On The Rise As A Catcher [EN]: Chapter 64

Alone, Lim Eui-soo chain-smoked in a corner of the parking lot.

After stubbing out the cigarette with his foot, Lim Eui-soo headed home.

Opening the door to his new 40-pyeong [approximately 1,422 square feet] apartment, he was met with a blast of cold air.

Dust had settled on the dining table, and the table in front of the sofa was littered with beer cans and snack wrappers.

Lim Eui-soo went straight to the sofa and lay down.

Perhaps it was because he had been drinking since morning.

He drifted off to sleep.

*Ting-a-ling.*

Lim Eui-soo picked up his phone.

The screen displayed the name ‘Wife.’

“Yeah, what’s up?”

-I called because I haven’t heard from you.

“Heard about what?”

-Aren’t you going to submit the divorce papers? How long are you going to hold out?

“Ha! You always have to bring up divorce at times like this, don’t you? Your husband is about to die from stress!”

-Are you the only one stressed? I’m stressed too. I’ve been stressed my whole life because of you!

“At least postpone it until Mom passes away. What’s the big rush?”

-That old woman has been sickly her whole life. How long do I have to put up with it?

“What, ‘old woman’?”

-If you don’t sign quickly, I’ll take you to court.

“You bitch. Hey! Is that how you’re going to play it?”

-Then sign quickly! I don’t want to argue with you like this either!

“Did you find some gigolo or something? Why are you suddenly acting up like this!”

-You’re the one who found another woman. Why are you trying to pin it on me? Know that this is your last chance. Sign it today! If you don’t, I won’t stand still either!

The call ended.

Lim Eui-soo squeezed his eyes shut and punched the sofa.

“Ugh! Why can’t anything go right!”

The next day.

The manager and coaches gathered in one place from the morning.

A meeting, just another regular meeting.

Lim Eui-soo listened with a deep frown.

“Overload, you say?”

“Yes, it’s not just the bullpen that’s fatigued. The batting lineup is also fatigued. In fact, it’s being operated with a fixed batting order, so there have been almost no rest days. The recent increase in defensive errors is largely due to the team’s overall overload.”

The man speaking while looking at Lim Eui-soo was head coach Ham Seong-hoon.

At Ham Seong-hoon’s words, the hitting coach stepped forward.

“They’re already worn out after playing for a few months? The season has only just started three months ago. They’re not tired, they’re just slacking off. Doesn’t the head coach know they’re just trying to get out of work?”

The pitching coach chimed in dismissively.

“Knowing that you haven’t played much in the field, how can you make things difficult for our head coach?”

“Ah, is that so? My mistake.”

The coaches laughed lightly.

The only coaches who didn’t laugh were a few young coaches sitting at the end of the table.

Lim Eui-soo said.

“Did you hear that? What overload are you talking about when the season isn’t even halfway over? Don’t coddle the kids too much. Don’t get sentimental.”

“It’s been a little over two months since the season started, but if you count from spring camp, it’s already been five months. The intensity of spring camp was high, and there have been continuous special training sessions during the season. Monday special training sessions have almost never been missed. As summer comes, their stamina will decrease more and more quickly. We need to start managing them now.”

“Coach Ham.”

Lim Eui-soo said without looking at Ham Seong-hoon.

“You raise your performance when you can. The atmosphere is already chaotic; what do you think will happen if we take the kids out? It’ll only get worse. You earn points during times like this and manage stamina from the summer. Who starts managing stamina from now? Did only we train? Didn’t the others?”

“But we’ve been continuing high-intensity training for three years now. Considering that the players’ fatigue has accumulated……”

Battery coach Park Yoon-soo raised his voice.

“Are you going to talk back to the manager like that? Even if you’re the head coach, you’re being too disrespectful. Is that how you’re supposed to do it when you learn baseball in America? Did they teach you to ignore the manager in America?”

Head coach Ham Seong-hoon replied without changing his expression.

“The manager makes the decisions, but the coach’s duty is to do his best to help the manager make the right decisions.”

“Is only Coach Ham doing his best? Are you saying we’re not doing our best?”

“This is my duty and right as head coach.”

“Anyone listening would think only Coach Ham is a coach. No matter how much of a head coach you are, there are plenty of people older than you, but you don’t even listen to us?”

“Enough, enough.”

Lim Eui-soo waved his hand.

The coaches closed their mouths.

“What is this, a flea market? It’s so noisy.”

“Ahem, sorry.”

Battery coach Park Yoon-soo apologized.

Head coach Ham Seong-hoon raised his voice again.

“We have many good players in our minor league. Rather, the problem is that these players have been kept there for too long. Since the first-team players need to have their stamina managed, we need to rotate them with the minor league players.”

Manager Lim Eui-soo chuckled.

“Where are the good kids in our minor league? They’re all mediocre. Who are you talking about? Tell me if there are any good kids. I want to use them too.”

“Kim Jung-ryul’s performance has been remarkable recently. He has now fully awakened as an underhand pitcher. Kim In-hwan also……”

“Hey, Coach Ham. Aren’t you tired of them? You have to hope for something realistic; it’s like a broken record. They’re already lottery tickets that have been scratched dozens of times. How many times do you have to scratch a losing lottery ticket to be satisfied?”

This time it was battery coach Park Yoon-soo.

Lim Eui-soo slammed the table with his hand.

“Okay, let’s stop. Don’t waste your energy on useless things and just think about how we can win.”

“Manager.”

“Coach Ham, Coach Ham, stop being so stubborn. How long are you going to whine like a child? You need to grow up.”

As Lim Eui-soo left, the coaches followed him out in a rush.

Left in the manager’s office were Ham Seong-hoon and a few young coaches.

Ham Seong-hoon took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

The young coaches kept silent and then belatedly stood up.

“Let’s go, Coach Ham.”

Ham Seong-hoon gestured for them to go first, then took another deep breath and exhaled.

“Haa.”

* * *

After the morning meeting.

The pitching coach, hitting coach, battery coach, and defense coach gathered with coffee cups in one hand and cigarettes in the other.

“Ha, seriously. That bastard is too arrogant.”

As soon as the battery coach opened the door, the hitting coach stepped forward as if he had been waiting.

“He’s acting up too much without knowing that he’s just a puppet.”

“He should be ashamed that he came in with the manager’s backing. He thinks it’s something to be proud of to have the title of head coach at his age. Is that his skill? If it weren’t for the manager, where else in Korea would he be a coach?”

“He’s an ungrateful bastard. He’s got the title of head coach thanks to the manager, but he’s constantly holding the manager back.”

“Seriously, what kind of era is this? The manager who appointed the teacher’s son as head coach is too much, and the young bastard who sits there rubbing his ass and acting cocky is so annoying that I could die.”

“Everything would have been fine if the older brother had been the head coach as originally planned, but that damn public opinion.”

Battery coach Park Yoon-soo spat on the ground.

“Anyway, the older brother should have left quietly instead of causing an accident and blocking people’s paths.”

The original head coach was Baek Jin-eung, a close junior [someone younger but respected] of manager Lim Eui-soo.

Baek Jin-eung was a solid second-in-command of Lim Eui-soo’s team, but he stepped down due to drunk driving.

Amid public criticism, Lim Eui-soo brought in a young coach who studied abroad as head coach instead of promoting the existing coaches to head coach.

The coach Lim Eui-soo brought in was Ham Seong-hoon.

A student of Lim Eui-soo’s high school teacher and a young coach who just turned forty this year.

In interviews with the media, he announced that he had brought him in to gain a perspective on advanced baseball, but the reality was different.

Ham Seong-hoon played baseball until college, but he couldn’t go pro due to a lack of skill. Instead of giving up baseball, he went to the United States to study sports marketing. He joined the front office of an American club and gained experience, and he also received coaching training in Japan.

He has a brilliant career, but he is a coach with no connections in Korea.

The teacher’s son and a young age.

Before the club could put forward its own people as head coach, Lim Eui-soo first put forward Ham Seong-hoon as the most plausible card.

The club also accepted the obvious move rather than shaking Lim Eui-soo to get results.

Lim Eui-soo’s trick caused a backlash from the team, but it didn’t escalate into a rebellion.

Lim Eui-soo’s experience and seniority were walls that were difficult for the existing coaches to overcome.

Quiet defense coach Kim Seong-hyun opened his mouth.

“More than that, will we be okay this season? Even if it’s manager Lim, there’s nothing he can do if we don’t get results this time.”

“So we have to get into the top 3 this time no matter what. That’s how we can kiss ass, right?”

“Will the club accept those results?”

“Who else would come in if it’s not our manager Lim? Anyway, there’s no manager with a better career than manager Lim right now. Well, even if it doesn’t work out here, it’s not difficult to find the next team if we get some results.”

Hitting coach Seok Jin-woo said.

“We’ll be in first place soon if we just catch the GOAT kids slacking off. The kids here are so slippery.”

“So make sure to run the kids hard so they can’t think of anything else. We have to get into the top 4 in the first half of the season to aim for 3rd place in the second half, right?”

“It’s easy to say. I feel like I want to go out and hit myself.”

“We have to make them hit somehow. We need to get some results to put on our resumes elsewhere. You all know that, right? Huh?”

“Yes, yes. That’s right.”

“Ignore the kids’ feigned illnesses and push through. If you go out weakly like Ham Seong-hoon, the kids will look down on you.”

“We all know that.”

“Okay, I’m telling you again. Let’s do well. We have to get to 4th place in the first half.”

“Isn’t it the Foxes today? We have to step on the easy ones.”

“Yeah, after catching the Foxes, isn’t it the Phoenix next? We have to catch the ones we can catch to get to 4th place. Let’s go on a winning streak starting today.”

Unlike the GOAT [team name], which was holding on in the 3rd to 5th place range, the Busan Foxes and Daejeon Phoenix were weak teams that were used to fighting for last place.

That evening.

The GOAT won a landslide victory of 14-3 in the first game against the Busan Foxes.

Lim Eui-soo left the stadium with a smile on his face for the first time in a while.

About a month left until the first half.

Currently in 5th place, but the schedule is good.

He was confident in the second half of the season if he could get into 4th place in the first half.

Every team tends to be exhausted in the second half due to stamina depletion. If they are both exhausted due to lack of stamina, Lim Eui-soo, who is strong in short-term games, can be one step ahead.

“Keuh.”

Lim Eui-soo opened a bottle of wine instead of beer for the first time in a while.

Did a junior give it to him for his wedding anniversary, or did a senior give it to him?

Lim Eui-soo emptied a glass of wine with the divorce papers as a snack.

The time when his eyes closed due to intoxication was 0:22 a.m. [12:22 AM].

The phone vibrated, but Lim Eui-soo ignored it.

*Uuuuuung.*

*Uuuuuung.*

*Uuuuuung.*

Due to the constant vibration, Lim Eui-soo finally picked up the phone.

The caller was the GOAT’s operations team leader.

“Manager! We have a big problem!”

Ace Catcher

Manager Lim Eui-soo (2)

Early dawn.

A time when people are wondering whether to go for the last round after the first and second rounds [referring to late-night drinking sessions].

A taxi stopped urgently on a street where drunken people were staggering.

The person who got out of the taxi was Lim Eui-soo.

“Is it serious?”

The place where Lim Eui-soo met the operations team leader was a hospital.

“The other driver wasn’t seriously injured, but he recognized Dae-gyu.”

“Ha.”

Lim Eui-soo covered his head.

“So?”

“……There’s no way to do it. I told them to replace the breathalyzer test with a blood test for now. Even if we block it, the article will break tomorrow or the day after.”

“Ugh.”

“I’ll send Dae-gyu to the minor league right away tomorrow. Please let me know in advance which player to bring up to the first team.”

“……Is there anyone to bring up now?”

Lim Eui-soo rubbed his hands together and brought them to his eyes.

“They’re all mediocre. Bring up Kim In-hwan.”

“Yes, I’ll bring In-hwan up right away tomorrow.”

“Okay, then this season for Dae-gyu…… is it difficult? How much did he drink?”

The operations team leader shook his head.

“He was unconscious. License revocation is the basic thing to go with.”

“Ugh.”

Lim Eui-soo let out a groan.

“I thought Moon-gyu or Nak-gyun would cause an accident, but the quiet cat climbed onto the stove first [idiom for someone unexpected causing trouble]. Ha.”

Lim Eui-soo, who was talking, looked at the operations team leader.

“Do you know how he ended up drinking?”

“I don’t know that much. Maybe he drank because he won today’s game?”

“Then what about the other kids? Didn’t the other kids drink?”

The operations team leader took out his phone with an ‘ah’ expression.

Lim Eui-soo also called the coaches.

After struggling with the phone for a while, the operations team leader approached Lim Eui-soo.

“Fortunately, it seems there are no other drunk drivers.”

“Really?”

“Yes, they say there was a get-together after today’s game, but it ended there. They’ve all gone home now.”

“It’s a blessing in disguise. A blessing in disguise……”

Lim Eui-soo let out a dry breath.

“Then let’s wrap up the Dae-gyu issue like this. We have to take Dae-gyu out of this season’s plans, right?”

“……Even if it’s not a disciplinary action by the association, the club’s disciplinary action should be at least a season out to avoid public backlash.”

“Did the general manager say anything else?”

“He said to handle it decisively so that it doesn’t cause problems with the group’s image.”

“……Then it’s a season out.”

“Probably.”