The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 178

178. Leading (1)

“Soo-won, are you working out again today?”

“Yes, I’m just going to do a little more.”

“If you lift too much weight during the season, you’ll burn out.”

“The data center said it’s okay to do a little more.”

“Really?”

Lee Jung-hoon, who was standing next to him, wrapped his arm around Jung Ji-woon’s neck.

“Hey, Jung Ji-woon. You better take care of yourself. Our Soo-won is genetically different. Besides, isn’t he still a teenager? A teenager who hits it ten times a day.”

“Hey, sunbae [senior], you can’t just throw in a sex joke like that here. There are still teenagers here, like you said.”

“What sex joke? I’m talking about weightlifting ten times a day.”

“No… Who says they lift weights ten times a day?”

“You little punk, I gave you a little slack and your discipline is all messed up? Don’t talk back to your sunbae.”

“Sunbae, we never even joined, so how can you loosen me up?”

“Ah, that’s true. Anyway, Soo-won, lift moderately. Or your bones will rot.”

“That’s definitely a sex joke!!”

There were many different opinions regarding weight training during the season.

In the past, the trend was to not do any at all during the season, but recently, the trend is to do it intensely for about 30 minutes twice a week. Of course, in the case of older players, recovery becomes an issue, so they often skip weight training more and more towards the end of the season.

However, in my case, I never removed weight training twice a week from my routine until the season right before I returned. Of course, the weight training I do now is very different from then.

“You’re here?”

“Yes, Coach. How did you like the data I gave you?”

“It was good. I was a little surprised that you suddenly changed the menu during the season…”

“Haha, sorry. Jack said he got some new data.”

“No, there’s nothing to be sorry about. It’s good for me to study new things too.”

First, starting with a thorough massage from the trainer, the fascia [connective tissue] was sufficiently loosened, and then weight training consisting of supersets [performing exercises back-to-back] was performed in a short time. An enormous amount of exercise that seemed to consume all the energy accumulated in the body in an instant.

Barely lifting the body squeezed out until the very last moment, I stretch. It was a wider range of motion than when I was a hitter.

“Ugh… Coach, go easy on me.”

“Stop exaggerating.”

Helping with stretching and then immediately following up with a thorough massage.

It’s definitely support that’s hard to compare to high school. In fact, this kind of support was one of the reasons I chose the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization]. Of course, you can get this kind of service in the United States too. If you get called up to the big leagues, that is.

When playing in the minor leagues, you have to hire all of this at my own expense.

Not only is the price high, but it’s also hard to expect this level of service. Just for a massage, you’d have to spend at least $100,000 a year to hire a masseuse of this level full-time. And they even studied human anatomy properly in college? It starts at $200,000.

“Okay, all done.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“What hard work? I’m getting paid for it.”

“If I succeed later, I’ll be sure to include your name in my autobiography.”

“It’s okay if you don’t put it in your autobiography, but if I start a business later, don’t forget to come and take a picture with me.”

“Of course. I’ll take a picture and promote it widely through my promotional channels.”

Wasn’t this guy’s salary 4,600?

“Coach, but you still don’t have a girlfriend, do you?”

“Why? Are you going to set me up on a blind date? Is there a good older sister nearby?”

“No, I didn’t think you would, but I was just wondering if you did.”

Yeah, he has no family and is all alone. I should make him a scout offer when I go to the United States later.

The season passed very quickly.

***

If normal baseball was about winning one out of three games, losing one, and either winning or losing the remaining one, then the Marines had consistently failed to play baseball for the past dozen years.

And in June 2027.

Surprisingly, the Marines were playing baseball.

Even ‘winning’ baseball.

71 games.

47 wins, 22 losses, 2 draws.

Second place in the season.

It was truly a terrifying momentum.

Especially the most terrifying of all was Choi Soo-won.

Hitting is a cycle.

There are times when you hit well and times when you don’t. If you consistently avoid a hitter who is showing crazy hitting ability, their hitting sense will eventually decline.

Most teams avoided Choi Soo-won again and again.

During the 50 games he played as a hitter, he had a whopping 91 walks. Considering that his plate appearances were 227, it was an absurd record with walks accounting for 40% of his plate appearances.

And Choi Soo-won swung his bat like crazy every time they thought, ‘Well, honestly, his hitting sense must have declined by now.’

127 at-bats, 56 hits (11 doubles, 3 triples). And 26 home runs.

0.441/0.656/1.189

“No, I think he should switch to being a full-time hitter right now.”

“What nonsense are you talking about? How many pitchers are better than Choi Soo-won among domestic starters? No, even including foreign players, I think he’s in the top five.”

“Yeah, he pitches well. I don’t know about the top five, but I think he’s definitely in the top ten, but his hitting is undeniably the best of all time. That’s why I’m so disappointed. So disappointed. If he played in every game, he’d set a record that would never happen again.”

“He’s already on pace to set that record again.”

“No, the percentages are there, but the accumulation is the problem. He hasn’t played enough games. He’s only played 50 games as a hitter out of 67 games this season. If he played in every game, he’d definitely break 60 home runs, but he’s currently on pace for 56 home runs. At this rate, I can’t even guarantee a Korean record.”

Fans and experts alike all agreed that Choi Soo-won was definitely the MVP [Most Valuable Player] unless he was out for the season right now.

His comparisons were already with the ‘those’ of legendary players who had the greatest seasons in KBO history, not with the players currently playing with him.

His batting average is the only 40% hitter in the KBO.

His home runs are the most home runs in a single season in the KBO, with 56 home runs.

His walks are already only 36 away from the all-time high, even though the season is not even halfway over. People were even expecting him to break the all-time high before the end of the first half.

Moreover, his on-base percentage and slugging percentage were so far ahead of the KBO’s all-time high that there was no comparison.

“No, even so, baseball isn’t an individual sport, and Soo-won has to keep pitching if we want to win.”

“That’s true, but… I’m just disappointed. If only we hadn’t sent Choi Min-hyuk to the Braves…”

“If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t be fighting for first place right now without Park Jae-hyuk, Go Seol-min, and Tae Ji-wan.”

“Damn Marines. Even though it’s our team, how can we be fighting for first place with those players? It’s really frustrating.”

***

─Baek Gang-ho: Hey, I heard you guys lost today? We won again.

─Choi Soo-won: So, did you hit any home runs?

─Baek Gang-ho: You don’t know anything, do you? Baseball is originally a team game. A home run is a tool for victory, not a goal. The important thing is the team’s victory.

─Choi Soo-won: So, home runs?

─Baek Gang-ho: You just wait. I won’t go easy on you in the next series.

─Choi Soo-won: ㅇㅇ [Korean slang for okay]

I folded my smartphone.

Baek Gang-ho had been contacting me more frequently lately.

“Who is it?”

“Just someone I check in with from time to time.”

However, the content was a little different. When he could compete with the number of home runs, he mainly talked about home runs, but these days he only talks about the team’s performance. From that, the only way to avoid receiving these calls is to quickly reverse the team’s performance as well.

“Oh, right. The kids are coming to watch our game as a group this time. Are you free tomorrow evening?”

“Tomorrow? I don’t have anything special. Why are the kids suddenly coming to Busan? Isn’t it time to prepare for the Blue Dragon Flag [High School Baseball Championship] after the first half of the league ends?”

“They finished second in the first half of the league, so they can’t go to the Blue Dragon Flag.”

“Ah… That’s right. That’s what happened.”

“I think they want to get some energy from the overall number 1 pick from last time before the draft.”

“What energy… And we can see each other when we go to Seoul later, so why are they coming all the way to Busan?”

Come to think of it, I’ve been so focused on baseball lately that I haven’t been paying attention to anything else. I’ve been answering almost all the calls with short answers, and the calls have been gradually decreasing.

Of course, there are cases like Baek Gang-ho who consistently contact me…

“Okay. I’ll see them after the game tomorrow. Did they get tickets for the game?”

“Of course, I got them for them.”

“It must have been difficult to get tickets because it’s a game I’m pitching in. How did you manage to get them?”

“I asked Seon-yeong noona [older sister/female friend] from the operations team and she got them for me. I think she’s a little interested in me.”

“First of all, that’s absolutely impossible. But even if it were, is this the time for you to be worrying about girls?”

“Oh, I’m 4th in overall batting average among catchers.”

“If you had any conscience, you wouldn’t call it 4th when you’re 7 punts away from 3rd.”

While chatting nonsense with Jjo Yu, the game time was approaching quickly.

Diego Rodriguez, who had to be taken off the mound after pitching 1.2 innings due to a stiff neck in the previous game, went up to the mound.

His performance itself is quite good, but despite strictly adhering to the rotation without pulling starters, it was noticeable that he was struggling to digest innings as the season progressed.

-Boom!!

“Strike!!!”

A 153.1km/h cutter.

However, the ball itself is still good, so I think he’ll recover a bit if he rests well during the All-Star break.

Today’s opponent is the Braves.

They had consistently advanced to the fall baseball season for many years, but they were not showing a good performance this season.

School violence teacher Jo Chang-hyuk, the local ace, was still pitching well, but the big hole in the bullpen caused by our trade was the reason.

Park Jae-hyuk, Go Seol-min, and Tae Ji-wan.

With the league’s top closer and two top-class bullpen pitchers gone, there was no way the team’s performance could be maintained.

However, the Braves fans’ reaction was not that bad.

-Clang!!!

[Kang Ra-on!! Lightly receives the ball to 2nd base!! And back to 1st base!!]

“Out!!”

[The Marines’ clean double play. The Marines safely overcame the crisis of 1st and 2nd base with one out in the top of the 1st inning.]

[Now, Choi Min-hyuk is on the mound. Choi Min-hyuk is coming up.]

[This player is making his first appearance in Sajik since being traded to the Braves, right?]

The 탈Marines [escaping the Marines] effect.

Usually, it’s one of the 탈x [escaping x] effects that every team has if their performance is terrible.

And this season. The 1.05 billion prospect Choi Min-hyuk was showing that 탈Marines effect very perfectly.

Before the trade: 0 wins, 3 losses, ERA [Earned Run Average] 4.61

After the trade: 4 wins, 1 loss, ERA 2.83

Choi Min-hyuk, who was on the mound, looked around Sajik Stadium, which was full of people.

His expression looked quite bitter.

“This is a bit unsettling.”

“What is?”

“No, he’s still a cute junior, but thinking about beating him up…”

“Ah!! I know a saying to use in this case.”

“What is it?”

“So, it’s like counting your chickens before they hatch?”

“What, you punk?”

Lee Jung-hoon smiled and tapped my helmet and walked to the plate.

Choi Min-hyuk’s expression changed sharply as he looked at him.

He, who had been playing together for a long time, would know it well.

How annoying Lee Jung-hoon is when he’s in good condition.

Hitting is a cycle.

Kang Ra-on, who was at his peak, was demoted to the 2nd spot in the batting order, but he had gradually regained the 1st spot.

Choi Min-hyuk on the mound threw the ball.