On The Rise As A Catcher [EN]: Chapter 131

“To me?”

“Hyeri told me that there’s been no progress between you and Romi since then, right?”

“Ah… There was nothing to begin with, so what progress are you talking about?”

“Nothing? When that scandal broke out, I heard you sent snacks and cakes to the broadcasting station. And you bought them from Romi’s favorite store? Isn’t that right?”

“I sent them as an apology because I felt like she was unfairly troubled because of me. I haven’t contacted her or anything like that since then.”

“That’s why I feel sorry. It feels like something that could have gone well didn’t because of me… I heard.”

Kim Jung-ryul lowered his voice further.

“It seems like Romi has feelings for you.”

Song Seok-hyun shook his head.

“I’m not thinking about anything else right now. I don’t have the *yeoyu* [mental余裕; emotional space/bandwidth].”

“Really? Aren’t you interested too? Is Romi not your style?”

“It’s not about style, I just don’t have the *yeoyu* to focus on anything else right now. It hasn’t even been a year since I joined, so it’s not the time to be thinking about other things.”

“Is that so? Well, you’ll take care of your own love life.”

“Don’t worry about me, just think about treating me to noodles. You want to get married soon, don’t you, senior?”

“I was just looking at couple rings today.”

“Couple rings? Ah, so do you have a date [meaning a wedding date is set]?”

“Yeah, I figured it would be better to have a woman’s perspective, so I called my cousin.”

“If you’re wearing couple rings, isn’t that almost like making it public?”

“It’s not confirmed yet, but we’re talking about it. Maybe after this season… well… it might happen.”

Song Seok-hyun clapped softly.

“Congratulations, congratulations. Isn’t that late for an athlete [to get married]?”

“A little? I didn’t expect things to develop so quickly, but somehow it turned out this way.”

“It must be fate.”

“Fate… well, maybe.”

Kim Jung-ryul stroked his chin.

“Anyway, you really have no interest in Romi?”

“I don’t know what will happen in the future, but right now, no.”

“I just keep feeling sorry. Romi even seems to have some interest in you.”

“She’s probably just saying nice things.”

“Anyway, if it’s meant to be, you’ll meet somehow. Who knew I’d end up with Hyeri like this.”

“I understand. You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll ask for a delicious bowl of noodles later.”

“Is noodles all you think about? I’ll even get you a suit. Aren’t you the number one contributor [to the team’s success]?”

“Yes, yes. I understand. Thank you.”

As soon as Kim Jung-ryul arrived in Daegu, Yoo Seon-ho and Kim In-hwan surrounded him as if they had been waiting, asking about his cousin.

Kim Jung-ryul waved his hands, avoiding them and running to the hotel.

That evening.

Song Seok-hyun was reviewing game footage on his laptop.

While checking each play based on the scouting report, someone knocked.

“Yes.”

When Song Seok-hyun opened the door, Yoo Seon-ho and Kim In-hwan were standing outside.

“We were feeling restless just staying in, so we were wondering if you wanted to go swing some bats?”

* * *

Yoo Seon-ho took them to a high school in Daegu.

It was Yoo Seon-ho’s alma mater and a famous school with a prestigious baseball team.

“Hello, senior!”

“Greetings, senior!”

When Yoo Seon-ho appeared, students, coaches, and even the manager came to greet him.

Yoo Seon-ho spoke with them familiarly and then pointed to Kim In-hwan and Song Seok-hyun.

“They want to work out a bit, is that alright?”

“That’s Song Seok-hyun and Kim In-hwan, right? Of course, of course. Why wouldn’t it be? While you’re here, sign an autograph for my son and give him some good luck.”

“Yes, I will.”

After taking pictures with the students and signing autographs, their training began.

Song Seok-hyun finished his usual short workout and rested, but Kim In-hwan and Yoo Seon-ho swung and swung, each determined not to be outdone by the other.

Song Seok-hyun unintentionally became their training assistant, filling the baseball boxes.

“Should we take a break?”

“Yes, I think it would be good to rest for a bit.”

Yoo Seon-ho and Kim In-hwan collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.

Song Seok-hyun handed them each a drink.

“Thanks, thanks. Wow, my stamina is really dropping. I need to manage it during the season.”

“You usually don’t train much during the season, do you, senior? Aren’t you overdoing it today?”

At Song Seok-hyun’s question, Yoo Seon-ho replied, panting.

“If it were just about stamina, I shouldn’t be doing this, but that’s not what’s important right now. I need to get my condition up quickly. Right now, I’m a liability, a liability.”

“A liability? The lineup has completely changed since you came, senior.”

“It’s temporary, temporary. Even if I can’t do as well as yesterday, I need to get at least one hit a day to save face. To continue the momentum from yesterday, I need to swing the bat a bit today. And I heard Gu-il is coming up tomorrow, and Gu-il is no joke.”

“Is that so?”

“His splitter is amazing. After his speed decreased, he practiced his splitter like crazy. That splitter is deadly.”

Kim In-hwan sighed.

“I’ll probably swing and miss a lot again tomorrow.”

“It can’t be helped. Good pitchers all have good changeups, so you have to pick them out well. Or hit the falling ones like you did last time.”

Kim In-hwan asked Song Seok-hyun.

“How do you hit those falling balls so well? Do you anticipate them, or do you just see them and hit them?”

“Um… half and half, I guess.”

“Half and half? What kind of answer is that?”

“If I think the opponent has a breaking ball, I’m conscious of that when I hit, so half and half?”

“So, do you anticipate it or see it and hit it?”

“Timing-wise, if it’s a breaking ball timing, I time it for a breaking ball, and if it’s a fastball timing, I time it for a fastball.”

“If you anticipate a breaking ball and a fastball comes, or you wait for a fastball and a breaking ball comes?”

“If I anticipate a breaking ball and a fastball comes, I push it to the opposite field, and if I wait for a fastball and a breaking ball comes, I pull it?”

Yoo Seon-ho and Kim In-hwan stared at Song Seok-hyun without saying a word.

Song Seok-hyun blinked and looked at them.

“What’s wrong?”

Yoo Seon-ho nudged Kim In-hwan.

“See that? You have to know what to take as a reference.”

“I know, right? He makes it sound so easy.”

“That’s why I tell you to just do what you can.”

“Yes, I understand clearly.”

Song Seok-hyun said.

“Why? What is it?”

“Never mind.”

“Forget it.”

The next day.

The first game of the mid-week 3-game series against the Scorpions.

The strategy meeting was unusually long.

This week’s schedule is Scorpions, Wolves.

Ham Seong-hoon emphasized from the beginning of the meeting.

“We absolutely have to win the first game of this Scorpion series. We’re going to use the bullpen to its full extent today. It’s going to be a tight game for both sides. Since every point is important, let’s abandon greed and stick to the basics. Got it?”

Success as a Catcher

The Traditional Powerhouse Scorpions

After the manager’s briefing, the pitcher-catcher duo and the fielders had separate meetings.

Pitching coach Yeon Woo-sik took a pen and wrote on the white board.

“As you all know, the Scorpions’ 1 through 4 hitters are the best in the league. Hwang Gi-deok, Kang Gyun-seung, Jeong Dae-han, and Jo Yang-cheol. Hwang Gi-deok is the stolen base king, Kang Gyun-seung is a career .300 hitter, Jeong Dae-han has an OPS [On-Base Plus Slugging] over .9 last year and this year, and Jo Yang-cheol is, needless to say, the home run king. The only weakness is the 5th hitter, and the 6th hitter, Jo Cheol-woong, could be a 3 or 4 hitter on other teams. Fortunately, the bottom of their lineup is weak… As you can see, 1 through 4 are the best, and even up to 6, they’re not far behind Pegasus.”

The numbers Yeon Woo-sik wrote on the board were 1, 3, and 5.

“In the end, what’s important is how we get through the 1st, 3rd, and 5th innings. That’s it. We can’t avoid giving up runs entirely against this kind of lineup. The best case is 3 runs through the 6th inning, but let’s expand that a bit and plan to allow 4 runs through the 6th and 5 runs through the 8th and 9th.”

Yeon Woo-sik circled Hwang Gi-deok’s name in red.

“The most difficult one is Hwang Gi-deok. If we let him get on base, it’s practically giving up a stolen base. His stolen base success rate is over 80% this season. Attack him with pitches inside and tighten up the infield and outfield defense. Giving him a single is like giving up a double anyway. Let’s be prepared to give up a long hit and focus on preventing him from getting on base in the first place. Kang Gyun-seung is fast too, but he’s manageable compared to Hwang Gi-deok. Stopping both of them is too much to hope for, so let’s focus on minimizing Hwang Gi-deok’s chances of getting on base. If we’re prepared to walk Jeong Dae-han and Jo Yang-cheol and make it difficult for them, we’ll have a chance to stop them at the 5th hitter, Go Won-seong. The 6th hitter, Jo Cheol-woong, is almost a fixed position, so whoever comes in at 5th is manageable, so keep that in mind when you compete.”

“Yes.”

“I emphasize again, the key to this 3-game series is Hwang Gi-deok. We have to prevent Hwang Gi-deok from getting on base.”

Song Seok-hyun reviewed Hwang Gi-deok’s stats in the scouting report again.

Batting average .348, on-base percentage .435, slugging percentage .423, 42 stolen bases, 8 home runs.

Not just a fast leadoff hitter, but an all-around player with surprisingly good power.

At the WBC [World Baseball Classic], opposing team coaches classified Hwang Gi-deok as a class between Triple A and Major League.

A talent without any glaring strengths to take him to the Major League, but without any weaknesses either.

So-called Quadruple A talent is a top-class player even as a foreign player.

Experts believed that his current performance was sluggish due to stamina issues.

Hwang Gi-deok himself was greedy for stolen bases and playing in every game, so his performance started to decline every summer.

Even with the decline in performance, he was still the league’s number one leadoff hitter.

It was not unusual for Goat to be more concerned about Hwang Gi-deok than the opposing cleanup hitters.

“Hwang Gi-deok…”

Song Seok-hyun clenched and unclenched his fist as he looked at Hwang Gi-deok’s stats.

The title of stolen base king made it impossible for Song Seok-hyun to take his eyes off him.

* * *

“Hello. This is Koo Dong-yoon, the caster for SBC Sports.”

“I’m Choi Hee-dong, the commentator.”

“Today is the mid-week 3-game series. The league’s second-place Scorpions, who are in a hurry to get to the top, meet Goat, who defeated the league’s first-place Pegasus.”

“Goat really tripped up Pegasus. Thanks to that, the Scorpions are close to taking first place in the league. If they can manage this mid-week 3-game series well, they’ll be right on the verge of taking first place in the league.”

“But Goat isn’t that easy to beat, right?”

“That’s right. They swept Pegasus. The league’s first-place Pegasus. Pegasus has only been swept twice this season. Pegasus is a team that rarely gets swept, but Goat was really scary last week. The legendary KS duo is back, and Lee Ji-sung and Yoo Seon-ho, who were traded from the Scorpions, have also settled in nicely. The weight of their cleanup hitters is probably the best in the league.”

“If the Scorpions beat Goat, their chances of taking sole possession of first place in the league increase, and if Goat beats the Scorpions, they’ll be right on the verge of 4th place. This 3-game series is very important for both teams.”

“We’re now in the second half of the league. It’s not easy to change the rankings from now on. It’s difficult to defend, but it’s even more difficult to change. It will become more difficult as we move into the second half of the league. If you want to move up in the rankings, you have to do it as quickly as possible. Now is the right time for both teams.”

-Play ball!

The game began.

Goat’s starting pitcher, Lee Chang-hoon, took the mound.

The Scorpion’s leadoff hitter, Hwang Gi-deok, stepped into the batter’s box.

“…”

Song Seok-hyun scanned Hwang Gi-deok’s batting stance.

The stride is not wide.

A slight open stance.

The hitting position is also at shoulder height.

The bat handle is also held close to the knob.

A stance that can hit anything, whether it’s outside, inside, high ball, or low ball.

If someone else stood like that, they might be criticized for being awkward, but this is none other than Hwang Gi-deok.

A hitter who is named as the best center fielder in Korean history.

A hitter without weaknesses usually doesn’t have any noticeable strengths, so if the pitcher just throws his pitches, it’s actually easier, but Hwang Gi-deok was different.

He has no weaknesses, but his strengths are clear.

He can hit any course.

It’s not like he lacks power either.

The fielders had already moved into a shift with a forward defense and towards the third base line.

A shift prepared to give up a long hit.

Song Seok-hyun called for an inside fastball for the first pitch.

Clang!

-Strike!

Hwang Gi-deok watched the ball go by.

There wasn’t even a hint of flinching at the inside pitch.

He must be planning how to respond while watching the pitcher’s first pitch.

‘Inside, high, fastball.’

Song Seok-hyun pointed to the hitter’s inside.

Even if it’s a ball, throw one inside.

Lee Chang-hoon’s second pitch went in for a strike instead of a ball.

“Two strikes! Lee Chang-hoon throws two consecutive strikes.”

“He’s throwing them both inside. He’s being quite aggressive. It seems like Lee Chang-hoon came out with a vengeance.”

Even though he had two strikes against him, there was no sign of impatience on Hwang Gi-deok’s face.

Hwang Gi-deok is a hitter who rarely strikes out.

He hits it somehow, in any situation.

Song Seok-hyun gave the sign.

Lee Chang-hoon hesitated for a moment and then immediately wound up.

Clang!

The ball went into the mitt.

Song Seok-hyun held his mitt out and remained still.

A moment of silence.

The umpire called.

-Strike! Out!

“Strikeout, a strikeout.”

“That pitch was really well placed. The course was good.”

“It was a fastball going outside. A full fastball.”

Hwang Gi-deok asked the umpire a question.

“Wasn’t that outside?”

“…”

The umpire did not answer.

Hwang Gi-deok made a disappointed expression and returned to the bench.

“You rascal.”

Lee Chang-hoon looked at Song Seok-hyun and smiled.

It was a course where one ball was outside.

Song Seok-hyun grabbed the ball and slid the mitt into the zone as if it were slipping.