A Rookie In The Baseball Team Is Too Good [EN]: Chapter 76

＃The New Recruit of the Baseball Team is Too Good 76

Chapter 21: You Can Tell at a Glance (5)

“Selecting amateur players is similar to choosing a car… Yes, I somewhat agree.”

These were Ji-seop’s words.

“But if you think about which is more difficult… wouldn’t it be selecting players?”

“…….”

“It’s not just about the signing bonus. Frankly, players drafted in the lower rounds receive signing bonuses that aren’t even worth the price of a foreign car.”

“Then?”

“Players are the core of the business, aren’t they? The core of the baseball team business.”

Ji-seop continued.

“A baseball team needs good players to attract fans. When fans come, they buy tickets, merchandise, and even an extra plate of tteokbokki [spicy stir-fried rice cakes, a popular Korean snack]…”

“…….”

“Ultimately, the success of the business depends on securing good players… So, shouldn’t we examine players as thoroughly as possible when selecting them? How can we do this carelessly?”

Cha Jong-min, the assistant manager, had no response to Ji-seop’s words.

Rather than responding, he seemed unable to even make eye contact with Ji-seop from a certain point.

Ji-seop sensed that it was time to wrap up this nagging.

“Did the assistant manager say that the employees of Mugunghwa Motors [a fictional or generic-sounding Korean company name, implying a local or national brand] are notorious thugs around here?”

“Well… I might have said that.”

Cha looked at Ji-seop out of the corner of his eye.

“The assistant manager dismissed them as ‘thugs,’ but those guys still answered my questions properly, though.”

They didn’t hide the mileage when I asked.

They also answered whether the car had been submerged in water.

Of course, they cleverly embellished those issues with skillful words as if they were nothing.

“But what did the assistant manager do? Did you answer the team leader’s questions properly?”

“…….”

“I heard you just stubbornly resisted, saying things like, ‘Can’t you trust my eyes?’ or ‘Is my gut feeling wrong?’ while raising your voice.”

“No, that, well, that’s… Ji-seop…”

Cha Jong-min tried to make excuses, but Ji-seop raised his hand to stop him.

Then he asked.

“There’s a used car dealer who at least answers every question, and there’s a baseball scout who shouts, ‘Can’t you trust me?’ no matter what you say. In the assistant manager’s opinion…”

Ji-seop glanced at the other man’s eyes.

“Which one is more of a thug?”

* * *

From this point on, Cha Jong-min became noticeably deflated.

“…….”

The tension, which had been like a child visiting an amusement park, was gone without a trace.

He no longer drooled over the long line of foreign cars, nor did he engage in pointless banter with the used car dealers.

He simply followed the group in silence, occasionally disappearing to ‘go for a smoke.’

Even the usually oblivious Ryu Jang-ho grabbed Ji-seop and asked him this question because of the sudden change in attitude.

“Hyung [older brother or respected male figure, a Korean honorific].”

“Hmm?”

“Did you perhaps… hit Assistant Manager Cha?”

“What?! What are you talking about, you little rascal! Why would I hit someone?”

“You really didn’t hit him?”

Ryu Jang-ho gave him a suspicious look.

“That’s the face someone makes when they skip practice to go to a PC cafe [internet cafe, common in South Korea] and get caught by the coach.”

“…Your description is oddly specific?”

The atmosphere was a bit awkward, but it didn’t disrupt the used car deal that day.

In fact, looking back, Cha Jong-min’s strangely subdued demeanor may have actually helped speed up the transaction.

“Now, would you like to take a look at this one? It’s a good car for commuting without any burden…”

“An old Grandeur [a model of Hyundai car, often associated with older generations or practicality]… for commuting?”

While being swept away by the ‘Mugunghwa Motors’ employees and looking at absurd vehicles, Cha Jong-min, who had returned from his ‘smoke time,’ said this.

“Chang-deok, I’ve picked out a car.”

“Yes?!”

“Without wasting any more time… just choose one from the ones I’ve picked out, and there won’t be any problems.”

“Really?”

Ji-seop and his group followed Assistant Manager Cha with a skeptical attitude.

“Look at this one, this one… and that one in the next row.”

“Oh, oh?!”

The moment Go Chang-deok saw the cars that Cha had casually pointed out, the corners of his mouth stretched to his ears.

“No, how can such clean and good cars be this price?”

“I told you, this place is like a treasure trove.”

“But there are so many cars here. How did you see such a good car at a glance…”

The cars weren’t old, of course, they had no accident history, and even the major parts had already been replaced once.

Go Chang-deok sat in the driver’s seat, started the engine, and nodded as if there was nothing more to consider.

“Ji-seop, let’s go with this one.”

Go Chang-deok’s expression was ‘very satisfied.’

“I think I got a really good car thanks to our Assistant Manager Cha.”

Thank you, Assistant Manager.

Go Chang-deok turned off the engine, got out, and bowed to Cha Jong-min.

“Assistant Manager, if you’re okay with it, let’s go together! I’ll treat you to both lunch and dinner today! With something really delicious…”

Go Chang-deok seemed eager to repay him for picking out a good car.

However, Cha Jong-min slowly shook his head.

“Thank you for the offer, but… let’s have a meal next time.”

“No, why? Didn’t you say you cleared your schedule for today?”

“That’s true, but…”

Cha glanced at Ji-seop.

“I have something to think about.”

What he was trying to think about.

Ji-seop didn’t bother to ask.

* * *

Go Chang-deok successfully completed his ‘Mugunghwa Motors’ expedition with the help of Assistant Manager Cha.

It was about two weeks later that Ji-seop first got a ride in his car.

He had been trying to avoid it as much as possible because he couldn’t trust his driving skills, but that day, he happened to make eye contact with Go Chang-deok, who was leaving work with Ryu Jang-ho.

“Ji-seop, you don’t have basic trust in people. You know that, right?”

Go Chang-deok forced Ji-seop, who was backing away, into the car and started the engine with a ‘vroom.’

“Jang-ho even admitted it, you rascal! My driving skills are above average!”

“Really?” Ji-seop asked Ryu Jang-ho, who was sitting in the passenger seat, and the guy nodded almost imperceptibly.

“It’s not as bad as I thought.”

Go Chang-deok shouted triumphantly, “See!”, but you should always listen to what Koreans have to say until the end.

“But I think it’s not because of Chang-deok’s driving skills… but because the car is so well-made.”

“What, what?!”

Go Chang-deok looked at Ryu Jang-ho with a very disappointed expression, but he was not the core force of the Cannons who would be shaken by such an expression.

“Looking at it from the side, there are a lot of safety-related sensors, and it even has a function that automatically reduces speed when it looks like it’s about to hit the car in front?”

Seemingly liking that point, Ryu Jang-ho slowly nodded and looked around the car.

“I wasn’t really interested in cars, but seeing Chang-deok driving around, I’m starting to think about getting one myself….”

It’s like ‘seeing is wanting’. [A common Korean saying meaning that seeing something makes you desire it.]

He seemed to feel a little like that.

It was really rare for Ryu Jang-ho to show interest in topics other than baseball, so Ji-seop decided to give him a little push.

“Then why don’t you get one?”

It wasn’t so much a serious suggestion as just a lighthearted remark.

“You’re pretty close to Deputy Department Head Cha Jong-min from the scouting team, right? If you ask him, I think he’ll be very excited to run over to you?”

And the next moment, Ji-seop heard some slightly unexpected news.

“Ah, you mean Deputy Department Head Cha?” Ryu Jang-ho said, poking the navigation screen with his finger.

“It’s really hard to see that senior [term for someone older or of higher rank] these days. I don’t think I’ve seen him for over ten days….”

“No, why?”

It was Go Chang-deok who expressed his doubts.

“Didn’t you say that guy hardly ever moves from the scouting team office?”

“Yes, he did. But I don’t know what wind blew into him….”

Ryu Jang-ho looked at Ji-seop’s face in the rearview mirror and continued.

“These days, he seems to be going down to Chungcheong-do [a province in South Korea] all the time.”

“Chungcheong-do?”

“Yes, I heard he went to Myeongju today to collect information….”

“Is that so?”

A faint smile appeared on Ji-seop’s lips.

“He’s in Myeongju today, you say?”

* * *

At that very moment when Ji-seop was getting a ride home in Go Chang-deok’s car.

The head of the KH Cannons scouting team was pacing around the office with a serious expression.

“Hmm, I see……. I understand.”

The head of the scouting team pressed the ‘End Call’ button on his phone and returned to his seat.

One of the scouts who hadn’t left work yet leaned back in his chair and studied the team leader’s expression.

“Team leader, has it been decided?”

“Well, it’s not certain yet… but it’s true that Scott Boras’ [a powerful baseball agent] agent has offered pretty good terms.”

The scouting war to secure even slightly better prospects.

The KH Cannons’ competitors were not only the other nine teams in Korean professional baseball.

Professional baseball teams in the United States and Japan, and the agency companies associated with them, were also constantly eyeing promising players.

“Team leader, strangely enough, it seems like there are a lot of prospects who want to go straight to the major leagues this year, don’t you think?”

The scout smacked his lips.

“If this happens, the top round nominations this year will be a real chaos, won’t they? Ugh, I have no idea how to prepare for this.”

“The more this happens, the more we need to stick to the basics. If we secure a list of useful players as much as possible… we can respond no matter how the situation unfolds.”

The scouting team leader’s expression as he said that wasn’t very bright either.

‘Damn it, easier said than done….’

Securing as much information as possible on good players.

It required sufficient time, sufficient opportunities to examine the players’ skills, and at the same time, a sufficient number of experienced scouts.

‘But we don’t have time, there aren’t many remaining competitions, and the number of scouts is insufficient….’

What should we do about this?

Should I report to the higher-ups and request more manpower?

Or should I risk being backstabbed and try to share information with other teams?

“Oh, my head….”

While the scouting team leader was racking his brains, one of the employees sitting across the aisle poked his head ‘pop’ over the partition.

“Team leader.”

“Hmm?”

“Deputy Department Head Cha Jong-min of the Chungcheong region has submitted an interim report… what should we do?”

Would you like to download it yourself?

Or should I print it out and bring it to you?

It was roughly this kind of question.

“Print it out and bring it to me. My eyes hurt, so I can’t look at the monitor screen right now.”

“Ah, yes.”

It was clear that his eyes were blurry, but there was also the matter of ‘Cha Jong-min of the Chungcheong region’s report.

‘Even if it’s that guy’s report… it’ll be at most three or four pages.’

Thinking that, the scouting team leader turned his gaze to the darkened ground.

But it was right then.

Beeeeep-

The printer in the middle of the office wouldn’t stop working.

After using up all the A4 paper in the paper storage box, the printer made a ‘bleep’ sound, asking for more paper.

The scouting team leader turned his head.

“Hey, what’s that?!”

“Yes?”

The scouting team employee blinked.

“Didn’t Cha Jong-min say it was a report? But why is the printer still running?”

“Ah, that’s… it seems like there’s quite a bit of volume today.”

“Volume? How many pages is it?”

“Well, roughly….”

The employee checked the monitor.

“It’s exactly 57 pages, team leader.”

“What, what did you say?!”

The scouting team leader, startled, moved towards the printer.

Wondering what on earth was going on, he flipped through the report that the printer had spat out, one page at a time.

And the next moment-

“Heh, well, well… is the sun going to rise in the west tomorrow?!”

The scouting team leader’s bleary eyes were wide open.