A Rookie In The Baseball Team Is Too Good [EN]: Chapter 303

Chapter 73: How to Feed a Carrot (6)

-Ah, there’s movement in the Tampa Bay dugout. It looks like the hitting coach is coming out… Ah, no! It’s not the hitting coach!

When Manager Mike Clemblasky stormed out of the dugout, the broadcaster shouted so loudly that the microphone momentarily crackled.

-It’s Mike! Manager Mike Clemblasky is out! He’s pulling Mark Kohun back and heading straight for the umpire!

That was indeed the case.

It wasn’t uncommon for a manager to come out and protest an umpire’s call.

Especially in Major League Baseball, where there are 162 games per team per year, with at least 15 games happening every day.

However, the broadcaster couldn’t hide his surprise at this moment.

-I’ve been covering Tampa Bay games for almost three years now, and I think this is almost the first time I’ve seen Manager Clemblasky protesting an umpire’s call.

-That’s right. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it either. Manager Clemblasky is someone who doesn’t even twitch an eyebrow at most things…

Against the backdrop of the commentators’ bewildered voices, Mike Clemblasky approached the umpire.

In the office of the Future Strategy Planning Department, a slightly different kind of exclamation was erupting.

“Kim! Kim! Kiiiiim!!”

A very excited voice.

It was David Wilson.

“Kim! That… that’s what I told the manager! It seems the manager took my advice!”

“The manager?”

John Llama, sitting next to Jisub, blinked.

“The manager took David’s advice? What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Hey, Taylor, don’t you know? I was called in by the manager before the game!”

That was true.

David Wilson was away for lunch when the manager visited the Future Strategy Planning Department.

But thanks to Jisub, who had delivered the message, he was able to achieve the glorious ‘one-on-one with the manager’ that day.

“I told him then that today’s umpire is the least experienced in the entire Major League. If you say a word or two at the beginning, you might be able to benefit from ball calls throughout the game.”

David’s voice trembled.

“I thought he would just listen with one ear and let it out the other, given his personality, but he really took my advice…”

From the perspective of a front office employee, there was nothing more welcome than the manager taking their advice.

Because their concerns for making a better team were directly manifested before their eyes.

Therefore, David Wilson was very excited, but John Llama’s face was full of worry.

“…Are you sure this is okay?”

John Llama crossed his arms.

“What if he gets ejected? If the manager gets ejected from the first inning, the players will be quite confused…”

“It’ll be fine.”

David Wilson was confident.

“I told him that a word or two would be enough. The manager also said it’s better to avoid unnecessary emotional fights. So you don’t have to worry about that… Hmm?”

In the very next moment, David Wilson’s eyes widened.

Manager Clemblasky, who was supposed to just protest with a word or two.

However, despite the hitting coach’s attempts to stop him, he raised his voice, veins popping out of his neck.

And the umpire raised his finger and swung it around in a big circle.

-Ejection! An ejection has been declared! Manager Mike Clemblasky has been ejected!

The rule is that the person who receives the ejection order must leave the dugout without delay.

After giving a few instructions to the bench coach, Mike Clemblasky left the field without hesitation.

Only the voices of excited fans echoed in Tropicana Field, where the manager had disappeared.

Mike!

Mike!

Mike!

The manager who had fiercely protested the umpire’s wrong call and disappeared.

The Tampa Bay fans endlessly chanted the manager’s name.

David Wilson and John Llama, faced with an unexpected situation, stared blankly at the TV screen for a while.

“…”

“…”

And what broke their silence was Jisub, who had been quietly listening to their conversation.

“David, where are the materials that the pitching coach asked for yesterday? I think we need to bring them to him as soon as the game ends.”

“Ah, yes! Here they are!”

As David handed over the materials on his desk and returned, John Llama approached him and asked.

“David, David.”

It was a whispering voice.

“Did you just see that?”

“See what?”

“When David handed over the materials, I thought Kim was smiling slightly?”

“Smiling?”

No way.

David waved his hand.

“In this situation where the manager was ejected from the first inning, why would he smile?”

He continued.

“How serious is Kim?”

* * *

David flatly said it was nonsense, but what John Llama saw at that moment was a clear fact.

The moment Mike Clemblasky was ejected, Jisub couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

‘Oh, Manager…’

You’re doing things you don’t normally do.

Yes, I certainly advised you to do so.

But I never thought you would choose to get ejected right from the first inning.

I didn’t know you would follow my advice in this way, so Jisub had a wry smile on his face.

“…”

Of course, it didn’t last long.

If the manager listened to Jisub’s advice and even risked ejection, then Jisub also had to make sure to achieve what the manager wanted.

That which Mike Clemblasky absolutely needed for the Tampa Bay Rays to win the World Series.

‘A company dinner in a free and comfortable atmosphere…’

Jisub moved immediately after the game ended that day.

Holding the materials that the pitching coach had requested, Jisub diligently walked towards the coaching staff’s office.

Fortunately, the final score of the game was 5-1, with Tampa Bay winning-

“Oh, Kim! You didn’t have to come all the way here, thank you!”

Coach Thomas Culkin, who received the materials from Jisub, didn’t look very bright.

Perhaps it was only natural. The manager, who seemed like he wouldn’t bleed even if you pricked him with a needle, had suddenly been ejected.

“Hoo, what can I say? We coaches are… it feels like we’ve been hit with a club in the middle of the night.”

When Jisub asked what the atmosphere was like among the coaching staff, Thomas Culkin shook his head.

“To think that the manager, who was always so calm, would get so angry. It seems like we didn’t understand the manager’s feelings well enough, and I wonder if we should have talked to the umpire beforehand…”

There were various stories among the coaches, but they said that they were currently settling on watching the situation.

“Watching?”

Jisub tilted his head.

“Watching… You mean you’re not contacting the manager separately or anything like that?”

“Hey, what contact?”

Coach Thomas Culkin waved his hand.

“Don’t you know from experience? How thorough our manager is. Maybe there was a separate reason why he was ejected today… That’s our conclusion.”

In the end, it was the right thing to say.

Mike Clemblasky had chosen to be ejected after listening to Jisub’s advice.

But could he simply believe the ‘he must have had a reason’ that people were saying without knowing the circumstances?

Jisub asked the pitching coach with a slight smile.

“Coach, are you serious?”

“Huh?”

The pitching coach flinched, as if he had a guilty conscience.

“I don’t know. What intention did the manager have in choosing to be ejected?”

“Well… hey, you know, things like that. To change the atmosphere or to inspire the players’ fighting spirit.”

“In the bottom of the first inning?”

Jisub increased the pressure.

“Wasn’t it just the beginning of the game? Right after overcoming a bases-loaded, two-out crisis in the top of the first? The atmosphere must have been great.”

“No! Mark Kohun almost ruined that good atmosphere. So…”

“If it were the manager we know, wouldn’t he have chosen to exclude Mark Kohun? I think that would suit him better.”

“Well, yes, that’s true, but…”

Jisub was like a boxer with good footwork, throwing jabs.

The pitching coach was speechless at his remarks and ended up looking displeased.

[This kid knows why we’re doing this…]

[Who doesn’t? The manager must have gotten upset in the moment. The ball calls have been ambiguous throughout this series. He might be regretting it now.]

[But what justification do we have to contact him first? We weren’t that close to begin with.]

In the end, it was as Jisub had expected.

In crude terms, no one wanted to ‘take the blame’.

No one had deep conversations with Manager Clemblasky, and no one exchanged jokes with him.

Since they always had only business-like conversations, it would be awkward to step forward in this situation.

‘It’s not that I don’t understand the coaches’ feelings…’

But now is the time for the coaches to step up.

Jisub decided to bring up the story he had prepared.

“While I was in Korea for a few years, it seems the atmosphere in American baseball has changed a lot?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

The pitching coach blinked.

“Even though it was the independent league, in the past, when a junior made a mistake, the seniors would call, buy them a meal, and comfort them.”

“Hmm?”

The pitching coach immediately retorted.

“No, it’s the same now. Didn’t Alex Montero tell you? Remember when he allowed a bunch of stolen bases recently? The senior players on the team contacted him, bought him a meal, and so on.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Hey, that’s obvious! How important is the relationship between seniors and juniors among athletes?”

That was exactly what Jisub needed to hear.

That one word came out at just the right moment.

“It goes without saying for other positions, and it’s the same even for the same position. Even if they are competing for a starting spot on the field, once they leave the field, they revert to being seniors and juniors! If someone makes a mistake, can you just leave them alone? You call them, buy them a meal, give them advice…”

“Ah, once they leave the field, they revert to being seniors and juniors?”

Smirk.

A meaningful smile appeared on Jisub’s lips.

“It’s strange, Coach.”

“What is it now?”

“Why doesn’t that obvious story apply to the manager?”

“Huh?”

“Can’t we say what you just said in a slightly different way?”

Inside the stadium, it’s the relationship between the manager and the coach, but outside the stadium, they revert to being baseball seniors and juniors.

“In my opinion, the manager made a mistake today. He couldn’t handle it calmly and even got ejected.”

“…….”

“The manager is 39 this year, and you are 47 this year. Even though age doesn’t matter in America, if we follow the rules among athletes…”

Jisub looked at the pitching coach.

“Shouldn’t you contact the manager first today?”

The reason is simple.

“Aren’t you the manager’s senior in the baseball world?”

“Me, a baseball… senior?”

A troubled expression appeared on Thomas Culkin’s face.

“Does that… work that way?”

* * *

At that very moment when Jisub was discussing ‘baseball seniors and juniors’ with Thomas Culkin.

Manager Mike Clemblasky was sitting in his car parked in the Tropicana Field parking lot.

“…….”

Originally, he should have been waiting in the manager’s office.

That was the promise he had made with Jisub.

The promise that he would be contacted when a ‘free and comfortable dinner’ with the coaching staff was arranged.

However, even after making that promise, Manager Clemblasky had gotten into his car early.

There was no other reason.

‘If the dinner isn’t arranged… I’ll have to head home right away.’

In fact, it was an awkward day to have a dinner.

He had to take the team’s private plane tomorrow morning, and there was a game against the Baltimore Orioles in the afternoon.

Considering those things, having a dinner that day itself would be a violation of Manager Clemblasky’s ‘baseball philosophy’.

So, Manager Clemblasky had set his own criteria.

‘I’ll wait until… exactly eleven o’clock.’

He checked his wristwatch.

‘I’ll wait until exactly eleven o’clock, and if I don’t hear from them by then, I’ll leave without regret.’

Honestly, at this point, Mike Clemblasky was regretting his actions that day.

Telling all his inner thoughts to the Asian employee in the Future Strategy Planning Department.

And listening to that Asian employee and yelling at the umpire without hesitation.

At the time, he thought it was the right decision, but looking back, he wondered why he did it.

‘What is it? Why did I do that?’

Did he feel some inexplicable sense of closeness to the employee named Kim?

Was that why he spilled out all his inner thoughts?

If he felt a sense of closeness, he did, but how did he end up getting ejected as he was told to do?

‘I can’t figure it out.’

He had always judged situations calmly.

He had always led the team without wavering.

Why was he suddenly doing things he had never done before?

As he was thinking about this and that, the cell phone on the passenger seat ‘buzzed’.

‘Hmm?’

Looking at his wristwatch, it was exactly eleven o’clock.

It seemed the alarm he had set for exactly eleven o’clock was ringing.

Mike Clemblasky smiled wryly and fastened his seat belt.

‘Yeah, I guess I’ve become too obsessed with winning.’

It had to be that.

Otherwise, it didn’t make sense.

Telling his inner thoughts to someone he was seeing for the first time, following his instructions without question.

‘I need to be a little more level-headed. That way, I won’t make the same mistake as today…’

Thinking that, he started the car with a ‘vroom’.

Yes, that must have been the exact moment.

Buzzz- Buzzz- Buzzzzz-

For some reason, the cell phone vibration didn’t stop.

He had set the alarm to go off three or four times and then turn off, so why wasn’t it stopping?

‘Wait a minute, could it be?!’

With a hopeful heart, Mike Clemblasky picked up the cell phone.

When he pressed the [Call] button on the cell phone and carefully put it to his ear, he could hear someone’s hesitant voice in his ear.

-Ah, um, Mike?

It wasn’t ‘Skip’ or ‘Skipper’.

It meant it wasn’t the title ‘Manager’.

Who was this man who suddenly called and addressed him by his name?

-It’s Thomas Culkin.

“Ah, yes, Coach.”

And the next moment,

Mike Clemblasky knew that the Asian employee in the Future Strategy Planning Department had kept his promise.

-Would you like to have a drink… briefly?

It was Thomas Culkin’s words.

-I’m sure you’re feeling down.