3rd Base Fourth

The only volume of 3rd Base 4th.

3rd Base 4th (4番サード ,Yoban Sādo) is a one-volume shōnen sports manga by Gosho Aoyama. It was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday Special Edition between 1991-1993, lasting a total of six chapters. The premise revolves around the final tournament of high school baseball, the Koushien, which is played every year at the Hanshin Koushien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Japan.

Story

Shigeo Nagashima is third baseman on Kohnan High School's baseball team. However, he isn't a very good player until he happens to purchase a baseball bat from a strange little store. As he discovers, the bat is magical, whenever he steps up to the plate with money in his back pocket, the money vanishes and he always hits the ball. The more money he pays in this manner to the mysterious shopkeeper who sold him the bat, the farther the ball flies. A friend, Yutaka Enatsu, gives Shigeo a part-time job at her father's café to earn money for the baseball bat.

Kohnan manages to reach the Koushien, where they face Ougane High School for the championship title. On the opposing team is pitcher Kazuhisa Inao, whose baseball glove is also magical and can throw extremely powerful fastballs. He must also pay for this ability, but as the son of a wealthy business family, he can easily afford the cost. How can Shigeo, who must work hard at his part-time job for every yen, hope to compete?

Characters

Main

Picture	Name	Role
	Shigeo Nagashima	Main character of the story. Wields "The Bat of God".
	Kazuhisa Inao	Shigeo's baseball rival. Wields "The Glove of God".
	Yutaka Enatsu	Shigeo's best friend. Daughter of the owner of Café Kagetora.
	Mr. Enatsu	Father of Yutaka. Owner of Café Kagetora.

Supporting

Picture	Name	Role
60px	Mysterious Sports Equipment Shopkeeper	Owner of the sports equipment shop "Nazono".
60px	Udo	Captain of Kohnan High's baseball team. Wears jersey #1.
60px	Tsuchida	Player in Kohnan High's baseball team. Wears jersey #2.
	Eiichi Yamagishi	Player in Kohnan High's baseball team. Wears jersey #4.
60px	Kohnan High Baseball Coach	Coach of Kohnan High's baseball team.
60px	Yanagida	Player in Kohnan High's baseball team. Wears jersey #5.

Chapters

Vol.	Chapters	Japanese		English		Plot
		Release date	ISBN	Release date	ISBN
01	1-6	March 18, 1993 December 10, 1999 (Collected Short Stories) September 13, 2003 (Collected Short Stories reissue)	ISBN 4-09-123171-3 ISBN 4-09-121846-6 (Collected Short Stories) ISBN 4-09-193481-1 (Collected Short Stories reissue)

Trivia

Cameos

• One of the assistants of Gosho Aoyama, Eiichi Yamagishi, appears as a team member of Shigeo Nagashima in the Kohnan High School baseball club.

Crossover

Shigeo and Kazuhisa cameo in Detective Conan in Miracle at Koshien Ball Park! The Defiants Face the Dark Demon (2 Hour Special), the adaptation of manga files 445-449, the Koshien Bomber Case. Kohnan and Ougane are the two teams facing off for the Koshien title during the case. There is more time spent showing the baseball game and the players in the anime special than the manga arc.

The final match from 3rd Base 4th is also referenced as being "one year ago", but retconned it in the way that Kohnan High School lost it instead of winning like in their own series, wanting a rematch with Ohgane High School. This is probably due to the fact that it was played and won with magical sports equipment, rendering it non-canon to the world of Detective Conan, effectively placing 3rd Base 4th in a parallel world.

Café Kagetora in this series is named after Yaiba Kurogane's pet tiger Kagetora from Yaiba. The real Shigeo Nagashima, who is jokingly mentioned several times in comparison with Shigeo from this series, also appeared together with his son in chapter 11 of Magic Kaito.

Origins

The two main characters' names are from Shigeo Nagashima (長嶋 茂雄) and Kazuhisa Inao (稲尾 和久), both of whom are well-known Japanese baseball players in real life. Please note that there are some differences in kanji, though in both cases the pronunciation is the same. The real Shigeo Nagashima and his son Kazushige Nagashima appear in the Magic Kaito chapter The Boy Who Bet On the Ball collected in volume 2.

Collected Short Stories of Gosho Aoyama 3rd Base 4th

This book contains 3rd Base 4th chapters along with other Gosho Aoyama's short stories, including Nonchalant Lupin. It was released on December 10, 1999 under Shonen Sunday Books imprint, and later rereleased on September 13, 2003 under Shogakukan Bunko imprint.

Collected Short Stories of Gosho Aoyama 3rd Base 4th

Collected Short Stories of Gosho Aoyama 3rd Base 4th reissue

Cover in other countries

Hong Kong

People's Rep. of China (Collected Short Stories of Gosho Aoyama 3rd Base Fourth Volume)

Rep. of China (Taiwan)

Spain

Thailand (Collected Short Stories of Gosho Aoyama 3rd Base Fourth Volume)

Vietnam (Collected Short Stories of Gosho Aoyama 3rd Base Fourth Volume 1)

Vietnam (Collected Short Stories of Gosho Aoyama 3rd Base Fourth Volume 2)

See also

• Manga