Gurazeni

Bonda Natsunosuke is an 18 million yen-a-year middle relief pitcher for the Jingu Spiders. Highly conscious of his limited time in the sport and obsessed with earning enough for retirement, Bonda faces a number of tricky situations which could help or hurt his bottom line.

Bonda's coach has noticed a fatal flaw in his pitching style: He can only strike out players who make less money than he does! Later, Bonda attempts to help his best friend, a Spiders starting pitcher, earn his first win of the season.

Tokunaga decides to set a quota for his friends from Yamanashi Prefecture: within the next four games, Ohno needs to hit four home runs, and Bonda needs to get his ERA under 3. Can the two meet the difficult challenge and get their futures back on track?

Bonda must deal with a rematch against 41-year-old superstar Doterai, whom Bonda took out of the game the year before with a hit-by-pitch. Later, he gains an admirer when practicing soccer moves outside of the stadium.

A manga artist visits the stadium, hoping to use Bonda's life as reference for a baseball manga. However, when Bonda receives the magazine containing the artist's new work, he discovers that the artist has played it "safe."

While out on the town one night, Bonda runs into Sekiya, a hard-partying player who makes ten times Bonda's own salary. After refusing the man's hospitality, will he be able to strike him out the next day?