The Newcomer in the Baseball Team is Too Good – Episode 28
Chapter 9: Into the First Team (2)
Two days after the ‘Genius Hitter’ Ryu Jang-ho showcased his prowess in live batting practice.
Ji-seop was in the second-team batting coach’s office on the fourth floor of the hotel, saying his final goodbyes before leaving for Okinawa to join the first team.
“That operations team leader is going too far.”
Those were the first words out of the second-team batting coach’s mouth when Ji-seop opened the door to the coach’s office.
“It’s obvious there’s no one useful in the second team, so why do they have to take you away of all people?”
Just when he thought he’d finally found a decent batting practice pitcher after a long time, he had to send him off to the first team without even using him for a few days.
From today’s training onwards, he would have to search for a new batting practice pitcher, so it was no surprise that the second-team batting coach was unhappy.
“You too, Ji-seop.”
“Yes?”
Ji-seop tilted his head, puzzled.
“Even if the operations team leader asked, ‘Do you want to go to the first team?’, you should have said, ‘I still have a lot to learn in the second team’.”
“You have no loyalty.”
“I didn’t think you were like that.”
The second-team batting coach grumbled with his arms crossed.
Ji-seop couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of the older man pouting.
“Oh, look at this guy? Laughing, are you?”
The batting coach glared at Ji-seop as if he were angry, but soon his expression softened, and he chuckled.
“Congratulations, you rascal.”
The batting coach pretended to kick Ji-seop’s butt with his slippered foot.
“From the day you first threw batting practice and asked for the training chart, I had a vague idea, but… you’ve gone up much faster than I thought.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Coach.”
It wasn’t just a polite remark.
“Thanks to you entrusting me with batting practice, I think I was able to get more opportunities than the other training assistants.”
“Without even a thank you gift?”
The batting coach raised his eyebrows.
“If you’re so grateful, you should have brought me an ‘iced Americano’ or something.”
“Ah.”
Ji-seop looked slightly embarrassed.
“W-wait here for a moment, Coach. I’ll go out and get you a cold iced Americano…”
Ji-seop reached for his wallet and tried to leave the coach’s office, but the batting coach stopped him with a single phrase, “Forget it, you rascal.”
“You worked hard and seized the opportunity, why would I take credit for that? Besides, I’m the one who used to give you grief for not being drafted professionally…”
Perhaps still bothered by their first meeting, the batting coach gave a sheepish smile.
“If you’re even a little bit grateful to me…”
“This.”
The batting coach took out a piece of paper from his desk drawer and handed it to Ji-seop.
“This is…”
“It’s a list of guys who were in the second team until last season and were called up to the first team during this spring camp.”
The batting coach pointed to each of the players’ names.
“Their habits when they were in the second team, things to watch out for… anyway, I wrote down everything I was worried about as I remembered it.”
“…”
“Even though the baseball team seems to be run haphazardly, there are rules and boundaries… As a second-team batting coach, it’s awkward for me to give advice to the guys in the first team.”
“It could be seen as overstepping my authority.”
The batting coach looked at Ji-seop.
“So, I want you to keep this in mind… and if you see any of them struggling, I hope you’ll keep an eye on them.”
“Is that okay for me to do?”
“Why not?”
The batting coach shrugged.
“Whatever the specific circumstances, you’re now the guy who pulled Ryu Jang-ho out of his slump. Even if you don’t want to, there will be people who subtly come up and ask you questions.”
“So, please do me a favor.”
The batting coach handed Ji-seop a red ginseng drink that was on the desk, giving him a meaningful look.
Ji-seop took the red ginseng drink and stood silently for a while, reading the notes written on the list of players.
“…Why?”
The batting coach, noticing Ji-seop’s silence, studied his expression.
“Why? What? Why are you suddenly standing there blankly without saying anything?”
“No, it’s just a little strange.”
Ji-seop blinked and said.
“When I came in here, I saw that everyone at the Cannons was working hard like you, Coach…”
It wasn’t just the batting coach.
The second-team manager, the second-team coach, the employees of the scouting team, and the employees of the development team.
The people Ji-seop met at the Cannons were all doing their best in their respective positions.
“But why hasn’t KH smelled the scent of fall baseball for several years now… I was just wondering.”
“W-what?!”
The batting coach stared at Ji-seop with a dumbfounded expression.
He could have said, ‘You impudent brat,’ but the batting coach seemed to have gotten used to Ji-seop’s oddness to some extent.
“I wonder, what could be the reason?”
The batting coach took off his hat and gave a bitter smile.
“If I knew the reason, I wouldn’t be here in the second team. I’d be the first-team coach, the general manager, wouldn’t I?”
The batting coach denied knowing, but Ji-seop was someone who could read other people’s minds.
[You can say that because you don’t know our KH very well yet, you rascal.]
The next moment, Ji-seop felt as if his slightly relaxed mind was being pulled taut.
[If I go to the first team, I might be able to find out what the problem with this team is.]
* * *
Exactly 10 hours later.
Ji-seop was entering the Nishikawa Stadium, located in southern Okinawa, Japan.
“I’ll go ahead. I’ll see you at dinner later.”
“Okay.”
“Good luck.”
Ryu Jang-ho, who was joining the first team’s spring camp from that day, headed to the coach’s office on the second floor of the stadium for a meeting with the manager.
Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok, as instructed, sat in the conference room on the first floor, waiting for the team staff to pick them up.
“The facilities aren’t as good as I’ve heard.”
That was Go Chang-deok’s impression.
“The condition of the ground doesn’t look very good either… I saw earlier that there doesn’t seem to be air conditioning in the office?”
“Well, that’s common in Okinawa.”
Ji-seop had been to Okinawa a few times during his time in the Japanese independent league.
“The ground in this area is always bad whenever I come. I remember once, the players came out with shovels and rakes to level the ground.”
Compared to Jeju Island, where the second team’s camp was set up, it had the advantage of warmer weather, but basically, early spring in Okinawa is often rainy.
Since it rained cats and dogs without any time to prepare, it was difficult to maintain the condition of the ground without a lot of effort.
Moreover, it was a place that was heavily affected by typhoons throughout the year, so it was not uncommon for baseball field facilities that were fine last year to be half-destroyed next year.
‘The weather is bad, and the facilities aren’t that great either…’
Nevertheless, the reason why Korean professional baseball teams set up spring camps in Okinawa is-
“It’s probably because of the practice games, right?”
“That’s probably the biggest reason.”
The fact that most of the Japanese professional baseball teams set up spring camps here in Okinawa.
For Korean professional baseball teams, this seemed to be a significant advantage.
As the spring camp progressed, there were more and more practice games to get a feel for the real thing.
If you set up camp in Okinawa, it becomes very easy to find practice game opponents.
“I heard that the teams that went to the United States had to play practice games against local university teams or independent league teams…”
Go Chang-deok nodded, looking at the Nishikawa Stadium, where darkness was beginning to fall.
It was the very next moment that someone’s voice ‘whooshed’ in behind Go Chang-deok.
“Of course, there’s that too…”
Thud, thud.
The sound of someone’s shoes.
“The fact that our players concentrate more when they play against Japanese guys than American guys is also an important part.”
“Huh?”
“Yes?”
Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok turned their heads.
In their view was a short, friendly-looking middle-aged man.
“Who is Kim Ji-seop?”
When Ji-seop raised his hand, the middle-aged man adjusted his glasses, saying, “Hmm, hmm.”
“Then this person here must be Go Chang-deok?”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
When Go Chang-deok nodded, the middle-aged man took off his glasses and greeted them.
“You must have had a hard time getting here. Nice to meet you. I’m Jo Seong-beom from the international operations team, who will be working with you two from now on…”
The middle-aged man smiled gently and looked at the two of them.
* * *
A front office executive who appeared ‘suddenly’ without giving them time to prepare.
Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok bowed stiffly, but team leader Jo Seong-beom seemed to be trying to ease the tension between the two.
“Haha, there’s no need to be so formal. If you guys do that, I’ll get nervous.”
With that, team leader Jo Seong-beom reached into the paper shopping bag he had brought.
After a while, what he put on the conference table were several donuts with a delicious yellow color.
“These are the hottest donuts in Okinawa these days. I went to buy them myself for you guys… let’s talk while we eat these.”
Team leader Jo Seong-beom smiled as he handed them donuts that were still warm.
As Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok hesitantly accepted the donuts, team leader Jo also took a bite of one and continued.
“Do you two know? Actually, this time… the competition was quite fierce?”
“Competition…?”
Go Chang-deok, with cream all over his mouth, tilted his head, and team leader Jo handed him a napkin and said.
“Isn’t it obvious? Because you two have made great contributions to Ryu Jang-ho’s overcoming his slump.”
“Ah, because of that…”
Go Chang-deok smiled brightly.
“In terms of power games between team leaders, it would have naturally gone to the operations team… but during the spring camp period, the international operations team’s work is also considerable.”
Team leader Jo Seong-beom, who had eaten a donut deliciously, wiped the oil from his hands.
“There’s the issue of adapting the newly arrived foreign players, the issue of our players’ meals, and the issue of setting up practice games that you two were talking about earlier.”
In short, it meant that it was a department that was running busily.
“So, this time I insisted a bit. I asked them to put you two in our international operations team… Ah.”
Team leader Jo turned his gaze to Go Chang-deok.
“I hope our Go Chang-deok isn’t too disappointed? There will be many opportunities to work in the scouting team in the future.”
“Ah, yes… of course!”
Go Chang-deok nodded with a smile on his face, whether it was because the donut tasted great or because he was praised for the Ryu Jang-ho case.
Team leader Jo, who was looking at Go Chang-deok with a satisfied gaze, turned his gaze back to Ji-seop.
“The specific tasks that you two will be in charge of will be decided as soon as Deputy Manager Cha Yun-jin arrives tomorrow morning… Oh, wait a minute.”
A phone call came in while he was talking.
“Yeah, Cha Cha. What’s up?”
Team leader Jo was talking to the other person.
Judging that it wasn’t a story that would end quickly, he turned to Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok and said.
“I’ll take this call… wait here for a moment. Yeah, drink some of the coffee here too.”
After taking care of the two of them until the end, team leader Jo opened the conference room door and left.
Go Chang-deok, who was looking at the back of team leader Jo, let out a short sigh.
“Thank goodness.”
Go Chang-deok opened his mouth, picking up another donut.
“I was worried that the international operations team would be similar if the scouting team seniors were so strict… but it’s nicer than I thought.”
“It seems so.”
Ji-seop nodded slowly.
“But Ji-seop, you…”
Go Chang-deok asked Ji-seop.
“Why have you had that expression since earlier? Is something wrong? Don’t you like donuts?”
“No, it’s not that…”
Ji-seop continued, fixing his gaze on the phone screen.
“I’m just a little concerned that team leader Jo Seong-beom bought us donuts.”
“Why?”
Go Chang-deok blinked.
“Are you afraid that he’ll pretend to buy us delicious things and then give us a lot of work later?”
“No, I looked it up because the donut packaging looked a little familiar…”
Ji-seop put his phone in his pocket and opened his mouth.
“It takes exactly an hour and a half by car.”
Ji-seop looked at Go Chang-deok.
“From here to that donut shop.”