Short spin off

why would he hate eijun he literally drew an entire manga about him

haven't seen the actual interview so don't quote me on this, but i read somewhere when he was asked why he didn't make furuya the mc instead tj's reply had been that he should've done that.. so i do believe he hates eijun to some degree

im a certified furuya hater but you can really tell at times that the author prefers him, because nowhere in the story is Furuya skilled or reliable but everyone treats him like he is even though it’s not shown. i think the author likes how flashy Furuya is. it makes me sad because there’s so much to explore in Sawamuras character and future in baseball… but the author said he couldn’t imagine how to continue a story where Sawamura kept on being the main character. (it also makes me a bit sad because Furuya could have been more interesting if given more space and development but he just treats Sawamura roughly and isn’t given any actual development but at the very end)

i don't hate furuya though i dislike his attitude sometimes, but i do agree with you that majority of the characters favored furuya for more than half of the story when both him and eijun sucks at the beginning while both having immense potential that everyone clocked from the start.. the push and pull between them had been entertaining, how they were treated by the team was what irked me, cause everyone focused so much on furuya while eijun was entrusted solely to chris (who has his own injury on his plate and couldn't dedicate that much time to him) when both of them could've been developed at the same time and made for a more compelling rivalry