【One Outs】Psychological x Sports! A psychological perspective on the sports genre!!

One Outs is a Japanese psychological manga series written and illustrated by Shinobu Kaitani.

The manga series was serialized in Shueisha’s Seinen manga magazine ‘Business Jump’ from 1998 to 2006. Its chapters were compiled and published into 19 separate volumes. A sequel series by the name of “One Outs: Miwaku no All-Star-hen” was released from 2008 to 2009, and consists of only a single chapter. The manga series has a quite unique take on the stereotypical sports genre.

An anime television adaptation of the manga was released in 2008, with the 25 episode anime series adapted by Madhouse.

The story begins with the introduction of Hiromichi Kojima. He is a baseball enthusiast who despite his coworkers being on vacations, can be observed practicing his batting for baseball. He had previously won numerous major titles, including seven times as batting champion. But despite all of his efforts, he was unable to win the championship title, earning him the nickname “the unlucky batting prodigy.”

He is already 43 years old, and this season would most likely be his last. Following practice, his pitcher, Nakana, approaches him and compliments that he appears to be in good shape and that he might even get lucky this season. Kojima claims that they didn't lose the championship because of bad luck, but because they were lacking “a certain something”.

The next day, Nakane gets his finger injured and is unable to pitcher for Kojima. Given that Kojima's career is nearing its conclusion, Nakane and the trainer, Kinosaki, head out to find a replacement pitcher.

Unfortunately, they have no luck in finding any pitchers in the nearby grounds.

When they finally give up and start heading back, an American woman approaches them, saying that she knows a place where people play baseball, and that they might just find what they’re looking for. She leads them to a pitch where some boys are playing “One Outs”.

One Outs is a simplified one-on-one version of baseball, where the pitcher wins if he gets an out, otherwise the batter wins. The guys at the lot are seen gambling and betting on the players.

When the next pitcher steps in, Kinosaki has a strange sensation. Seeing everyone around them bet, Nakane also bets on the batter.

Surprisingly, the batter is struck out on the first pitch. Nakane is dissatisfied and continues to bet more and more. They lose $4000 in betting before they realize that the entire match was a scam. Kinosaki learns that everyone in the room is a con artist and confronts the woman. She claims that it is their own fault for betting and that they have to pay the money.

When Nakane hears this, he challenges to face the pitcher himself, betting the 4000$ that they had just lost. The pitcher claims that the award is insufficient and not worth his time. He says he'll accept the bet if they play for 40,000 dollars instead.

To add insult to injury, he claims that if Nakane merely manages to graze the ball, he will accept it as his own loss.

Kinosaki knew that there was something special about this guy from the moment he saw him. Will they accept the bet or pay the $4000 debt? Who is this pitcher?