Genius Pitcher Hides 170Km [EN]: Chapter 34

#33. Get Lost, Trash

I can roughly imagine how shocking the sudden news of the starting catcher’s release would be to baseball fans, who habitually grab their smartphones every morning and rummage through the sports section.

On the morning of the second game against the Busan Titans, news that no one had expected woke up baseball fans.

﹂Is this official?

﹂If you have eyes, see for yourself.

﹂Assault? Obstructing play? What a mess…

﹂But if he’s released, can’t another team pick him up? Shouldn’t they tie him up with voluntary retirement?

﹂That’s old news. The rule changed, and now you need the player’s consent to force retirement. This means they don’t even want to associate with Hwang Sung-min.

﹂Hey, hey, that’s not the problem… If the junior mentioned in the article is Jang Deok-soo, he won’t be able to play today either, so who will be our catcher?

As the fans feared, things unfolded as expected.

The two catchers who came up from the minors were hastily put into the game but couldn’t even catch properly and were flustered. Eventually, in the 9th inning, even senior Choi Min-seok, who had experience as a catcher, had to wear the mask.

The second game against the Titans turned into a complete mess, but we didn’t give up until the end and eventually won.

The aftereffects of senior Jo Sung-oh’s walk-off home run yesterday were still lingering. All the players gritted their teeth and rushed in, and in the end, I hit a walk-off hit in the bottom of the 9th, securing two consecutive wins in Busan.

While we were playing the second game against the Titans, Hwang Sung-min finally made a move.

The guy who was taken to the hospital the night before showed up in a wheelchair, having seen it somewhere, and appealed to reporters about his unfairness.

﹂Looking at his face, it’s clear he fought with someone. Or did he just get beat up?

﹂Could it be… I’m just saying this just in case, but did he mess with Han Su-hyeok? If that’s the case, I’ll kill that bastard Hwang Sung-min.

﹂What the hell happened? I’m so frustrated.

“Su-hyeok, that bastard is not exceeding our expectations.”

“Well, trash is always like that. Gather the reporters and release all the videos and evidence.”

“Yeah, whether the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization] cooperates or not, I’m going to bury that bastard no matter what.”

Hwang Sung-min’s release was announced early in the morning.

Not to be outdone, Hwang Sung-min held a press conference to refute the claims while the Warriors were playing their game.

After the game against Busan, the world’s attention was focused on the Warriors’ official briefing.

At that place, where almost all sports reporters in Korea had gathered, CEO Sung-hoon calmly released a video.

···Click

“That’s all for the prepared video.”

“···Excuse me, CEO Park. So, you’re saying that Hwang Sung-min forced his junior, Jang Deok-soo, to strike out on purpose while assaulting him, and a physical fight broke out with Han Su-hyeok who discovered this?”

“Yes, it’s as you saw in the CCTV footage just now.”

“Wow… Then all that swinging of the baseball bat was because of that?”

“That’s right.”

“Crazy… Hwang Sung-min has finally gone crazy.”

“If Han Su-hyeok had been hit by that bat, things would have gotten really big.”

“He caused all that trouble and then put on a show in a wheelchair because he only got slapped once?”

“That pathetic bastard, doesn’t he know it’s embarrassing for an athlete to swing a bat at a junior and then get subdued and hold a press conference?”

“I don’t understand. Why would he lie like that when it would be exposed so quickly?”

“He probably didn’t know there was a CCTV. They installed a camera when they closed the bullpen and used it as a storage room.”

“Well, he’s a bit lacking in intelligence. It’s not just once or twice that a catcher forgot his own team’s signals during a game.”

“Haha, but that slap was really satisfying. He deserved it, that bastard. How dare a baseball player swing a bat at someone?”

As soon as the Warriors’ briefing ended, the internet portal sports section was covered with Hwang Sung-min’s name.

In fact, the KBO’s position was not entirely incomprehensible.

Corporal punishment between players, and intentional strikeouts or hits allowed between close players. This is a very sensitive issue.

The KBO delegated the handling of the matter to the club and stepped back because if the Hwang Sung-min issue was brought to the table and things got out of hand, all the players from all 10 clubs would have to be investigated.

The Warriors didn’t want that either. Frankly, who cares if similar things happen in other teams?

All we wanted was for Hwang Sung-min to never stand on the ground again.

And that goal has already been achieved.

With public opinion at its worst, no club seemed willing to take the risk of recruiting him.

As the situation flowed that way, Hwang Sung-min tried to sue Jang Deok-soo for assault as a last resort.

But it was a ridiculous act.

“We have secured all the evidence, CEO.”

“Yes, lawyer. Thank you for your hard work.”

The law firm attached by the club thoroughly protected Jang Deok-soo. If assault were to be questioned, Hwang Sung-min’s crime of continuously harassing Jang Deok-soo for the past several years was much worse.

To engage in a lawsuit with a fellow player in the small Korean baseball scene? Especially when the fault lies with him?

He couldn’t possibly not know that he should never do such a thing if he wanted to make a living by running a baseball academy or something later.

Eventually, realizing that everything was over, Hwang Sung-min left a message on SNS [Social Networking Service] containing his feelings and quietly disappeared.

﹂武 is ‘mu’ as in martial arts, and he probably wanted to write 無 [meaning ‘nothingness’ or ‘void’]. What a 武-gnorant bastard…

﹂He’s always watching martial arts novels on the team bus, lol.

﹂Does he think he’s some kind of demon? Everything returns to 武

﹂That bastard is a moron until the end. I’m so embarrassed.

Hwang Sung-min, who showed off his ignorance until the end, disappeared from our sight.

In the meantime, our team played a total of 6 games, 3 games each against the Changwon Raptors and the Gwangju Jaguars, without a proper catcher, and won four of them.

Ahn Chi-wook hit his first debut home run, and senior Jo Sung-oh’s bat, whose batting form correction was almost complete, was spitting fire every day.

And finally, senior Jang Deok-soo, who had solved all the problems, appeared in front of the team.

The first thing he did was kneel in front of everyone.

“Manager! Su-hyeok! And juniors and seniors!”

“Senior Deok-soo…?”

“I was wrong! Please forgive me!”

A giant man with a height of 2m [approximately 6’7″] and a weight of 120kg [approximately 265 lbs] sincerely asked his teammates for forgiveness.

The standard language that he had been trying to get used to was gone, and the folksy dialect that could most accurately convey Jang Deok-soo’s sincerity echoed in the practice field.

Jang Deok-soo realized.

Everything started with his mistake.

It was his fault that he let the trashy bastard Hwang Sung-min run wild, and it was also his fault that he played loosely because he didn’t want to hurt others.

All his fault.

He had a lot of thoughts while being away from baseball for a few days.

He mistakenly thought that he had been playing baseball for his grandmother and the elders who raised him.

But it wasn’t.

He realized the moment he was separated from the team and watched his teammates on TV.

He realized for sure when he saw the temporary catcher’s mask worn by the minor league catcher and even Choi Min-seok in a situation where both the starting catcher and the backup catcher were missing.

I want to play.

I want to run right away and wear a catcher’s mask for my teammates.

I don’t want to see my teammates suffer because of me anymore.

When Jang Deok-soo was very young, his grandmother, worried that he was less talkative and slower than his peers, took him to the hospital for a child psychology test.

Fortunately, unlike what she had initially worried about, all of Jang Deok-soo’s indicators were normal. Jang Deok-soo was just a little slower in growth compared to his age.

However, the doctors who conducted the test discovered one unique aspect in him.

Protective instinct.

An absolute protective instinct for what he considers his own, or for people he considers his family.

Jang Deok-soo’s protective instinct was 99 points out of 100. It was a near-perfect score.

That day, Hwang Sung-min’s action of swinging a bat at Han Su-hyeok in the closed outfield bullpen awakened Jang Deok-soo’s dormant protective instinct.

Due to the butterfly effect caused by Hwang Sung-min’s misbehavior, the Warriors gained a truly catcher-like catcher who would defend home plate.

* * *

“The backup, no, the starting catcher who left home has returned, teacher.”

“Oh, congratulations. But why the expression…?”

“That’s… I’m not sure if I can ask you about this, but…”

“Tell me anything. You have to tell me everything in Park Sung-hoon’s heart so that I can give you proper counseling.”

“Haa… That’s… the catcher who came back to our team keeps hitting people, no, slamming them.”

“Pardon?”

* * *

Thwack!

“Guaack!”

“…Senior. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay! I’m fine, so don’t worry! Hey, William, stop faking and get up. Hurry!”

“S, s, s, safe!”

“What! Why is that safe! I clearly tagged him!”

“J, jury interference!”

William, a second-year foreign hitter from the Seoul Fighters, who weighed 110kg [approximately 243 lbs] and rushed home recklessly, rolled around on the ground and wailed.

“Ouch! I’m dying! Mommy, it hurts! William is dying! The poor foreigner is crying again today!”

I don’t know where he learned it, but it was a proper Korean with a rhythm.

But Jang Deok-soo tapped his back with his toes as if it were not worth considering.

“Get up. William, hurry up! Before I fold your waist!”

At Jang Deok-soo’s growl, the opposing foreign player William was startled and jumped up from his seat.

The score was 1 to 0, and we gave up a point first due to senior Jang Deok-soo’s interference.

“Um, senior… even if you had just played normally just now…”

“What are you talking about! Home plate is mine!”

He changed too much.

Senior Jang Deok-soo, who safely finished his business with Hwang Sung-min and returned.

He knelt in front of all the players and promised to change, and he really became a completely new person from head to toe.

Far from avoiding physical fights, he actively threw himself into things that he could have just avoided, like just now.

The 120kg steel-like body bounced off the opposing runners rushing home.

The problem was that some of those plays were ruled as interference.

A tear trickled down the eyes of the defensive coach looking at Jang Deok-soo.

Good.

There are still many areas to refine in terms of play, but since he is a player with basic skills, he will be able to grow quickly.

As Hwang Sung-min, the trash, disappeared and Jang Deok-soo, a reliable starting catcher, appeared, the team atmosphere heated up even more.

It’s worth trying this year.

The expectation that it would be different from what it has been so far began to dominate the players’ minds.

But there was only one player who couldn’t laugh even in this situation.

Ahn Chi-wook, our team’s starting third baseman, who has been struggling with a batting average in the 10% range in the last 8 games.

In a situation where we need even one more hitter to protect my back, we need to get that guy back on track quickly.

It wasn’t a simple problem like a lack of training.

Before and after the game, the hitting coach is exclusively checking Ahn Chi-wook’s condition and working on fine-tuning his balance, and he continues to come to the stadium for additional training even on rest days.

He was just overwhelmed by the wall of the pros that he had never encountered before.

“Ahn Chi-wook, follow me after the game today.”

“Um? Where to?”

“Don’t talk back. Let’s finish the game properly first.”

That’s why what Ahn Chi-wook needs now is not hell training.

I’m going to give this guy something different.

“Where is this…”

“Don’t look around and come in. It’s my practice room.”

“Hmm, friend. You brought a new face again today.”

“I have something to do. Jacob. Ah, senior Jo Sung-oh will be about 30 minutes late.”

“Okay, then I’ll finish my meal and come out.”

I know.