In a string of seventeen games after he was promoted to the first team on June 14, he smacked ten home runs, drove in eighteen runs, and batted .397, making him the darling of sports fans around the country.

Spurred by Lu's sensational play, the Giants charged right up to the top of the Central League, one of Japan's two major professional leagues.

Unfortunately, in a game on July 7 in Hokkaido against Chunichi Dragons, the remarkable right fielder injured his knee chasing a line drive into the fence. From then on it was slump city.

In August Lu scored just two homers, sank to a .241 batting average, and went hitless in the All Star game. By the end of September his average had dropped to .206 and he was benched.

Has a brilliant star plummeted to earth? Just what went wrong?

Q: What are your feelings now that this year's season is almost over?

A: I just hope it'll get over with soon, because I haven't been hitting well lately. All I hope now is that the season will end quickly so I can start over again next year.

Q: How do you look back on your entire season?

A: I was hitting pretty good while I was on the B squad, but I still felt like I had a ways to go. I never thought I would do as well as I did when I made the first team. That gave me a lot of confidence, and even though I didn't hit well during the second half of the season I've still got confidence. How well you hit is hard to control. It's affected by a lot of things, like physical conditioning, a change in your batting stance, and so on.

Q: Did your injury in Hokkaido have anything to do with it?

A: It sure did. I haven't been able to get going again ever since. Sometimes I think there's got to be a reason for it, only I just don't know why. I was talking last week with the trainer for the B team, and he said there's always a reason for poor hitting, whether it's your stance, your timing, or an injury . . . I think my reason is the injury.

Q: It doesn't affect you any more, does it?

A: The knee's not a problem, but now my waist is sore.

Q: Many people think you look a lot different now at the plate than you did when you first joined the A team--like you're worried and under a lot of pressure.

A:I feel pressure for any game, I think--it's only a matter of how much. Sometimes it comes from myself and sometimes from other people.

The Giants have more fans than other teams and so everybody feels more pressure, from the players to the manager, to the coaches. For the Giants, it's like you're always supposed to win. I feel less pressure now than before, because when we had hopes for the pennant everybody would get really down whenever we lost. Now that there's almost no chance we all just do our best, and that's it.

Q: Sports commentators and the public have given you a lot of suggestions about your slump. What's your view?

A:I am grateful for the suggestions, but they can't all be put into practice.

I think it's hard for most people to realize, but you can know very well that a suggestion's correct, you can know what the problem is, and you can control it in practice--but you can't control during a game.

I think every player is the same that way; only some are quicker than others. Some players pick things up right away. Others you tell a dozen times and they still can't change. My situation now is, practice is one thing, but I can't control it during a game.

Q: A lot of people think you're afraid of inside pitches, and one commentator said you should just deal with them naturally instead of being so nervous. What do you think?

A: Actually I'm not afraid of inside balls. It's just that I've been hit by them too many times. [Note: Lu has been struck three or four times this season.] I think everybody's like that. After you've been hit you feel some anxiety. You flinch when you see an inside pitch, and you wind up hitting poorly.

Of course it's right to say I shouldn't be so nervous. But when you see a pitch coming right at you, you can't help it.

Q: It sounds like you're pretty sensitive to what the public thinks. Does it affect you?

A: I think it must! I mentioned it to some friends once, like Lin Hua-wei, [a former member of the R.O.C. team who played amateur baseball in Japan, and the suggestion he gave me was not to think about it if I was hitting poorly, and not to think about what people say. But it's tough.

My teammate Warren Cromartie once said something simple but true. Somebody asked him, "My hitting's been lousy lately. What should I do?" And he said, "Don't worry. It's a long season." A player's career isn't a single game or a single season. That's what I tell myself. I just hope to be as good a player as I possibly can.

[Picture Caption]

Earning applause at the Giants' home stadium is a goal of Lu's career. (photo courtesy of Japan's Baseball Weekly)

Has Lu got a lot on his mind?

The poster on the wall shows baseball great Wang Chen-chih, Lu's childhood hero. The picture was taken in the Giants' B squad dormitory on the outskirts of Tokyo.

Has Lu got a lot on his mind?

The poster on the wall shows baseball great Wang Chen-chih, Lu's childhood hero. The picture was taken in the Giants' B squad dormitory on the outskirts of Tokyo.