case. However, since Tosei was last year’s champions, they are already inside the stadium at front and center.

After spotting the ace of another team, Mihashi looks at his own #1 with pride. He looks again and sees the same person, but his #1 has seemingly changed to #2. Mihashi, with a panic, takes off his jersey to make sure that the #1 on his back is still there. His panic caused quite a stir. He did not notice that he was looking at twins, Ryou and Aoi, on separate occasions.

Waiting for their turn, Tajima is pleasantly surprised to find out that Mihashi is not nervous. With Hanai’s signal, the Nishiura team starts counting as they march confidently into the field.

After the ceremony, Momoe exchanges introductions with Hanai and Mihashi’s mother. Momoe reveals that Hanai is very responsible and has done a lot to help her as coach. Hanai’s mother reveals that her son was also team captain during middle school. Mihashi’s mother asks about his son and confesses that she was not able to catch any of his games during middle school. Momoe tells her that Mihashi is really good and that from this point on, there will be many chances to see him in action. The mothers express their thanks and inform Momoe that they will be rounding up the other parents and will help with the snacks as well.

With the sun setting, Hamada and two others make their way to the baseball field. As soon as Hamada steps into the field, Tajima greets him and compliments him on his uniform. Hamada proceeds to introduce the two new members of the cheering squad, who were his classmates last year. In addition, he informs that 200 more people have agreed to come and cheer for them tomorrow.

Izumi wonders if Hamada does not feel warm wearing the uniform. Hamada admits that it does warm, but it looks good, and it also conceals his elbow. This makes Hanai rather curious. Hamada confesses to have an injury called the “little league elbow”. Izumi adds that though it is generally curable, Hamada continued to play with it until middle school. If he kept on seriously playing, he would have needed to go to the doctor everyday.

Hanai questions whether Hamada would be satisfied just cheering from the sidelines. He reflects on how much Hamada has contributed to the team. He salutes his efforts and with all earnestness, asks him to do his best to cheer for the team.

Kajiyama and Umehara chide Hamada for fooling Hanai and for pinning his hopes on them. Hamada denies it. They also ask if Nishiura knows the reason why Hamada repeated a year. Hamada simply replies that he is grateful that both of them agreed to join the squad.

Abe scolds Mihashi for not familiarizing himself with the Tosei batters, even though the data was given to him a week ago. Abe hands Mihashi the data sheet for him to study. Suddenly, Abe kicks a bench nearby and frightens a sleepy Mihashi. Before Abe could get into another round of scolding, Mihashi defends that since Abe is around, all he needs to do is just throw. There is no need for him to know about the batters. Furthermore, Mihashi trusts in Abe’s judgment. Although he is happy that Mihashi trusts him, Abe also understands the burden and responsibility that comes with that trust.

In the Tosei camp, Kazuki calls it a day. He takes this chance to thank Junta for working with him in the battery. He also asks for all the team’s help in tomorrow’s match.

Thoughts

I apologize for the long delay. I took a week off from work and went on vacation to celebrate my birthday. I’ve been back 2 weeks now, though I did not get to work right away on the summaries. I am jump starting myself again with this post. So, I am anticipating for everyone to keep on commenting and sharing your insights on this fantastic series. Yoroshiku ne!

This was another feel-good episode. I really liked how Tajima cheered up Mihashi. Their scene together where Tajima was darkening the faded #1 on Mihashi’s jersey was nice. Mihashi and Hanai’s mom were fun to watch. I really appreciate how the story incorporates players’ family dynamics into the anime. I know my mom is quite the stage mother as well. She really is our (me and my siblings’) biggest fan.

It was fun watching Hamada strut his stuff. Izumi and Hamada have such a great chemistry. I loved watching them take shots at each other. Who didn’t like the head butt? That was priceless.

Little League Elbow

Little League Elbow is a common injury among young pitchers. This happens when a player overexerts himself too much by throwing too many pitches or throwing them the wrong way. Since the muscles and bones are still heavily developing at this stage of a player’s life, doctors strongly urge parents to not put too much pressure on a budding baseball player.

Generally, one can easily recover from this condition through ample rest and physical therapy. In Hamada’s case, since he continued to play during middle school, he never gave his arm a chance to recover. I believe that because of this, that he can no longer recover from his injury.

Again, another round of applause to Asa Higuchi for injecting issues like these subtly into the series. She sprinkles these interesting baseball tidbits that causes you to delve deeper and allowing you to taste other aspects of baseball.

Further reading:
Little League Elbow Injuries @ Dental and Health Articles
Little League Elbow @ Main Line Health Library
Little League Elbow @ ESPN Training Room
Little League Elbow: Is Your Child At Risk? @ Medical News Today

BL Moments

• Tajima cheering up Mihashi
• Izumi x Hamada teasing
• Abe being happy about being trusted by Mihashi

Episode 14 - Fight! 「挑め！」