The owner of the Saikyou Saitama Lycaons team. He is more interested in gaining money than getting the Lycaons to win. He forms the One Outs contract with Toua Tokuchi but later on as he realises he is still losing money to Toua he adds more conditions to the contract. He has a few members of the team under his control as pawns that will do his bidding, few of them are the secretary, sales, scouts, scorekeepers and even the manager of the team.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The story begins when Hiromichi Kojima, the star batter of the fictional Lycaons in Japan's Pacific League, heads to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to train and bring himself out of a slump. There, he meets Toua Tokuchi, a 134-kmph (83 miles per hour) pitcher and the undisputed king of a gambling form of baseball called "One Out." At Kojima's urging, Tokuchi signs up with the Lycaons under an unusual contract: he gets 5,000,000 yen (about US$46,000) for every out he pitches, but loses 50,000,000 yen (US$460,000) for every point he gives up. 
(Source: Anime News Network)

Kenji Utsumi was a Japanese actor and voice actor affiliated with the self-founded Ken Production. He was married to fellow voice actress [Michiko Nomura](https://anilist.co/staff/101463/) until his death.

He was best known for his roles such as [Alex Louis Armstrong](https://anilist.co/character/2079/) in [Fullmetal Alchemist](https://anilist.co/anime/121/), [Genji Kamogawa](https://anilist.co/character/10156/) in [Hajime no Ippo](https://anilist.co/anime/263/), [Raoh](https://anilist.co/character/8738/) in [Fist of the North Star](https://anilist.co/anime/967/).

He received a lifetime achievement award at the third Seiyu Awards.

He passed away from peritoneal cancer on June 13, 2013.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The story begins when Hiromichi Kojima, the star batter of the fictional Lycaons in Japan's Pacific League, heads to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to train and bring himself out of a slump. There, he meet T&#333;a Tokuchi, a 134-kmph (83 miles per hour) pitcher and the undisputed king of a gambling form of baseball called "One Out." At Kojima's urging, Tokuchi signs up with the Lycaons under an unusual contract: he gets 5,000,000 yen (about US$46,000) for every out he pitches, but loses 50,000,000 yen (US$460,000) for every point he gives up. 
(Source: AnimeNewsNetwork)
 
Notes: 
 - The main story was completed in 168 chapters with 19 volumes on 2006-10-19. An additional side story Giwaku no All Star Sen Hen (疑惑のオールスター戦編) was serialized from 2008-2009 and published as volume 20 of the series.
 - Chapter count includes an additional chapter included in the 7th volume.

Tsuneo Saikawa