I'm not ever going to be a baseball fan, tbh. I am a football (soccer) person in general and I don't feel like it matters too much to my enjoyment of the series to not have the detail you do for this sport. I've watched/followed football anime but knowing much more about how the game works hasn't really impacted how much I like the series - it's still on the characters not the technique for me personally so I don't care so much if there are some weird unbelievable sporting moments interspersed with stuff that might actually happen in a game xD. I have watched a few baseball games on TV (they're on at a silly time here, ><) in the past but I'm not engaged with it. I guess that makes me odd :D

Instead of paying a lot of attention to stats, pitch styles etc, I'm paying it more to the character nuances. I feel like there's a ton of subtle development for most of the key characters which is kind of what I like since it raises questions and draws threads together. The problem I have with Eijun, bringing it back to the topic, isn't whether he is ace or not, but how often he shouts annoying things about/at the other players xD. I guess that demonstrates the difference of approach. A lot of really expositional development is no fun, tiny hints are better sometimes as you can easily bring them together to build a bigger picture. But Eijun yelling is just a bit too in your face for me about his character traits xD. I feel like in a sports series he's going to become the ace because if the mangaka gets to write to the end, the main character generally triumphs - but what's nice about this one is the plethora of other characters that are also relevant and fleshed out enough to care about them. (I said Miyuki is my favourite, Kuramochi and Harucchi are probably my others).

We could talk a whole lot about use of language, since so many things impact our understanding of the dialogue - both other people's translations and our own of the original Japanese in context with knowledge of the game or whatever else. That would be really off topic though xd. I am assuming since you mentioned 絶対的なエースearlier that like me you follow it in Japanese, but I've seen people arguing about whether a particular translated version conveys unfair bias towards Furuya or whatever by the way the translator chose to phrase it >< Such a can of worms...

Yeah, everyone has their favorite sport. I'm not suggesting you should try to like the sport but I usually suggest people to, if they could, spend a little time learning about the game through watching highlights or anything, you don't need to have to watch the entire game (although I do really suggest you watch Koshien live coverage available on Asahi Shimbun's website, it's a lot of fun and since Terajima watches Koshien as well so you could see what kind of things he picked up that year) so people can explore more about the world depicted in Daiya no Ace. Although again, that's totally your choice.

As for Sawamura interaction, I really don't mind it. Guys tend to be very abbrasive and dumb at that age, they say a lot of dumb things, be it Miyuki, Zono, Furuya, Sawamura or Okumura. Sawamura is inherently very loud mouth so I can see how he could appear as annoying to people, I'm not going to even bother defend that, he has it coming. Although I look at him from the positive side, that he has the guts to repent and apologize for things he said when he realized it was bad and not every character in-universe has that in them, in fact most of them doesn't. I like Sawamura because he really owns up to his actions instead of sweeping it under the carpet or act like there should not be consequences to their action. In addition, it's sort of both a blessing and a curse for Sawamura that Terajima has said that Sawamura being loud is a character trait that really defines Sawamura to him and that he's unlikely to ever going to change that so if you can't stand it, it's unfortunately there to stay although with that said I do want to add a bit of spoiler that Sawamura has matured very quickly after becoming the Ace, things that he was flipping out about or being loud about in protest previously, now he takes that with a smile. We don't know how far Terajima is going to change Sawamura but Sawamura 2.0 is already there and it's an encourging development. That's also why I like Asou so much more in Act 2 after he's realized how much of a douche he's been and it's time for him to stop just the pep talks and start to walk the walk as well.

As for translation, I don't take anything regarding to the technical aspects of the game from another translation and I'll look at it in its original form and the context related to come to my understanding of its meaning. As for the translation of the dialogues and such, there are a lot of variants, additional words added in attempt to clarify the meaning and context of the dialogues as you know, Japanese at times can be 曖昧/ambigous and they leave a lot to interpretation. Complaining about a translator's interpretation or their translating style is not sensible especially if you can't even read the original text so it's not a conversation I would usually care to join.

Don;t get me wrong, I like Eijun a lot too. He has a lot of real positives to his character and it's not really him being loud overall that bothers me, that's just who he is. It's certain loud moments that just make me wince because he's annoying the other characters and embarrassing himself at the same time. The 偉そうに moments where he comments uninvited on things like the performances of the others, and particularly Haruichi. Although it amuses me that he uses tameguchi particularly with Miyuki, so it's not all the time.  If he didn't yell those things he would probably make my top 5 characters, but there we are. He DOES have the ability to reflect on his errors and behaviours though, which is probably his real strength in becoming the Ace.

Personality wise in a lot of ways I find Furuya less annoying even though he's a lot less popular with the fandom - but I generally like them both the same because one needs the other for most of the development. Their strengths and weaknesses balance each other out so it's hard to pick one over the other (to me). It's one reason why I think it's a shame only one of them can wear the ace number as I feel they've helped to build each other.

They do all pretty much say stupid things at times, but that;s fine. It's the balance of it that's a problem for me. Raichi's constant laughing is also annoying to me. It's just those little things like that. Stuff the others say don't really annoy me. Even if they are idiot things, which from time to time they are.

Asou is a really interesting call actually, because he kind of appears almost from nowhere around the time of the new team (he's in the background before but you don't really notice). He's another background character you feel is slowly being fleshed out even to the point I've read up to. I'm glad he's also shaving off his more annoying edges. There are a few like this too - Yamaguchi, Higasa, for example. Also, one that really caught my attention is Shirasu because right at the start Eijun can't even remember his name, and yet he's such a core character to the team both in play and in terms of his personality. It's interesting that it's Shirasu who Kuramochi trusts with his fears about Miyuki being injured, because Zono (much as I like Zono) is a shade indelicate about discreet stuff. It shows how important even at that point Shirasu is to the dynamic of the team overall, even though he's also been gradually developed through his play to that point in the new team.

It would be interesting to see actual Koushien stuff. Although in another way I feel like because I'm such a detail nerd, if I understand more about it and spot the mistakes you mentioned, it might drive me nuts. xD. But the technical aspects of it are probably less important to me than the character development side of things. I'm not remotely interested in American baseball, which is all that gets aired in my country, but any attempts I've made in the past to watch Japanese stuff has been blocked by my region. If and when I go back to Japan I may try and visit the place directly...just to see it in context.

The translation aspect interests me as I used to translate manga in another community (or I should say retranslate it because the scanlations were so poor). I learned a lot then about how fast and loose people are with meanings and how it can create misconceptions. In that fandom one huge misconception was created by a scanlation group translating a Chinese version, not the Japanese raw, and even at the end of the manga series there were people who still didn't accept that that was a mistake and got angry with the mangaka for what they saw as him betraying their expectations. Tricky stuff. One reason I won't read manga in English, since I don't need to, and when it's a popular series people rush and make mistakes which then have bigger implications. I saw a whole argument over cutters and forkballs and another one over whether a particular scanlation made x character sound too pro-Furuya compared with the dialogue...so it's clearly a problem here too. I think it's fine to be aware that there can be mistakes in the translation, even if you can't read the original Japanese. The most annoying people are the ones who tell you the scanlations are right because they like them better :P even when they can't verify it for sure.  As you say, Japanese is subtle and a lot is conveyed by implication, so a perfect translation isn't really possible (it's harder to write down absolute accurate English even if you totally are confident of the Japanese nuance). But when scanlation groups translate from a chinese translation or something, gaps do appear and I don't think it's a problem to question those or ask people to verify.

To be honest, I feel as though the rivalry between Furuya and Sawamura is irritating. Furuya is a power pitcher his arsenal includes a heavy fastball that rises, splitter and forkball. He tries and often imitates what Eijun can do. Case in point, he's said on different occasions that he never thought he was better than Sawamura, but then in some of his reflections he thinks about Sawamura catching up and being "right behind me now" or when Sawamura pitched well in the second act practice matches during the spring "no you can compete with me". Honestly he has been feeling superior over Sawamura since day one and is jealous of his stamina, talent (because eijun has an open ended amount of potential and is a novice prodigy in his own right as seen with his control and ability to paint the corners, have multiple breaking balls, constant improvement, optimism, fielding, bunt master etc.). Coach O is right when he says Sawamura is on the team to fuel Furuya, however, Furuya is arrogant and selfish, plays baseball for himself and honestly, Kataoka goes easy on him Compared to how he treated and with the team continues to treat Sawamura. Letting Furuya continue to pitch bad games, but pulling Sawamura out immediately if something goes wrong and not giving him other chances for a while afterwards. Supressing Sawamura while encouraging Furuya. Look at the breaking ball arc, Furuya was being arrogant in having the Ace # despite not recognizing or trusting his team, having bad games where Eijun and Nori have to relieve him, yet he still gets the credit. Take a look at the times Eijun has asked to continue pitching, but then Kataoka gives the last inning to Furuya for his glory and building of his pride while Sawamuras confidence and trust takes a hit. Its so frustrating that he is always suppressed and told to walk on solid ground now where as we turn around and the Furuya is encouraged to rise up despite being negligent of his body, his health and training. The ankle, his back, and even telling reporters "I lost the game" after Sawamura was the saving grace of the team for stopping Ichidai 3rds momentum , but the rest of the team failed to score. And its bs that instead of truly being the ace when he does finally get the number, he still has Furuya attached to him and still isnt truly acknowledged. I truly hope that salmuera develops even more throughout the series that were able to see a good third year for them, see where the senpais are in life, bring back a little bit more I've tetsu and Chris and Masuko, Miyauchi, Sakai ,Ryouke, Jun and Tanba and when Sawamuras year becomes 3rd years how they develop and move forward. Since the anime have caught up to the manga, which is really frustrating because the manga has been running for so long an anime season start every 2 years, I honestly think this will be some great content for Filler episodes to keep the momentum and the fan base going for the show. I'd like to see sawamura get more breaking balls, pitch faster, become an inside pitch batting specialist to add to his list of achievements as a baseball player and become more well-rounded. It wouldn't hurt to see a little bit more of his old team, maybe plots where we're following their team and wakana. There's definitely a smidgen of a love Ark in there, so that needs to be brought out. It wouldn't hurt to see OVA episodes about other characters and about sawamura going home to visit and more of a backstory for furuya

I would love to see an ark where sawamura gets his attitude back. Much like the first episodes and chapters where he would step up to people who talk down on him and his teammates. Thinking about his last Junior High game and his meeting with Azuma. Coach O has put him down and continuously said that both boys being on the same team Sawamura will never be the best pitcher and that he's a stimulant for Furuya growth. I want salamura to grow a little bit taller because from what we've seen is that both his dad and grandfather are on the taller side, not to say I want him to be at tallest Furuya or taller because growth pains could possibly hinder his flexibility and unique form as a pitcher, but he needs to grow and also become even more mature. His comedic relief is good sometimes, his personality is great, but I would love to see him be selfish for once, expand upon the attitude that he had with the team and with Amahisa, take some time for himself independently and apart from Seido, Karaoke, Furuya and Miyuki. He honestly is suppressed by all of them. Maybe an arc where he takes time off from the team, gets selected for an ALL JAPAN team and special training camp, or an outside mentor steps in, hell, even doing some training with Chris and Animal.  Because Furuya always eavesdrop, takes hint and pointers that are meant for Sawamura, tries to mimic him to keep him off the mound. I have a hard time seeing it as a rivalry when Sawamura is encouraging, takes a lot of hits to his pride and confidence. I want to see scouts coming after Sawamura, for him to develop his arsenal of change ups and breaking balls, learn new ones-maybe he'll achieve finger dexterity for even more crucial pitches, bat better and field better. Honestly most games show Furuya as the main attraction and he does get the most play time. but have more faith in Eijun. This could be a turning point for the series . though the previous comment is mine as well. I think this series could expand and be on par with a series like Naruto. 

adding on to my previous 2 comments ⬆️ Sawamura needs to achieve more speed and velocity. Maybe bulk up a little more with the help of Miyauchi to add to his flexible style and maybe ignore Furuya as a rival and focus straight ahead. He's being limited to Seido baseball, but could definitely become a coach or join a college team or pros after hs.-the joy

I have dropped this manga since years ago because of this issue. I think reading the discussion nothing change much?? Hmm.... I better read a doujinshi of Sawamura getting the spotlight he deserves intead of reading its origional story. 

stfu

I hate the fact that sawamura keeps making mistakes, He finally becomes ace, and now his first game is a series of walks and balls which gets him taken off the mound. Like wtf, show some character development. I absolutely hate this anime for how they keep setting him back. It is frustratingly slow. I havent' seen that fiesty attitude of his since the first few episodes. Everytime he does display it, it is leads to his detriment. Smh, I'm sick of the slow pacing of each episode as well. There was a point in the summer tournament where only 1 inning would be finished in an episode, making each inning extremely long and dragged out. Making it even more frustrating having sawamura keep begging throughout the anime to be put on the mound. Fuck this anime. I'm so done with it.