A Rookie In The Baseball Team Is Too Good [EN]: Chapter 323

Baseball Team Newbie Is Too Good – Episode 323

Baseball Team Newbie Is Too Good 323

76. Do You Even Eat? (7)

Jon Rahma’s words rang true.

Jiseop had broken out in a cold sweat the night before.

“……”

It had been nice to share a light beer with the Tampa Bay players after the game.

It was also a good idea to lure Julio Arcos, who happened to live in the same apartment building, with the excuse of offering him ‘a taste of home’.

But then, while preparing Julio’s hometown food according to mentor Anne Reynolds’ recipe…

“Wait a minute! Kim, did you just put sugar in that? The recipe calls for salt!”

“……Salt?”

The alcohol was to blame.

No matter how little interest Jiseop had in cooking, there was no way he couldn’t distinguish between salt and sugar.

It was a simple mistake, occurring while making a dish he had never seen before under the influence of alcohol.

Of course, Jon Rahma didn’t seem to accept Jiseop’s reasonable explanation.

“Hey, what’s with the drunken excuses at a time like this? I know exactly how much you can drink, Kim.”

“No, I’m telling you! If I had been sober, I could have easily made this dish……”

“Stop making excuses. What are we going to do now? I made a big promise to show Julio the taste of his hometown!”

Jiseop silently looked at Julio Arcos, who was sitting at the table.

Whether it was because of the fatigue from the game or the beer he had afterward, he was dozing off with his phone in his hand.

It was too late to start cooking again, and ordering delivery seemed impractical.

Either way, it seemed like Julio would be completely asleep by the time the food arrived.

Thus, Jiseop pulled out his third option.

Rustle-

A friendly friend of Koreans.

Ramen [instant noodles].

* * *

“Alright, the food is here.”

Obviously,

When Jiseop placed a large pot on the table, Julio Arcos wore a very strange expression.

“Hey, Kim! Did I hear you wrong? I thought you were going to make Vuelva a la Vida [a traditional Ecuadorian seafood soup]?”

Julio Arcos smiled, mentioning the name of the traditional Mexican dish.

Jiseop also gave a bitter smile while picking up bowls, ladles, forks, and such.

“Vuelva a la… noodle.”

Jiseop scratched his head.

“I was going to make you a hometown dish as a welcome, Arcos, but… Damn, it wasn’t easy.”

“Haha, right? I was nervous from the first time I heard it. It’s a surprisingly difficult dish to make.”

Julio stretched his neck and peered inside the large pot.

“Oh, noodle! It’s a noodle dish.”

He didn’t seem to dislike it.

“Um, um, it’s good! It’s a little spicy, but it’s delicious? It’s the perfect food to eat after drinking.”

“Right? I’ve been stocking up on it at home ever since Kim got me to try it once!”

That’s how the midnight ramen tasting session began.

In fact, Jiseop didn’t seem to have any special thoughts at this time.

It was literally an improvisation. A bowl of ramen served because he couldn’t send a guest he had invited back home on an empty stomach.

But who would have known? Sometimes improvisation leads to unexpected results.

“Ah, but……”

It was Jiseop’s (nominal) direct superior, Jon Rahma, who opened the door to that ‘unexpected result’.

“Kim, what’s the secret?”

Slurp.

Jon Rahma said, pulling up a strand of ramen.

“I’ve tried cooking it a few times at home, you know? But no matter what I do, it doesn’t taste the same.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I followed the instructions on the back exactly, but somehow… I don’t know, it doesn’t have that taste that sticks to your mouth?”

“Ah, then……”

At this time, various tips came to Jiseop’s mind.

Put the ramen soup in before the noodles, add a drop of vinegar, or if you want a more stimulating taste, add about 1/3 of the ramen soup immediately after cooking.

“……”

But the moment he saw Julio, who was diligently eating the noodles, no matter what the two of them said.

Jiseop thought that this could be an opportunity. An opportunity to make Julio Arcos recall his old memories.

So the answer he came up with was as follows.

“It’s probably going to be difficult.”

Jiseop said bluntly.

“You shouldn’t use my ramen as a standard. I’m a person who has reached a level that can’t be caught up with in a month or two of effort. You should see me as a ramen master.”

“……Master?”

Jon Rahma chuckled.

“Don’t joke around, Kim! Where is there a master in instant food? You just have to put in water, put in soup, and boil it……”

“Hey, that’s not it?”

Jiseop acted nonchalantly.

“Do you know how much ramen I’ve cooked? From the age of 13 to the age of 19, I cooked ramen almost every day for almost 7 years.”

“Every day? Did you like ramen that much?”

“No, it’s not that… I was too hungry after training at that time. When I came back to the dorm, I cooked ramen with my friends to fill my stomach.”

He still remembered it vividly.

Jiseop deliberately looked at the ceiling with a faint expression.

“The stories I told while eating ramen with my friends… Well, I thought I could do anything at that time. I could become a major leaguer, win the Cy Young Award, and make a fortune with a FA [free agent] deal and spend money like water……”

“Kim……”

Kind-hearted Jon Rahma had a heavy expression, thinking that Jiseop was recalling his unfulfilled dreams.

Of course, at this time, Jiseop was not immersed in old memories.

The reason why he brought up the old story was to throw this one word at Julio, who was silently devouring the ramen.

“Mr. Arcos, how was Mexico? Was the atmosphere similar to ours for the young baseball players there?”

“Yes, I think it was similar. Haha, I’m getting a lot of old memories because Kim brought it up.”

‘I got you.’

Jiseop cheered inwardly.

“We mainly ate dinner at the manager’s house. The manager was a major leaguer, so if you went to his house, you could eat as much food as you wanted that you couldn’t usually see.”

“Oh, major leaguer!”

Jon Rahma added a word.

“Then you must have dreamed of becoming a major leaguer because of the manager’s influence?”

“Well, is it thanks to the manager? Actually, if you’re a kid who plays baseball, you naturally dream of the major league, right?”

Julio replied calmly.

But soon he narrowed his eyes and began to recall his memories.

“Um, no. The manager’s influence wasn’t completely absent. He told me a lot about the good things about becoming a major leaguer.”

“Good things?”

“Yes, even if you’re only on the 40-man roster, you don’t have to worry about hospital bills for the rest of your life, or you’ll get a pension until you die if you work hard for about 3 years… Something like that.”

“Ah.”

Jiseop had no choice but to try hard to suppress the bitter smile that was about to appear on his face.

‘No, what kind of manager is he to only tell the kid that kind of story?’

Don’t you tell growing children about bigger dreams?

But when he mentioned the major league, all he mentioned was medical deduction and lifelong pension.

If he had learned under such a manager, it seemed like nothing special would come out even if he recalled his past memories, right at that moment.

Yes, it was right at that moment.

“Come to think of it, the Vuelva a la Vida that Kim said he would make for me today… I got the most delicious one at that manager’s house.”

Julio snapped his fingers.

“It must have been the day after I signed a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers, when I went to the manager’s house after drinking a lot with my friends. That’s right, the one I got to eat at that time was really delicious.”

With an expression as if he was immersed in memories, he smiled and continued.

“I remember. The manager was very angry at that time. He said, ‘How can a guy who’s about to go to America drink and hang out? This is just the beginning.’ Even while nagging, he put a plate in front of me to soothe my stomach.”

“……”

“Wait a minute, the manager said something at that time… What was it? What did I hear… Um?!

Oh, my.

It was at this moment that an ‘oops’ expression suddenly appeared on the face of Julio Arcos, who had been relaxed all along.

* * *

“So… what is it?”

And around dinner time the next day.

Jiseop, who was watching the Tampa Bay Rays game in the office, was being questioned by David Wilson.

“What did that manager say to Julio? What on earth did he say to make a person like that in an instant……”

“He’s the fourth batter.”

Looking at Julio, who was entering the plate, Jiseop said in a calm voice.

“He said he didn’t need anything else. He said he wanted him to be the fourth batter in the major league, even if it was just once.”

“Fourth batter? Why?”

“I heard that Julio’s manager had experienced everything from 1st to 9th in his active days. Except for one, the fourth batter.”

“Ah, so he entrusted his unfulfilled dream to his disciple… Something like that.”

David Wilson’s reaction to Jiseop’s words was as follows.

“He’s a very old-fashioned person.”

“Is that so?”

“These days, they don’t put much meaning on the fourth batter. The 3rd batter is more important than the 4th batter, and these days, the 2nd batter is more important.”

Jiseop thought the same.

‘He’s an old man. An old man who thinks the fourth batter is the center of the team.’

But thanks to that old man throwing a word at Julio, Jiseop was able to watch the broadcast screen with a comfortable feeling for the first time in a long time.

“So… is that why Julio suddenly started training? To try to be the fourth batter somehow?”

“Yes, the manager in question passed away 10 years ago, but… From the perspective of the person who is left, it must have been a word that he couldn’t just pass over.”

Of course, he was an extremely realistic Julio Arcos.

If it was a huge request to aim for the league MVP or to aim for the home run king, he would have made a hole to escape somehow.

But it was the fourth batter. For him, who has hit more than 20 home runs every year in Triple A [the highest level of Minor League Baseball], that goal is not impossible at all.

With Paul Torres out injured, perhaps now is the best opportunity.

Thus, perhaps the most leisurely slugger in the major league seemed to have gritted his teeth and decided to take a stab at it.

“Then… what happens after that?”

Just as Julio Arcos, who had entered the plate, was facing a 2-2 ball count, David Wilson turned to Jiseop and asked.

“Doesn’t that mean that once he plays as the fourth batter somehow, he’ll go back to the way he was before?”

“Well, can’t we think about that slowly?”

Jiseop shrugged his shoulders.

“No matter how great Julio’s talent is, the years he has lived leisurely have been too long. It will take quite a while to attack the balls of the major league ace pitchers……”

Thud!

What interrupted Jiseop’s words was a sharp hitting sound from the TV speaker.

Julio Arcos, who was cornered with a 2-2 ball count, swung wildly at the opponent pitcher’s changeup and sent a huge hit flying.

“Huh?!”

“Huh?”

Jiseop and David Wilson, who were watching the game, were surprised and stood up from their seats.

The next moment, what came into their view was a white ball flying straight as a line drive and hitting the outfield fence of Tropicana Field as it was.

-Ho, it’s a home run! Julio Arcos’ first home run of the season! The home run that manager Mike Clemblas has been desperately hoping for has finally been scored!!

Wow!!!

Amid the enthusiastic cheers of the audience, the Tampa Bay Rays’ replacement player slowly turned around the diamond.

The moment his smooth swing motion, like flowing water, came out in replay.

David Wilson was smiling slightly and turning to Jiseop.

“Kim, shall I connect you to the president? I think it would be better to report on Julio as soon as possible.”

“……I see. Please.”

Jiseop also smiled.

“I’ll tell you. Please postpone the use of Julio Arcos as the fourth batter until the last game of the season.”

If we do that,

We will be able to obtain it.

A new main gun (主砲) [ace hitter] of the Tampa Bay Rays to replace Paul Torres.

Furthermore, Julio Arcos, a slugger who will lead the team to the post season.