A Rookie In The Baseball Team Is Too Good [EN]: Chapter 136

New Recruit of Baseball Team is Too Good – Episode 136

New Recruit of Baseball Team is Too Good 136

Chapter 35: Thump Thump Thump Thump (5)

Stove League.

A word that came from America.

It’s said to have originated from gathering around a warm stove in the cold winter, discussing the next season.

In Korea, it’s a word that has gained quite a bit of recognition after being used as the title of a popular drama.

However, if you mention it to people in the baseball team, you’ll likely encounter the following reaction about 70% of the time.

“We just call it ‘Stove League,’ but originally in America, they always put ‘Hot’ in front of it.”

“Hot! Hot Stove League!”

“It means you have to run around like crazy as if your feet are on fire.”

When Ji-seop first joined the baseball team, he thinks he just chuckled.

He thought, ‘Everyone’s job is hard, why are those people making such a fuss?’

However, after one season and as a special advisor to the general manager, Ji-seop was truly realizing why the people in the American baseball scene back then attached the word ‘Hot’.

‘Wow, is this workload for real…….’

The most difficult thing was, of course, salary negotiations with the players.

These days, there are well-developed programs that allow you to pull up the salary evaluation of players with just one click.

And it was the operations team staff, including Deputy Manager Cha Yoon-jin, who went into the negotiation room themselves with that.

However, as with everything in life, ‘behind-the-scenes negotiations’ are important for things to proceed smoothly.

Ji-seop had to meet with the players or their agents along with General Manager Seo Chang-gi.

“Mr. Kim, Special Advisor, just give me 5 million more [Korean Won, roughly $3,700 USD]. Am I asking for too much? I don’t think so?”

“Soobin, that’s why Deputy Manager Cha included an option. If you maintain your weight below 105㎏ [231 lbs] during the season…….”

“Hey, that’s why I’m saying it’s not easy! How great is it to have a bowl of grilled giblets [Gopchang, a popular Korean dish] after a game!”

“……Do you want to die?”

“No.”

Although not as much as salary negotiations, negotiations for sponsorship deals with local companies were also not easy.

Of course, this was also the job of the marketing team within the club, but after a certain point, the timing came when General Manager Seo Chang-gi had to step in directly.

“Mr. Kim, what do you think? Do you think we’ve extracted as much as we can with this amount…….”

“The amount is fine, but shouldn’t we adjust the schedule for this president’s first pitch? The first game of the weekend 3-game series is a bit…….”

“Well, I don’t think the fans would like it either.”

In addition, the schedule was busy with facility repairs, selection of uniform companies, and issues related to players’ military enlistment.

As he chased after them so frantically, it was already mid-January.

It was only when the departure for spring camp was just around the corner that Ji-seop was able to have some time to spare.

“Hoo.”

He went to the players’ sauna in the basement of the baseball stadium, and he also went to the salon to get his overgrown hair trimmed.

With a much neater appearance, Ji-seop headed to a pork belly and rice soup restaurant near KH Cannons Field.

It was to have lunch with his front office colleagues for the first time in a while.

“Ooh, Ji-seop! Over here, over here!”

“Come this way, Ji-seop!”

“No, no! Why is everyone calling him that? You should call him Special Advisor. Mr. Kim! Special! Advisor!”

“……Manager Kwon, are you going to keep doing this? Huh?!”

He exchanged greetings as he came and went, but it was almost a month since they had gathered in one place to eat.

He hadn’t realized it when he passed by, but when he looked closely, everyone’s face looked very worn out.

It seemed that Ji-seop was not the only one who was experiencing the ‘spicy taste’ of the so-called ‘Hot Stove League’.

“We should have gone with samgyetang [Korean ginseng chicken soup]. Everyone looks like they need some body strengthening.”

“Hey, where do we have time to dissect chicken that fell into the water? We have to eat quickly and go back in.”

“Same here. I came out after running a simulation. I have to go back in and check it.”

“Chang-deok, how many wins do you think we’ll get this time? I heard that we need to get at least 80 wins to be safe.”

“Well, I don’t have a feel for it either. There have been so many minor acquisitions in other teams since the last simulation…….”

People were sharing various stories while waiting for the main dish to come out.

It was at this time that Go Chang-deok showed a subtle smile to Ji-seop, who was crunching on a green chili pepper that came out as a side dish while listening to their stories.

“Oh, right, Ji-seop! I’ve been hearing a lot about that person in the club these days?”

“Yes? Who?”

“I’m talking about the person who came in as your replacement. Manager Freeman’s interpreter.”

Go Chang-deok continued.

“Was his name…… Hong Dae-jong?”

* * *

Mention of Mr. Hong Dae-jong.

Ji-seop couldn’t help but be interested.

He had seen his face often in the manager’s office, but he didn’t know much about Mr. Hong’s evaluation because he was so busy with his duties as a special advisor to the general manager.

“Stories……. What kind of stories are you hearing?”

Ji-seop looked at Go Chang-deok’s face with a slightly worried expression.

However, what came back was the laughter of the front office staff, ‘Hahahaha’.

“Oh, Ji-seop! Why are you looking at me with such a serious expression?”

“That’s right, Ji-seop! I heard that you personally picked your replacement? Then there’s nothing to worry about in the first place, right?”

“Th, that means…….”

As a bit of anticipation filled Ji-seop’s eyes, Go Chang-deok nodded coolly, ‘Yeah, that’s right!’

“The rumor is that he’s doing a great job. They say he’s a very enthusiastic person, right?”

It didn’t seem to simply mean that he was doing his interpretation duties diligently.

“I heard that he’s been touring the front-line schools with the manager. He’s showing them the growth environment of our players in person…….”

It was the words of Kwon Dae-woong, the manager of the public relations team.

“He seems to meet with the players one-on-one often? Like how homeroom teachers have interviews with the kids at the beginning of the semester.”

It was the words of Cha Jong-min, the manager of the scouting team.

“Hehe, is that all? Haven’t you heard the story? They say there’s a lot of wailing coming from the minor league dorm these days.”

“The minor league dorm? Why?”

Ji-seop tilted his head.

It was Kim Seung-hyun, an employee of the operations team, who opened his mouth instead of Go Chang-deok.

“Mr. Kim, Special Advisor, you know how the number of players sneaking out of the dorm on weekends has increased dramatically, right?”

It was an open secret within the club.

Even though they are minor league players, they are clearly adults, and there is no problem with the regulations as long as they say one word to the manager, ‘I’m going out and coming back’.

However, the players who didn’t want to hear the coaches’ nagging, ‘Did you go out to play again!’, would sneak out of the dorm without saying a word.

“There were quite a few secret holes that even the dorm manager didn’t know about, but Mr. Hong Dae-jong came last week and found them all.”

“All of them……? How?”

“I don’t know.”

The operations team employee shook his head.

“He just came and said, ‘Here, there, there!’ I heard? Every place Mr. Hong Dae-jong pointed to, a hidden hole was found.”

It seemed to be what they commonly call ‘experience’.

He had worked as a high school baseball team manager for a long time, so he must have had a lot of experience managing baseball team dorms.

It was easy for Mr. Hong to figure out the location of the holes that the players had dug.

“The facility team employees filled the discovered holes, and the expressions on the faces of the minor league players who watched it were as if they had lost their country…….”

“Oh, dear.”

He felt a little sorry for the minor league players who had lost their ‘liberation zone’, but at this time, Ji-seop was smiling contentedly inside.

‘Mr. Hong…… you’re doing well.’

It was a slightly different feeling from when he saw the players working hard.

The fact that the replacement he had personally selected was receiving good evaluations.

He felt proud that his choice was not wrong, and he also felt grateful to the other person for repaying his trust.

He also wondered if this was why ‘Sakhalin Park’ Vice Chairman Park Hong-ju accepted all of his grumbling, and at that moment, the operations team employee opened his mouth again.

“Ah, now that you mention Mr. Hong Dae-jong, I remembered something. This…… would Mr. Kim, Special Advisor, like to deliver it?”

It was the operations team employee who took out a paper bag and handed it to Ji-seop.

“It just came out a little while ago……. I thought it would be more meaningful for Mr. Kim, Special Advisor, to deliver it than for me to deliver it.”

“……Meaning?”

Ji-seop took the paper bag with a puzzled expression.

However, the moment he saw the contents inside, the corners of his lips turned up slightly.

“Ah, I see.”

Ji-seop nodded.

“Then I will deliver this.”

* * *

After finishing lunch with his colleagues, Ji-seop headed to the indoor training facility inside KH Cannons Field.

When he called Mr. Hong Dae-jong, he received the answer, ‘I’m in the training facility right now’.

“Ah, Mr. Ji-seop! You’re here?”

As soon as Ji-seop showed up, Mr. Hong Dae-jong ran out to him.

Large drops of sweat were dripping from his brightly smiling face.

“Were you working out?”

“Yes, I was on the treadmill a bit…….”

Mr. Hong wiped his face with a towel and let out a long breath, ‘Hoo’.

“The manager gave me free time. He said I could use it as I wanted for 2 hours a day.”

It was Manager Arthur Freeman’s unique ’employee welfare’.

Providing 2-3 hours of free time a day for the manager’s exclusive interpreter.

Ji-seop used this time to build his own ‘information network’, but Mr. Hong’s choice seemed a little different from Ji-seop’s.

“I thought I should exercise.”

It was the words of Mr. Hong.

“I thought I wasn’t inferior to others in terms of physical strength……. Wow, I was a frog in a well [idiom for someone with limited experience]. Those who were athletes are completely different from ordinary people.”

“Are you talking about Manager Freeman?”

At Ji-seop’s question, Mr. Hong answered while sticking out his tongue, ‘Yes!’

“I went jogging with him in the morning for the past few days, but I couldn’t catch up with him at all! No matter how hard I tried, he was just ahead of me…….”

So I made up my mind.

Mr. Hong clenched his fist ‘tightly’.

“I’m going to work hard and try to catch up with the manager. That way, I can stay strong throughout the season without losing stamina, right?”

“That’s a good point. If you do that, I won’t ask for anything more.”

Ji-seop nodded and handed over the paper bag he had received from the operations team employee.

“It’s not something I prepared, so it’s hard to call it encouragement…… but anyway, please accept it. It’s something the club prepared for you.”

“For me?”

Mr. Hong took the paper bag with a puzzled expression.

The moment he took out the contents of the bag, his eyes widened.

“No, th, this is…….”

“Yes, it’s a uniform.”

Ji-seop pointed to the uniform packaged in a transparent plastic bag and continued.

“Since you are not a player or a coach, there is no number on the back, but it is still made of the exact same material as the uniforms provided to the players.”

“…….”

“If you become a front office employee, you get one set every year. From now on, we are the same team, a member of the Cannons…… it has that kind of meaning.”

“Ah, I see. I didn’t know there was such a thing.”

Mr. Hong Dae-jong looked at the uniform like a child who had received a Christmas present.

He looked around to see if there were people around, then lowered his voice and asked Ji-seop.

“Can I…… try it on here?”

“Of course.”

Ji-seop took out a hat from the paper bag.

“Try on the hat too. We need to change the size right away if it doesn’t fit.”

“Ah, yes, then…….”

Mr. Hong tore open the plastic packaging and put on the uniform over his gym clothes.

He turned to Ji-seop, wearing the Cannons hat neatly.

“How is it? Does it look good?”

“Why don’t you take a look yourself? There are mirrors all over the place here.”