A Rookie In The Baseball Team Is Too Good [EN]: Chapter 213

54. Synesthetic Imagery World (5)

At first, he was dubious. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason.

This is the story of Shim Sung-joon, the ‘Muscleman’ of the Cannons.

‘……What was that?’

While flashing an awkward smile at the praise pouring in from around him, he tilted his head slightly.

‘How did I do that? I was definitely about to swing, or so I thought?’

Once a batter decides to swing, it’s not easy to stop the bat once it’s in motion.

Especially for someone like Shim Sung-joon, who mostly goes for a full swing on every pitch.

Thus, Shim Sung-joon returned to the plate looking bewildered, as if he’d seen a ghost.

Whoosh- Pow!

Ball! Outside!

The moment another slider drifted towards the outside corner.

The very instant he ‘flinched’ and retracted the bat he was about to swing.

Shim Sung-joon could vaguely grasp it.

‘Th, this is…….’

Super Muscle.

To be precise, the distinct, disgustingly bland taste of that protein supplement.

The instant he saw the ball drifting outside, that horrible taste suddenly filled his mouth.

Startled, Shim Sung-joon had no choice but to retract his bat unconsciously.

‘Is, is this even possible? Could I pick out pitches like this?’

Instinctively avoiding balls entering the ‘cold zone’ [a pitch location where a batter is unlikely to hit well].

As he was wavering, experiencing something for the first time in his life, he heard someone’s voice in his ear.

“Okay, okay! You’re doing great!”

It was first base runner Lee Soo-bin.

Having walked to first base, he was constantly cheering for Shim Sung-joon.

“Hey, Sung-joon! You’re screwed; you’re getting a Super Muscle commercial now!”

Kuhahaha!

Lee Soo-bin burst into laughter.

“No, you might actually get a commercial. After all, you can pick out pitches thanks to Super Muscle, right?”

When Lee Soo-bin’s energetic shout reached him, Shim Sung-joon was finally able to be certain.

‘Ah, so…….’

This wasn’t a delusion.

Not a coincidence either.

The reason he didn’t swing at the slider drifting outside was entirely-

‘Thanks to my senior [older or more experienced teammate]?’

In a fleeting moment, Shim Sung-joon’s mind flashed back to the time he spent bickering with his senior, Lee Soo-bin.

The image of Lee Soo-bin holding a small teaspoon and pointing at a tablet PC came to mind.

He also remembered Lee Soo-bin ‘scooping’ protein supplement into a water bottle after explaining.

He recalled getting a smack on the head for saying something unnecessary like, ‘Honestly, wasn’t that worth hitting?’

And above all, he remembered gulping down that protein shake, made that way, while crying through it all.

‘That was all…… part of the training.’

He was grateful.

He felt grateful.

To his senior, who spared no time and effort for him in the dog-eat-dog world of professional baseball, where everyone is too busy taking care of themselves.

He wanted to give a cool thumbs-up to first base right now.

However, Shim Sung-joon realized that the time wasn’t ripe yet.

‘Okay, focus for now.’

Shim Sung-joon steps back into the batter’s box.

After lightly twirling his bat once, his face, as he gets into his batting stance, is now filled with strong confidence.

“…….”

It was confidence born from conviction.

Confidence that he would no longer be swayed by the pitcher’s pace.

Confidence that he could now take proper aim.

Based on that firm confidence, the Cannons’ Muscleman begins to watch the pitcher’s movements.

Whoosh- Pow!

The opposing team’s battery [pitcher and catcher] relentlessly targeted the outside corner.

Shim Sung-joon had shown weakness in this area, so it was perhaps a perfectly natural move.

However, when the count reached 3-1, and the fifth ball began to spin from the fingertips of the opposing pitcher after a long hesitation.

“!!!”

Shim Sung-joon, who had been watching the situation silently like a large rock, slightly raised his eyes.

Ssssk- Whack!

With the sharp cleats on his right spike firmly gripping the dirt of the batter’s box.

Boooong-

He unleashed a swing that seemed to completely shatter the opposing pitcher’s ball with his 900g bat.

Thwaaaaaack!!!

After swinging past his shoulder, what came into Shim Sung-joon’s view was a white trajectory drawing a large arc across the dark night sky.

“Uh, uh…….”

Shim Sung-joon, forgetting that he should be running towards first base, blankly stared at the trajectory of the hit.

As that trajectory continued to stretch out, past the outfield, past the fence, and even far beyond the outfield stands themselves.

Waaaaaaaah!!!

From the third base visiting team’s stands, an explosion of cheers erupted like never before.

-A, a home run out of the park! It’s a home run out of the park!!!

The voice of the broadcasting caster conveying this situation was also trembling slightly.

-KH Cannons’ Shim Sung-joon has made his career’s first home run an out-of-the-park home run! Truly amazing, a truly fearsome power!

Waaaaaaaah!!!

A rookie player, who had been struggling with a week-long slump, hits a sudden home run out of the park.

Originally, it was a tradition in baseball to pretend not to know when a rookie hits their first home run, but at this moment, the Cannons players had no time to think about such traditions.

“Sung-joonaaaaak! Yanma, Shim Sung-joon!!” [“Yanma” is an exclamation of excitement or praise]

“Wow, that guy is seriously no joke! Once it connects, it just goes over!!!”

“Crazy, crazy! Who would have thought a guy would hit his debut home run out of the park!”

Shim Sung-joon! Shim Sung-joon! Shim Sung-joon!

Every single Cannons player ran out of the dugout and chanted Shim Sung-joon’s name.

With a slightly dazed expression at the enthusiastic reaction, Shim Sung-joon rounds the diamond and steps on home base.

There was one person who approached Shim, who was trembling with tension, with a bright smile.

“Good job, Sung-joon! You did really well!”

Thwack thwack.

The person who was hitting Shim Sung-joon’s helmet with his palm was none other than first base runner Lee Soo-bin.

“Hey, how’s the taste of a home run? After messing around for almost a week and then hitting a home run…… it must taste amazing, right?”

“Ta, taste?”

Good. Amazing. Fantastic.

Quite a few words flashed through Shim Sung-joon’s mind, but the expression he uttered at this moment was as follows.

“It tasted like strawberry, senior!”

He gave a thumbs up.

“Not Super Muscle…… but the refreshing and sweet strawberry flavor of Muscle Macho.”

It seemed that Shim Sung-joon had brought up the words while recalling his meeting with his senior, but Lee Soo-bin was apparently not the type to think that deeply.

“Wow, this muscle-crazed bastard.”

Lee Soo-bin clicked his tongue.

“You were thinking about protein supplements even in the midst of that?!

* * *

The game that day, held at Busan Mariners Stadium.

The game, which drew more attention due to the matchup of the two teams’ ‘young gun starters,’ ended with a victory for the KH Cannons.

The final score was 7-4.

Waaaaaaaah!!!

Lee Yong-gi, a pitcher who was gradually making a name for himself as the KH Cannons’ new starting pitcher, had a quality start with 6 innings and 3 runs allowed.

Kang Jae-yoon, who took over as closer in place of Jang Dae-woo that day, recorded his first save of the season with a scoreless performance for 1 and 1/3 innings.

There were many other players who could be considered ‘heroes,’ but the player who was ultimately selected as the game’s MVP was this player.

-Shout it out, God Sung-joon!!!

-Of course Shim Sung-joon should receive it!

-Wow, seriously crazy! Two home runs in one day! And 6 RBIs!!!

-Plus, he’s a rookie in his first year this year. Unlike Jang Ho, he’s not going to America next year!

-Honestly, I was a bit nervous about next year, but having a rookie like this makes me feel secure!

-What’s up with our team these days? There’s no point to criticize even if I want to lol – Um, perfectly flawless!

-Isn’t it Perfect Cannons?

-K, getting drunk on Cannons pride!

The dazzling performance of a rookie player who entered with an expanded roster in the second half of the season.

Around that time, the internet community was overflowing with the joyous screams of Cannons fans.

“You’ve worked hard, Soo-bin.”

Ji-seop was on the phone with Lee Soo-bin, who had returned to the away team’s lodging.

“I just spoke with the manager as well. He was praising you a lot? He said Sung-joon’s performance today was all thanks to you.”

-Eh, I didn’t do anything.

It was Lee Soo-bin’s voice.

-Everyone knows about Sung-joon’s power, right? With those arms, those thighs…… it would be weirder if that much power didn’t come out.

Wow, crazy bastard.

Lee Soo-bin made a ‘whew’ sound.

-Besides, if hyung [older brother or respected male figure] hadn’t told me about the association technique, I wouldn’t have even thought about feeding Sung-joon protein shakes.

He was being humble, but Lee Soo-bin’s voice, which could be heard over the receiver, was full of pride.

The fact that a junior player, whom he had taught with sincerity for the past few days, had shown tremendous performance.

It seemed that he was feeling a different kind of joy than when he himself had performed on the field.

The idea of making Lee Soo-bin the Cannons’ new ‘dugout leader’ was gradually becoming a reality.

‘Hehe, that guy who always only cared about food…… he’s really grown a lot.’

Players who always show a slightly better version of themselves than he had imagined.

As he was feeling proud to be with such players, Lee Soo-bin suddenly brought up another topic.

-Hyungnim [a more respectful form of hyung], but you know.

“Yeah? What?”

-When hyung hears it, is ‘LS Duo’ better, or ‘SL Duo’ better?

“LS Duo? SL Duo?”

What is he talking about again.

Ji-seop tilted his head, but Lee Soo-bin continued the story with a confident voice.

-Isn’t ‘LS Duo’ an overwhelming victory here? It sounds natural when you hear it. It seems like it would be good to use in newspaper articles and such.

“Ah…….”

At the words ‘newspaper article,’ Ji-seop could guess what Lee Soo-bin was talking about.

“Are you and Sung-joon…… making some kind of nickname?”

When a baseball team does well, a nickname is often created to group the team’s key hitters together.

Like the ‘Woo-Dong-Soo’ trio that was famous in the late 90s, or the ‘Lee-Ma-Yang’ trio that was famous in the early 2000s.

Or nicknames like ‘LCK Trio’ that gained fame in the late 2000s.

Lee Soo-bin seemed to be creating such a nickname with Shim Sung-joon right now.

‘Aigo [an expression of exasperation or amusement], he’s drinking kimchi soup by the bowl [being overly optimistic or presumptuous]?’

At first, Ji-seop was so dumbfounded that he laughed.

To be devising a nickname for a junior who had just hit his debut home run.

In the first place, such nicknames are created by the media or fans, not by the players themselves, right?

‘Well, that’s true, but…….’

Maybe it was a good idea.

It could be a motivation for the players who will lead the Cannons’ lineup in the future.

If they move forward with the goal of ‘Let’s form a cleanup trio together,’ it would definitely be helpful to the Cannons.

“Hmm, then…….”

Reaching this point, Ji-seop decided to provide an idea that the two guys wouldn’t fight over.

“How about taking the middle letters of your names to make ‘SS Duo’ instead?”

-SS Duo?

“Yeah. Isn’t it much better than LS or SL? It feels like something like ‘SS-class lineup’.”

-Oh, that’s right! SS-class lineup! Ah, why didn’t I think of that? Sung-joon, is that okay with you too?

Lee Soo-bin and Shim Sung-joon were satisfied with the idea Ji-seop had come up with.

Ji-seop thought that another hurdle was being overcome, but an unexpected story came to him.

-Hyungnim, then while we’re at it…… I think we should look for a guy among next year’s rookies whose name has a ‘ㅅ’ [pronounced “siot,” a Korean consonant similar to “s”] in the middle.

“ㅅ? Why ㅅ?”

-If I raise that guy and put him in the cleanup trio…… then an ‘SSS-class lineup’ will be created, right?

SSS-class is better than SS-class!

Isn’t that common sense?

Listening to Lee Soo-bin’s ambitious voice, Ji-seop was quietly smiling.