I bought this collection of Adachi's various one-chapter baseball comics earlier this year. It consists of 5 stories, all revolving around baseball to varying degrees.
"Varying" is the load-bearing word here. "Relief" takes place during a game for the chance to go to Koshien, and revolves around Hama, the quiet, glasses-wearing benchwarmer, who takes abuse repeatedly from Masuyama, team ace and clean-up hitter. Masuyama even made Hama ask a particular pretty girl to attend the game (that's her up there), who turns out to be the head coach's niece. She turns out to have a crush on Hama, who we learn used to be team ace and cleanup hitter in junior high, but was a temperamental dick who attacked a teammate and walked away from baseball after an elbow injury, until his catcher (Masuyama) talked him into joining as a pinch-runner. Basically, the coach wants his niece to be happy, and Masuyama wants Hama to stop feeling so guilty about letting his temper slip and start playing ball again for real.
On the other hand, in "Full Count" Honma was tricked into embezzling from his company to help a friend who claimed to need money. The friend's lady is visiting Kitagawa to confirm she won a lottery, then calls the thief to come and rob Kitagawa. Except Honma got there when no one was home and hid in the closet, then called some Yakuza who previously visited him looking for the friend. Baseball is only involved in that Kitagawa has a game involving their old alma mater (playing for the chance to go to Koshien, natch) playing on TV.
In most stories there's a girl. Always with dark hair, sometimes hanging straight to her shoulders, other times in a pixie cut. She's got a crush on a ballplayer, or former ballplayer, usually an unassuming-looking guy. Shorter than his teammates, kind of skinny. Maybe he wears glasses and rides the bench. Maybe he was a good fielder who couldn't hit a lick. He's almost always oblivious to the girl's feelings.
Sometimes there's another girl. Lighter-colored hair, always down to her shoulders. Prominent lips, usually loud, conceited, or in the case of the lady in "Full Count," a criminal. Usually interested in attracting the attention of the star player, hoping his celebrity gives her a cushy life.
There's usually a star player who acts like a dick, but turns out to be OK. Masuyama seems abusive, but really just recognizes Hama's talent and doesn't want him to give up on baseball. In "Over the Fence", Hachijima is a star slugger and third baseman. He's not the focus of any romance - in fact, it's the one story in the collection where the boy, the team captain, pines after a girl oblivious to his interest - but Hachijima is incredibly contrary, doing the opposite of whatever anyone tells him. Tell him he's taken enough batting practice, he'll keep swinging. Tell him to get out there and take some grounders, he'll leave the field entirely. There's a nice twist I won't spoil, as it turns out, contrary or not, Hachijima is trying to do right by people in his own, infuriating, manner.
Even in stories that focus more heavily on baseball, the actual game is relegated to a few pages. Adachi takes his usual approach of smaller panels that break up the game into distinct actions and reactions. A batter trying to avoid a wild pitch. The pitcher's surprised expression. Two panels of runners on base. An intense coach. That sort of thing. The panels are usually trapezoidal or a triangle, leaning or pointing, offering a sense of motion, or maybe a shift in momentum.
The conversation portions are static in layout. Rectangles and squares, arranged in straightforward rows. Starting with a larger panel to establish which characters are talking (or arguing), then shifting to smaller panels focusing on individual faces.
There are also 6 shorter gag strips. Here's Adachi finding ways to avoid work! Here's a gag about Detective Fivepages, trying to solve the mystery of the missing landmarks in just 5 pages! (It was the author's laziness.) One of Adachi's editors or assistants drugs his coffee and draws a goofy baseball strip of their own! I didn't laugh, but I guess they make a nice breather from teen melodrama.
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