Play Ball

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akio Chiba. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1973 to 1978, with its chapters collected in twenty-two tankōbon volumes. The manga was adapted into a two-season anime television series co-produced by Eiken and Magic Bus, which aired on the anime satellite television network Animax from July to September 2005 (1st season) and from January to March 2006 (2nd season). The series was released concurrently with Chiba's other major work, Captain, the other series for which he won the 22nd Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 1977. Plot After fracturing a finger in a junior high school game, Takao Taniguchi is unable to play baseball. After entering Sumitani High School, he is constantly watching the baseball club even though he is unable to play. He catches the eye of the captain of the soccer club, and while he still has lingering hopes of joining the baseball club, he decides to join the soccer club. While he's a complete beginner, Taniguchi developed a strong spirit of hard work while in junior high school and his new teammates begin to see his potential. While he focuses all of his energy on soccer, he is unable to forget his youthful zeal for baseball and he begins umpiring baseball games in secret.