Adachi is not the writer on these stories, and it shows. In fact, I would not consider them "Adachi mangas" at all. (Nine, Adachi's first great manga, appeared one year after this collection.) For instance, the characters' motivations are frequently weird or boring. There's romance and ambition, but it's way too direct - there's none of the awesome subtlety from e.g. Touch or Cross Game.
Among the short stories, I liked Aozora Tsurete Teru Teru Bouzu; the others ranged from bad to just not memorable.
Concerning the longer stories, I had to stop reading Hatsukoi Koshien at a moment of amazing stupidity:
While batting, the pitcher hits a foul ball into the stands, thereby injures a child, then LEAVES THE GAME to bring that child to the hospital (WTF?).
And then said child needs a blood transfusion from him solely for plot reasons - it would't have been medically necessary at all.
And then the pitcher runs back to the game and finds out his comrades won without him. Ridiculous. This story makes fun of the sport.
In the second longer story, Nakimushi Koshien, I often found the main characters annoying to obnoxious, especially in the first half. On the upside, Chikara, the precocious younger daughter, is a constant highlight. That said, I found much of the story rather grating:
The first half is essentially concerned with the girl being manipulated into becoming the baseball manager for no reason whatsoever; she's just chasing her parents' dreams for no reason.
And the no-name team of people with insufficient baseball experience wins and wins due to nothing but guts and willpower, wtf.
Oh, and there's a magnificent example of pseudoscience: "I forbid you from taking in liquids during practice!""Sweat exhausts stamina. If you're really thinking on going to Koushien, you shouldn't intake liquids that will become sweat."
Yes, the story is from roughly 1977, but this is still ridiculous.