I’m beginning to wonder if I’m watching Oofuri at times with this series. At the very least Production I.G. appears not to have gotten the memo from Jimmy Dugan, because there’s plenty of tears in Moshidara.

Today’s focus is on “top management” – your basic division of labor among the management team – personnel evaluation and doing good for society. As it turns out, having 32 first-years signs up as members of the baseball team isn’t so good for the baseball team, and it certainly isn’t good for all those other clubs who can’t find any new members as a result. It’s Minami’s job as the H.R. part of Top Management to figure out who stays, and who goes.

All of this is in preparation for the summer tournament. Hoshide steps down as captain, not a surprise since he’d expressed his desire to – but the replacement is a surprise. It’s Nikai, who I didn’t know was actually still a playing member of the team (and is that romantic chemistry I sense developing between he and Minami? Or is everyone in the case, male and female, interested in Yuki?). The speedy left fielder gets his spot taken by one of the rookies but everyone else in the starting lineup is the same, and it looks as if the no-ball, no-bunt strategy is going to be tested in real competition. As a lifelong baseball junkie I’m skeptical, but I’m curious to see if the series can make it plausibly successful.