The previously noisy venue suddenly fell silent, as journalists leaned in with their ears at attention. The old-school ones poised their ballpoint pens on their notebooks, while the younger ones had already started recording.
"After numerous sincere and in-depth negotiations with the player and his agent team, we have finally reached a consensus—respecting the strong desire of the player to challenge the world's premier baseball stage, we will officially initiate the process for Lin Guanglai to enter Major League Baseball following the end of the 2016 season."
Time seemed to freeze at that moment—without any warning, without any build-up, this "strategic nuclear bomb" that could shake the entire Japanese baseball scene was dropped by Goto Youkou in the calmest of tones.
