A Rookie In The Baseball Team Is Too Good [EN]: Chapter 40

The New Recruit of the Baseball Team is Too Good – Episode 40

#The New Recruit of the Baseball Team is Too Good Episode 40

Chapter 12: Once an Ace (1)

The day after Jimmy Morris pitched well in the practice game.

Jo Sung-beom, the head of the International Affairs Team, requested a ‘business report’ through Deputy Kim Dong-hui.

“There’s no need to feel pressured.”

That was Deputy Kim Dong-hui’s words.

“The chief also knows that Morris’s condition has improved noticeably… The purpose of the business report is to report the roles of the two of you to the higher-ups.”

So, the story was that they only needed to briefly summarize what the two of them had done to help Jimmy Morris recover his condition.

Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok nodded slowly.

“Understood.”

“I will visit the chief tomorrow morning.”

Go Chang-deok was in charge of writing the report.

Ji-seop, who had only thrown balls his whole life, was practically hopeless in this area.

While Go Chang-deok was squatting in front of the laptop, racking his brain, Ji-seop made mixed coffee and bought snacks.

The next morning, after staying up almost all night.

Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok were walking towards the International Affairs Team office on the second floor of the hotel.

“How is it? Does it seem okay?”

Go Chang-deok spoke to Ji-seop, who was reading the completed report.

“It’s absolutely excellent.”

Ji-seop gave a thumbs up.

“I’m thinking that someone who went to graduate school is different for a reason.”

“No, don’t just praise me like that.”

Go Chang-deok seemed unusually anxious.

Of course, ‘conversion to a permanent position’ was at stake, and it was the first time he was officially submitting a report.

Even considering all that, he seemed a little too anxious.

Of course, Ji-seop wasn’t the kind of person to miss his colleague’s feelings.

“Are you worried about something?”

“Hmm?”

“I was wondering if you’re worried about omitting the fact that Jimmy Morris was doing internet broadcasting.”

“You son of a gun, you’re a ghost.”

Go Chang-deok looked at Ji-seop with a slightly stunned expression.

“Yeah, I’m a little worried about that.”

It was a matter that the two had decided on after a long discussion.

The fact that Jimmy Morris didn’t have insomnia.

The fact that he was staying up almost all night doing internet broadcasting.

These two facts were not to be included in the business report.

“I think what you said is right. That’s why I agreed.”

Ji-seop continued.

“Morris has started to adapt to the team. He seems to be quite close with Jang-ho, and he’s starting to talk to the other players little by little.”

Two days ago, he had come to Ji-seop and confidently said he would ‘repay the trust’.

“At the current pace, there’s almost no chance that Morris will resume broadcasting… There’s no reason to make the higher-ups dislike him, right?”

Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok, who had watched Jimmy Morris’s every move by his side, could trust him for sure.

But how could they instill such trust in the higher-ups who only heard rumors from afar and read reports at best?

In their eyes, the ‘fact’ that Jimmy Morris had been doing internet broadcasting until recently would loom larger than the prospect that he would do his best in the future.

“No matter how I think about it, I think it’s better to cover up Morris’s mistakes right now. At least, that’s how I feel.”

“R, right?”

At Ji-seop’s words, Go Chang-deok seemed to have made up his mind, clenching his teeth.

“Okay, let’s just close our eyes and submit it.”

“Let’s do that.”

Ding-

The elevator that Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok were riding in was arriving on the 2nd floor.

* * *

“Hmm.”

The people who came to review Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok’s report that day were two key executives from the International Affairs Team.

Team leader Jo Sung-beom and his right-hand man, Deputy Chief Cha Yun-jin.

The two of them stared at the report that Go Chang-deok had submitted with trembling hands for a while without saying anything.

Then, the one who spoke first was ‘Black Curtain Cha Cha’ Deputy Chief Cha Yun-jin.

“So, the conclusion is that? The one who came as Jimmy Morris’s personal instructor….”

Deputy Chief Cha Yun-jin lowered her gaze to the report and then raised her head again.

“Edwin Gonzales? The story is that his departure was decisive?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Go Chang-deok nodded.

“As the deputy chief knows well, Morris is not a friendly guy. But he’s also the type who gets lonely a lot.”

“A typical tough-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside type.”

“Yes, Edwin Gonzales was the one who took care of Morris so that he could focus on baseball… I think he was greatly shaken for a while after that friend left.”

“This is a part I missed.”

Deputy Chief Cha Yun-jin continued, tapping the report with a pen.

“The report from the local scout in the United States said he was just a bullpen catcher… I should have looked into it more.”

“Even if they are friends in the United States, it’s a little difficult to grasp these details.”

That was Chief Jo Sung-beom’s words.

“The number of players those friends are looking at at our request is easily over a thousand… How can they grasp each and every one of those many players?”

Ji-seop’s thick eyebrows twitched slightly at this moment.

‘…What is it?’

Because Chief Jo Sung-beom’s words sounded a little awkward.

‘Cha Cha was saying that her information gathering was insufficient… Why is Chief Jo suddenly trying to cover up the local scouts in the United States?’

Chief Jo Sung-beom, who seemed a little sloppy and a little lax, but whose words were coherent.

Why would such a person suddenly bring up such an irrelevant story?

While Ji-seop was tilting his head in his mind, Chief Jo was already changing the direction of the conversation to praise Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok.

“This matter should be seen as a great achievement for Go Chang-deok and Kim Ji-seop… I didn’t think Jimmy Morris’s condition would recover so quickly.”

You’ve worked hard.

Chief Jo Sung-beom, showing a soft smile.

“There will be a meeting hosted by the general manager a little later, right? I’ll take this report with me and convert the two of you to permanent positions… Hmm! I’ll definitely get it through.”

“R, really?!”

It was perhaps natural that a bright smile appeared on Go Chang-deok’s face.

Conversion to a permanent position.

For Go Chang-deok, who was older than his peers and had no special backing, it was a story he had been waiting for for a long time.

“Isn’t it natural? It’s a part that was promised from the beginning.”

Chief Jo Sung-beom continued.

“There may be some tricky parts among the issues to be discussed today, so the conversion to a permanent position may not happen today. But the general manager also knows about the two of you’s performance… There’s nothing to worry about too much.”

“Thank you, thank you so much!”

Go Chang-deok, who jumped up from his seat and kept bowing.

Ji-seop was also trying to get up, following him, but Go Chang-deok opened his mouth with a slightly worried expression.

“Um, Chief. But….”

“Hmm?”

Chief Jo Sung-beom, answering while putting the report in his bag.

“The fact that you’re converting the two of us to permanent positions… That means we’re going to continue with Jimmy Morris as the foreign pitcher this season, right?”

“Hmm? Why does it mean that?”

“No….”

Go Chang-deok tilted his head slightly at Chief Jo’s answer.

“You said it, Chief. You said you would convert us to permanent positions if the two of us recovered Morris’s condition.”

Now that Morris’s condition has recovered, there’s no need to look for a replacement foreigner, right?

But the answer that followed from Chief Jo was slightly different from Ji-seop’s expectations.

“Ah, right. That’s right. That’s true, but….”

Chief Jo Sung-beom, clicking his tongue.

“It might be a little disappointing for you guys, but… The story is that Jimmy Morris will be replaced.”

“Yes?!”

Ji-seop’s voice rose slightly.

“What do you mean? Didn’t you judge that Jimmy Morris’s condition was improving?”

“That’s right. But it’s also true that it’s still far from the target we initially thought of when we recruited him….”

Chief Jo Sung-beom continued, glancing at the report in his bag.

“It seems like Jimmy Morris was lying to our club people, which you guys didn’t even realize….”

“Yes?”

“He said he had insomnia, right? That’s why his condition wasn’t good. But according to the report from the local scout in the United States….”

The next moment, Ji-seop felt like his heart was sinking.

“Jimmy Morris has been doing internet broadcasting almost every night.”

“…….”

“Broadcasting is something you can do. That’s a matter of personal privacy. But he stays up all night doing that, and even lies about having insomnia to hide that fact? We can’t keep such a player until the end, can we?”

Tsk.

Chief Jo Sung-beom clicked his tongue lowly.

“This is a matter of trust between people.”

* * *

Seo Chang-ki, the general manager of KH Cannons, said this about Chief Jo Sung-beom.

-If he thinks someone is worth using, if he thinks someone is okay, he gives them his trust until the end, no matter what other people say.

But it seemed that the more that type of person was, the more decisively they would deal with actions that lied or betrayed trust.

To Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok, who were standing there with half-stunned expressions, Chief Jo Sung-beom said with an unprecedentedly cold expression.

“The list of replacement foreign players has already been finalized. The replacement foreign player candidates will come to Okinawa for testing as early as tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”

“Jimmy Morris will have to pack his bags as soon as the replacement foreign player is confirmed. Of course, he will have to be held legally responsible for his past actions.”

Do not tell Jimmy Morris anything until everything is confirmed.

With that request as the last, Chief Jo Sung-beom left the International Affairs Team office with Deputy Chief Cha Yun-jin.

Ji-seop and Go Chang-deok, who were left alone in the empty office, felt like they had been hit hard on the back of the head.

“……We’re in trouble.”

As a result, he had obtained the ‘conversion to a permanent position’ that he had so desperately wanted, but Go Chang-deok’s expression was not very bright.

“Ji-seop, what happens if this happens? That friend Morris… Isn’t he going to be a complete outcast?”

It wasn’t just a matter of losing the stage to play in this season.

If KH Cannons officially raised the issue, he could be in a position to go back and forth between the courts for the next few years.

“In a way, it’s his own fault. Morris was the one who lied, and Morris was the one who broadcasted.”

“Y, yes, but….”

Go Chang-deok seemed anxious.

“When you think about it, isn’t it because that friend left Morris’s side? Just when he was about to get his act together and do it right….”

He said ‘it’s his own fault’, but Ji-seop also felt sorry.

Ji-seop also remembered Morris’s face, who had confidently said that he would ‘raise him from the bottom’.

Nevertheless, the reason why Ji-seop’s expression could be calm at this time was because of one question that filled his head.

“But… Isn’t it a little strange?”

“What is?”