A Rookie In The Baseball Team Is Too Good [EN]: Chapter 174

Chapter 46: Still Just a Process (1)

That night, the following articles were posted on the sports channel of a portal site:

[Ryu Jang-ho’s Walk-Off Homer in the 9th… KH Ascends to Sole First Place After 13 Years]

[“Caught the Knights”… KH, Sole First Place in 13 Years, Now Aiming for the Championship?]

[Manager Freeman: “Ryu Jang-ho is the Best Hitter, Thanks to Players Who Gave Their All”]

Although it was just the interim standings, it was the first time they had achieved sole first place in a whopping 13 years.

It was the sole first place that they had chased right up until the end of last season but ultimately failed to achieve.

Considering the significance of the achievement, the entire team should have had a celebratory dinner, a very lavish one at that.

In fact, the Cannons front office had prepared a small celebration party, but Arthur Freeman suggested postponing it a bit.

“Jisup, today is Tuesday,” Manager Freeman said.

“We have a game tomorrow, and a game the day after. Let’s postpone the celebration party until after Sunday’s game.”

“Ah, should we do that?”

“Why, are you worried that we won’t be able to maintain our sole first place until Sunday?” Manager Freeman chuckled.

“Don’t worry. Isn’t this a hard-earned sole first place? We won’t give it to another team so easily.”

As the manager’s orders were given, the Cannons team left work that day without any special celebration, with reminders about not gathering pointlessly at pubs near the stadium and going straight home to rest.

Most of the players seemed to have gone straight home according to the manager’s instructions, but I doubt many went to bed early.

That day, messages from the players were posted in the Cannons team group chat until very late.

-Hey, these articles keep popping up? I won’t be able to read them all before I go to sleep.

-Are you guys reading the articles? I’ve been lurking in the Cannons Gallery [online fan forum] since a while ago.

-Cannons Gallery? Why are you going there? They’re always just bashing us.

-Nah, on days like this, there’s no place as fun as the gallery. Everyone’s going wild.

-Seniors, there’s a discount event on the [DeliveryJoa] app starting tomorrow. Anyone want to order sweet and sour pork together?

The players were constantly posting messages, sharing videos of the game from that day, and sharing funny ‘짤방’ [jjalbang – image macros/reaction images] made by Cannons fans.

-Jangho, you didn’t even need to hit a walk-off today? Everyone’s just talking about your finger heart [a Korean gesture of affection]!

-Jangho hyungnim [older brother/respected senior]! Say something! Your video alone has over 20,000 views right now?

-Ryu Jang-ho, answer quickly! We all know you’re watching!

-It’s 30% off, is there really no one who wants to eat together? I’m a VIP so I can get a free cola too…….

Until Jisup came home, showered, and got ready for bed, the group chat was still noisy, buzzing away.

It was almost 2 AM when the Cannons’ captain, Chun Jin-woo, finally sent this message.

-Alright, everyone, let’s go to sleep. We need to sleep now so we’re not tired for tomorrow’s game.

-Yes!

-Yup!

-Good night, seniors!

-Those of you who are still thinking about it, please let me know by tomorrow morning!!!

Ah, it’ll be quiet now.

Jisup put his phone on the desk, lay down on the bed, and tried to fall asleep.

But that was only for a moment, as Jisup’s phone started buzzing again.

-You worked hard, hyungnim.

Starting with Ryu Jang-ho, who had been completely silent in the group chat.

-Hey, Jisup! I don’t know what others are saying, but I think your performance was the biggest! Sleep well and see you tomorrow!

From Jimmy Morris, who unexpectedly sent a cat emoticon along with it.

-Jisup-ssi [Mr./Ms. formal address], fighting tomorrow too!

-Jisup hyung, you worked hard!

-I think I got a good opportunity thanks to Kim Special Correspondent. Please continue to take care of me, Special Correspondent!!!

From Jang Dae-woo to Shin Min-sung, and even ‘Hyena’ Kyung Sun-woo.

While most of the Cannons players were sending Jisup personal messages, short or long, the person who made Jisup’s face fill with bitter smiles was none other than this person.

-Jisup-ssi, I was just about to go to sleep, but I felt compelled to write a few words. Now that our Cannons have reached first place like this, I’m reminded of the day I returned to the Cannons thanks to Jisup-ssi. Back then, Jisup-ssi helped Director Seo Chang-ki with my trade refusal…….

A long, long, long message sent by ‘The Heart of the Cannons’, Chun Jin-woo.

While reading the message he sent, Jisup was thinking this.

‘This ajusshi [older man]…….’

He’s secretly a chatterbox.

I should be careful when talking to him in the future.

* * *

As Arthur Freeman said, I was actually a little worried.

There were still two games left in the three-game series against the SH Knights.

I was worried about what would happen if we lost the sole first place we had worked so hard to get in just one day.

But at this point, the KH Cannons had definitely gained momentum.

Thwack!

Thwaaaack!

They won the remaining two games of the three-game series cleanly, thus securing a comfortable three-game sweep.

The difference in game record with the 2nd place SH Knights was now 2.5 games.

-I think the results of this three-game series are very meaningful. Assuming we don’t have any head-to-head matches, it takes an average of about a week to catch up to a 1-game difference, you know?

-Ah, so can we say that the KH Cannons will maintain their lead for about 2 weeks?

-Well, I think it could be even longer. Recently, the Cannons have been completely overwhelming other teams in terms of balance between pitching and hitting!

The KH Cannons had been on a good run since the beginning of the season, but achieving a three-game sweep against the defending champion SH Knights seemed quite impressive.

Around the time when cable channels’ baseball-related programs, as well as terrestrial broadcasting news programs, began to cover the Cannons’ rise.

“Hmm, is everyone here now?”

The KH Cannons Field, where the team was away for an away game, held a team leader meeting in the conference room on the 2nd floor, presided over by Director Seo Chang-ki.

“First, the report from the operations team.”

The front office team leader meeting is held every Friday morning.

Originally, the person who spoke the most at this meeting was Operations Team Leader Cha Yoon-jin.

Since the operations team is the core of the Cannons front office, there was a lot to report and a lot of requests for cooperation from other departments.

Following that would be the head of the power analysis team or the head of the development team.

In any case, the usual team leader meeting of the Cannons was mostly about baseball-related departments speaking, but-

That day,

It was a little different.

“Ah, just a moment! Don’t move on to the management support team. We still have something to report, you know?”

“Yes? No, Team Leader Lee. What are you talking about? This is all the material you handed out.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but there have been a few more sponsorship inquiries that came in right before the meeting…….”

The main characters of the meeting that day were non-baseball-related departments, more precisely, the marketing team and the public relations team.

The team leaders of the two teams attended the meeting with much more to report than usual.

“Sungwook Foods, which terminated its contract at the end of the year before last, has proposed a sponsorship contract again.”

“Do you remember? Haan Construction. They have also proposed to place advertisements again.”

The marketing team leader brought up requests for business alliances from companies in the Yeongsan area.

“We are receiving a lot of interview requests for our players. First of all, I think we should proceed with one or two with terrestrial broadcasting…….”

“Ah, and we have also received a call from Yeongsan City Hall. It’s a bit early, but they want to invite Manager Freeman to be the public relations ambassador for the ‘Year of Visiting Yeongsan’.”

The public relations team leader brought up requests for broadcast appearances, interviews, or requests for business cooperation from public institutions.

“Heh heh, so many proposals have come in in just a few days?”

The people who sent the proposals were all different.

The content they wanted was also different.

But there was only one reason why so many people suddenly started moving.

“Sole first place in 13 years……. Is it worth a try? Of course, our Team Leader Lee and Team Leader Park must be out of their minds.”

At Director Seo’s words, the marketing team leader and the public relations team leader gave bright smiles.

“What are you talking about, Director? I’m feeling great these days?” said the marketing team leader.

“Advertising with the Cannons is a waste of money, it’s not very effective……. When companies that left coldly like that call back, stuttering, ‘Team Leader, is advertising possible?’, there’s nothing as satisfying as that, you know? Haha.”

“We’re not much different,” the public relations team leader chimed in.

“I’ve always met reporters and said, ‘I’m sorry to the fans, we’ll get better in the future’, but these days I’m meeting them with my shoulders straight and confidently!”

Watching the public relations team leader nodding with a long smile, Jisup was realizing anew.

‘Being good at baseball in a baseball team……. It’s more meaningful than I thought.’

It wasn’t just a matter of moving up and down one spot in the standings.

If you’re good at baseball, everyone in the baseball team is happy.

You can work more happily and enjoyably than ever before.

Jisup had contributed to the happy expressions of the two team leaders that day, so he was feeling proud when-

“Ah, that’s right. I almost forgot to say it.”

Director Seo Chang-ki, who was listening to the team leaders’ reports with a happy expression, looked around the conference room and opened his mouth again.

“Perhaps because our recent performance has been good, it seems that the head office is also paying more attention to our Cannons.”

Jisup also knew the story.

It had been mentioned a few times when he was alone with Director Seo.

“I heard that our acting owner, Vice Chairman Park Hong-joo [‘Sakhalin Park’], will be visiting the head office tomorrow afternoon…….”

This was something Jisup didn’t know either.

‘Sakhalin Park’ Vice Chairman Park Hong-joo was such an elusive person.

“The acting owner said that he would like someone to go with him and tell the people at the head office about the team’s situation and how the team is being run…….”

Director Seo continued.

“Originally, I was going to go with him……. But I think I’ll have to go to the league office’s executive committee at that time.”

So who would be good?

Director Seo looked at the team leaders.

“He said that it would be good to have someone who knows a lot about the team’s operations and, if possible, can talk about individual players…….”

At this time, Jisup was looking down and looking at his phone screen.

The league office’s executive committee was a place where the team leaders of each team gathered to discuss league operations.

There was a lot of material to prepare as the director’s assistant.

‘The international competition next year, the FA [Free Agent] regulations, and…….’

While Jisup was engrossed in thought while holding his phone screen, he heard Director Seo’s voice in his ear.

“Ah, I see. Now that I see it, everyone was thinking the same thing as me?”

It seemed that the team leader who would go to the head office with Sakhalin Park had been decided.