Peaceful Bullpen Life [EN]: Chapter 132

“Hyung [older brother or respected male figure], haven’t you been weight training lately?”

“Don’t want to.”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t want to.”

“Well….”

“I said I don’t want to.”

“……”

I brushed off Hyuk-joon’s desperate plea to drag me into the sweaty zone and quietly sat in a corner of the dugout.

“Okay… well, I’ll go work out.”

“Don’t want to.”

“What now?”

“Stay here.”

“I told you I’m going to lift weights?”

“…I’m bored.”

“……”

This is my 13th year since debuting in professional baseball.

Since I’ve never been part of another team, I don’t know the specifics of how other teams operate or are run.

However, I’ve accumulated quite a bit of common knowledge from here and there over the years.

Like which teams do what kind of training in certain situations, or which teams absolutely have to do certain training.

With that knowledge, I combined this and that and came to a conclusion on my own.

Ah, I really made the right choice coming to Wonha.

“…So, uh, what can I do for you, old-timer?”

“Hehe, Hyuk-joon. This old-timer would like a cup of coffee that Hyuk-joon brings.”

“Wow! PD-nim [Producer-nim, term of respect]! Did you film that just now? You did, right?!”

“Wow! Got it!”

“No….”

Seriously, there’s a sense of freedom here that you can’t feel in any of the other seven clubs. I love it so much.

Thanks to that, we have this unique atmosphere that only our team can have, this friendly vibe. I love it all.

“Actually, we have something to upload on MiTube [likely a fictional version of YouTube] this time, right? I was thinking of titling it ‘Cooking King, Jori King, Boojori King,’ and I should use this as the intro.”

“Perfect.”

“……”

These guys…….

“Go, go away. Do your weights or whatever, just go.”

“What about you, hyung?”

“Me? I’ll do what I always do. Some tubing and stretching, maybe?”

“Hyung, you should do some weights too.”

“Don’t want to. It drains my energy. Doing it during the off-season is enough.”

The reason we can have this freedom is partly due to the personalities of the players, but there’s also a more fundamental aspect.

That is, we’re a hands-off team.

Whether you pull on a tubing band or run, or even whether you train at all.

There are guidelines presented by the front office and the scouting team, but they are only guidelines and are never enforced.

Irresponsible?

The training process isn’t 100% directly proportional to the results, but if you can get even a 1% return, you have to commit to training as a baseball player.

But to not force this grand word called training…….

If you only take that script, it’s natural to be criticized, but you also need to look at the pledge written on the back.

Rest, play, train, do whatever you want. But if you fall behind, I won’t take responsibility either.

It’s true that it’s irresponsible. But that’s just an excuse for those who don’t fulfill their obligations and only try to take advantage.

“Then I’ll go work out.”

“Good work.”

“Yes!”

Hyuk-joon went to the weight room first to fulfill his duty.

Thanks to him, all that’s left next to my rather bored self is…….

“…What?”

This little squishy thing.

“Are you really going to use that?”

“What?”

“Cooking King, Jori King, what? That.”

“Yeah. Seriously.”

“Is that okay to put on MiTube?”

“Of course. It’s not swearing.”

“What about my image?”

“Who created that image?”

“……”

…Me?

“Tch.”

I roughly expressed my annoyance once,

“Where are you going?”

“To be boojori [likely means ‘goofing off’]. Why?”

“Gotta film it.”

“……”

I left the dugout to check on the well-being of my juniors.

If the team’s plan had gone as expected, today’s starting pitcher would have been Joon-hyuk, the team’s third starter.

However…….

“…Are you okay?”

“A little….”

“You should’ve gone a little easier.”

“I know.”

“Look at this.”

The blister on his index finger that he got while playing catch the day before yesterday is more serious than I thought.

I almost snatched Joon-hyuk’s right hand and examined the condition of his index finger.

“Ugh.”

It looks so bad that my own finger feels more pain.

“What did the trainer say? What about the manager?”

“He said the recovery is relatively fast… it seems like I just need to skip one start.”

“Yeah… you’re resting for once, so don’t try to do anything unnecessary.”

“But still….”

“Rest if they tell you to rest. When else are you going to rest?”

“I feel a little uneasy, you know? Like, can I really rest just because they tell me to….”

“You can rest, so they’re telling you to rest. We have plenty of leeway right now.”

26 wins and 12 losses.

The Wonha Challengers are already riding the momentum and have established a dominant lead. The game difference with the second-place Sangsu Tigers has already widened to two and a half games.

“It’ll be more of a loss if you do something stupid now and get even more seriously injured. Rest if they tell you to.”

“Okay….”

In fact, the current record of first place in the season is quite different from the original plan.

The plan was to maintain around 2nd or 3rd place until the mid-to-late season and then surge at the end.

It unintentionally turned into a situation where we were leading from the beginning of the season, but this isn’t bad either. No, it’s actually good.

It’s not like we fought tooth and nail from the beginning to win first place, but more like, ‘Oh, we’re in first place when we came to our senses?’ That feeling is strong.

Tuk tuk—

“If you really want to move, do some dressing on your finger and work on your core.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Then rest.”

“Yes.”

After patting Joon-hyuk, who was somewhat gloomy, on the shoulder a few times, I headed to the bullpen. I wanted to see how today’s starting pitcher, who would be replacing Joon-hyuk, was warming up.

“Come to think of it, today’s starter is Seo Seong-won, right?”

“That’s how it is for now. Seong-won is reliable enough.”

On the way to the bullpen, Eun-seo seemed to want to talk about today’s starting pitcher.

Like asking for a simple explanation about Seong-won, or what I think about Seong-won.

Is this also going to be on the MiTube video?

I’m going to evaluate Seong-won positively, but I have no intention of sugarcoating it just because it’s MiTube.

“Seong-won is good. Really good.”

Because it’s true even if I don’t.

“His fastball is decent, and he has quite a few breaking balls. He throws a fastball, slider, curve, and… a forkball, right?”

“I think so.”

“Considering he’s a high school graduate in his first year, he’s really good. None of his breaking balls are sloppy. He throws them all well.”

“What about his control? I’d like to hear Kim Han-wool’s evaluation, who is in charge of one axis of control.”

“Control… just not bad? Just decent?”

“Then, how would you describe Seo Seong-won in one word?”

“In one word?”

A speed in the mid-140s, three types of breaking balls, and decent control.

There are still many things to improve, but considering the ceiling he has right now and the actual performance he’s putting out.

To summarize this in one word,

“Wouldn’t Seong-won win Rookie of the Year this year?”

Rookie of the Year level.

“Oh… can we look forward to it?”

“We need to see until the second half of the season. But… aren’t there no other rookie friends as good as Seong-won right now?”

Seong-won’s record this season is probably… around 15 innings with an ERA [Earned Run Average] in the late 1s.

It’s true that the batters aren’t used to him yet, so they’re getting hit hard. As time goes by, there will be more days when he gets hit a lot.

But even if he doesn’t need a 2 ERA, he should be able to win Rookie of the Year comfortably even if he records an ERA in the early 3s.

“Well… that’s true.”

“Have you ever seen Seong-won pitch?”

“I’ve seen him pitch quite a bit during games. But I think today is the first time I’m seeing him up close.”

“Take a look. You’ll know why I’m talking so confidently.”

Squeak—

I opened the door to the bullpen with a confident expression.

Seong-won’s handsome face, his refreshing pitching, the loud sound of the mitt popping, and Gun-yeong’s noisy fighting.

The bullpen, which should be full of all of this,

“…What is it.”

Why is it so quiet?

“Hello!”

“Oh, hello….”

Gun-yeong, who was sitting on the bench looking at his phone, noticed my appearance and stood up from his seat and bowed his head.

I accepted the greeting appropriately and checked the current situation of the bullpen.

“Hey, Gun-yeong.”

“Yes!”

“Why is it just you?”

“Me?”

“Isn’t today Seong-won’s pitching day?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, Seong-won isn’t here, and the coach isn’t here either. Are they warming up somewhere else?”

“No?”

“Then.”

“The coach said he’ll be here a little later because of the coaches’ meeting.”

“What about Seong-won?”

“Seong-won is in the bathroom.”

“Ah….”

I nodded my head, understanding the situation, and sat next to Gun-yeong.

“Put the camera down for a second. There’s nothing to film.”

“There isn’t? I’m looking forward to Kim Han-wool being boojori [goofing off] to Gun-yeong.”

“Don’t say nonsense that doesn’t make sense.”

“Are you being boojori [goofing off] to the MiTube PD [Producer] now?”

“That’s too much.”

I struggled to let Eun-seo rest next to me, and the three of us sat down and had a chat.

There were quite a few constructive stories among them. Typically, when making MiTube content later, please seriously film the stories of the bullpen catchers.

“Hey, I’m doing it because I like it.”

“Liking it and having a hard time are different things.”

“Hehe….”

“Come to think of it, I heard that Han-wool often buys meals for the bullpen catchers?”

“Yes, yes! Other pitchers take good care of us too, but Han-wool hyung [older brother or respected male figure] really takes care of us a lot.”

“Oh, why are you talking about that?”

It’s embarrassing.

I waved my hand and brushed off the story that made people’s faces red. Nevertheless, these two keep gilding my face.

When did you say boojori [goofing off] earlier?

I wanted to quickly change the subject out of embarrassment. I wondered if there was anything else I could quickly bring up, and then I found one topic.

“…But you know.”

After finding it, it was a pretty serious matter than I thought.

“Yes?”

“Why isn’t Seong-won coming?”

“Oh… I wonder?”

Hmm…….

“Gun-yeong. Did he go to the bathroom a little while before Eun-seo and I came here?”

“About… 10 minutes?”

It’s been about 15 minutes since the three of us started talking. If you add the time Seong-won left earlier, it’s 25 minutes.

The bathroom isn’t that far away, so if it takes this long, then…….

“Does his stomach hurt a lot?”

“He seemed very nervous.”

“Ah… is that so.”

“I think so. It was like this when Seong-won pitched before.”

“Oh my. He’s still a kid.”

“What is it?”

Eun-seo jumped into the story for a moment because I was talking about something that only Gun-yeong and I knew. So I kindly explained it.

“Irritable bowel syndrome.”

“Pardon?”

“I think he has irritable bowel syndrome.”

“What is it?”

“……”

I was trying to save my junior’s image, but why are you so clueless?

“You know, when you’re too nervous and your stomach hurts. I think it’s like that.”

“Ah….”

Only after explaining it in detail did Eun-seo nod her head.

“Cute, his stomach hurts because he’s nervous. He’s still young.”

“Well, Eun-seo is quite old now too. Eun-seo will be thirty next year, right?”

“Hey!”

“I’m older than you!”

As I was bickering with Eun-seo,

Squeak—

“Ah, I’m sorry!”

Seong-won opened the door to the bullpen again and came inside.

When he saw me and Eun-seo, who weren’t there when he left the bullpen, Seong-won again,

“Hello, sunbaenim [senior or respected person]!”

He bowed towards me.

“Wow, as expected, boojori [goofing off].”

“Shut up. Is Seong-won’s stomach okay?”

“Yes! I’m fine!”

When I gave him a spoonful of concern, Seong-won smiled brightly with his handsome face and nodded his head.

Ah, he’s handsome.

“Hurry up a little, Seong-won. There’s not much time left until you pitch.”

“Yes!”

If he stretches and plays catch again, there will only be a few minutes left to adjust his body to the session.

Knowing this, Seong-won omitted many parts and started warming up, focusing as much as possible on pitching.

Bang-!

“Oh… good.”

Eun-seo picked up the camera again, the coach returned to the bullpen, and teammates gathered to watch Seong-won’s pitching.

That’s how the bullpen started to get noisy again.

“Seong-won.”

“Yes, coach!”

“Seong-won, you’re aiming to be a starter.”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“Then you shouldn’t throw like that from here. The session is a session. You just need to know what kind of feeling you have right now.”

“Yes!”

“Take it easy. Don’t rush.”

“Yes!”

Seong-won is the 1st starter, and Seung-jin is the closer.

The future of the two rookie pitchers seems to be taking shape to some extent.

Bang-!

“Oh, Seong-won is good, good!”

Watching Seong-won accurately plant the ball on the outside of the right-handed batter, I also thought that the future of the two friends would never be a futile one.

Clap clap clap!

“Wow, Seong-won’s ball is good!”