The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 306

306. Look Over There (15)

“Yo, fathers. You’ve arrived?”

A portly man greeted us with a welcoming smile. Domingo, looking embarrassed, turned to me as if to apologize.

“I told you, he can be a bit mischievous.”

Pedro Martinez.

One of the greatest pitchers in Major League Baseball history. Of course, by my standards, this wasn’t our first meeting. I’d been on broadcasts with him a couple of times before my regression.

“Pedro, isn’t that a bit much for a first meeting?”

“Haha, sorry, sorry. Watching the game today got my blood pumping. Ah, hit for the cycle. Congratulations. That was awesome, wasn’t it? You slowed down on purpose at the end, didn’t you?”

“A little bit.”

“I knew it!! I thought you could easily make it to third with your legs.”

But this was the first time we’d met on the mound. Even if it was just a small makeshift mound in a neighborhood pitching lab, not a real baseball mound.

“The reason I asked to meet today isn’t a big deal. I just got a little interested. Oh, tell me if I’m talking too fast. I saw you doing an interview, and you seem to speak English well. I used to be pretty confident in my English, but when I first came over, it was hard to understand. But it’s kind of funny. A Spanish speaker and a Korean speaker meeting in America and talking in English.”

“You can speak in Korean if you want. If it’s difficult, I can speak in Spanish.”

“Huh? What? You can speak Spanish too?”

“So-so. I can handle everyday conversations. I can even do some professional baseball-related conversations.”

“Wow… Someone living here for ten years and can’t even argue properly in English should learn from you, don’t you think?”

Domingo bristled at Pedro’s subtle teasing.

“I’m doing well now!!”

“Yeah, yeah. Our Domingo. You’re doing great now. Anyway, I’ll speak in Spanish then. It’s a bit hard for me to suddenly learn Korean. The only Korean word I know is ‘Oh-I-Cain.’ They say my nickname in Korea is Alien. At first, I thought they were making fun of my face and almost got angry.”

The somewhat chaotic conversation went on for quite a while.

“But how did you decide to do both pitching and hitting? It couldn’t have been easy, right? Oh, I’m not talking about the difficulty. It’s just that your hitting is so overwhelming, there’s no real reason to pitch.”

“Ah, I was a pitcher until high school. But I didn’t want to give up hitting. Shohei Ohtani was showing overwhelming two-way play in the big leagues. So, I thought, why not do both?”

“Fantastic. So, you almost became just a pitcher, but you saw Ohtani pitching and hitting and decided to do both, and then this crazy hitter was born?”

Of course, strictly speaking, that wasn’t the case, but I just nodded.

That’s when it happened.

“But why does it look to me like you’ve put so much effort into your hitting for so long, and your pitching feels like a kid who just graduated high school?”

Pedro Martinez, who had seemed like a jovial and joking neighborhood *ajeossi* [middle-aged man], suddenly turned so sharp that it felt like I could be cut. Maybe that was the real Pedro Martinez on the mound back in his playing days?

“Until high school, almost every pitcher is a two-way player. Besides, I’ve continued to do both in the pros, so there’s no real difference in time. If there’s any difference, it’s that I found a form that suited my hitting early on and built it up quickly. Pitching was just late. Still, calling me a high school graduate is a bit much, don’t you think? I think my curveball is pretty decent.”

The briefly sharp expression turned back into a friendly one.

“Ah, I apologize for that. I exaggerated a bit. Your hitting is so great that your pitching looks clumsy in comparison. To be honest, the curveball you threw in the last Mets game was slightly above that level. You seemed to be changing the axis of rotation to give it horizontal movement. At that level, you might not be a curveball master, but you deserve the title of curveball expert.”

“You noticed?”

“Of course. I threw so many different pitches that my curveball was relatively buried, but when I was playing, there were guys who threw curveballs at a similar level to me, but no one who could say they threw it better.”

Just as a *jagi jarang* [boast] that started with “back in my day” was about to begin.

Domingo cut Pedro off.

“Ugh, other people should say those things. I told you it’s not cool to say it yourself. And Suwon has a game tomorrow, so let’s just get to the point and let him go. Suwon said he wanted to talk to you about his curveball.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

“My curveball?”

“Yeah, I didn’t really have anything to say until now. But after seeing you throw it in the last Mets game, I thought you could get a lot better overall with just a little help.”

There was no reason to refuse when perhaps the most dominant pitcher in history volunteered to give me a one-point lesson. Honestly, there would probably be tons of people willing to pay tens of millions of won [Korean currency] per session to receive it.

“I see. But can’t we do something else besides the curveball?”

“Something else?”

“Yes, I personally want to add a changeup. It’s a bit difficult.”

But even if Pedro Martinez throws all kinds of pitches well. Yes, even if he was one of the best curveball pitchers of his time, as he said himself.

Honestly, if anyone could get just one pitch from Pedro Martinez, wouldn’t everyone choose the circle changeup?

If Pedro Martinez’s curveball was the best of his time, his circle changeup was the all-time number one itself.

Pedro Martinez laughed at my words.

“Hahahahaha.”

So, I laughed along.

“Hahahahaha.”

A gentle atmosphere.

He shook his head very firmly.

“No way.”

“Yes, I understand. Then let’s start the curveball lesson.”

“!?”

This time, he looked at me with a slightly flustered expression.

“Aren’t you going to ask why?”

“Does it matter? You wouldn’t say no if there wasn’t a reason. Ah, but you’re not going to just teach me today and then be done with it, are you?”

“Well… that’s true… Wow, you’re really shameless, aren’t you?”

“Isn’t it a shame that a legendary pitcher’s amazing experience and skills are being buried? It should be passed on to future generations. Right? And then when I do interviews, I’ll say, ‘I’m curious about why my pitching has improved so much. Can you tell me?’ And I’ll answer, ‘It all started with my meeting with Pedro Martinez.’ That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

“No, that’s true, but…”

I grabbed the curveball grip and threw the ball several times on the mound.

In reality, these one-point lessons don’t dramatically improve your skills. Of course, for pros and amateurs, pointing out bad habits or things that need to be fixed and telling them to practice in this way can be very helpful.

But a pro who has advanced to the major leagues is already a somewhat complete player. If the overall balance is broken by correcting the wrong piece, the skill may even decline.

“Adjusting the elbow angle in the last Mets game was pretty good. But I think it only worked because you used it for the first time in that game. Of course, not many players will be able to catch it accurately. But eventually, if the form changes slightly, someone will catch it, and that will be analyzed and become the starting point for an attack. Besides, it’s not good for your pitching balance in the long run.”

“Then what should I do?”

“It’s best to play with your fingers. After all, the axis of rotation is determined by the elbow, wrist, and grip. The further back you go, the less noticeable the element is. Well, what’s better than that is to make the grip completely the same and create it with subtle force control in your fingers, but I think it’s impossible to use that for the curveball rotation axis. Adjust the rotation axis with the position of your thumb and index finger. Like this.”

56 years old.

A *bae naogo* [pot-bellied], portly *ajeossi* [middle-aged man] threw the ball on the mound. Sometimes, you see stories on the internet about legendary pitchers throwing the ball in their 50s and still having the class to throw 90 miles per hour.

-뻐엉!!!

Unfortunately, there was nothing like that. It was pretty impressive for a 56-year-old, but the balls that passed through the zone couldn’t hide their age. But the amazing thing was something else.

It was the control.

A curveball with emphasized horizontal movement.

A curveball with emphasized vertical movement.

And a curveball that came in flat, close to a hanger. Huh?

“Ah, this one slipped out of my hand a bit. It’s a bit hard to throw after a long time.”

The curveballs thrown by the thick body drew different trajectories, but the pitching form looked perfectly identical.

“How is it? Even if you look at it from the plate, it’s hard to recognize the elbow or anything like that, right?”

“Yes, amazing.”

“Throw a few. Don’t overdo it since you have a game tomorrow.”

“It’s okay. I can overdo it a little. I’m not going out as a pitcher tomorrow anyway, I’m a designated hitter. Besides, it’s not a full-power throw, it’s just getting a feel for it.”

I threw about 30 curveballs in a row.

Some went in exactly as I wanted, some were terribly centered. And some were ridiculously off.

“7 out of 30? Not bad for the first time. You definitely have a feel for it. You’ll get better quickly if you practice a bit.”

“Then next time, will you teach me the changeup?”

“I said no.”

“Yes, I understand. Then I’ll see you next time.”

At my sharp answer, he asked with a slightly disappointed expression.

“Aren’t you really curious about the reason?”

“You must have your reasons. You’re not going to be stingy and say you can’t tell me because it’s a secret, are you?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Then that’s fine. How about throwing a few more?”

“No, I think that’s enough for today. It’s getting late. I have to take care of that Domingo guy over there too.”

“Are you teaching Domingo the circle changeup?”

“No. Just the overall pitching balance… Wow, you’re really serious about the circle changeup. But you’re still not curious about why I won’t teach it to you?”

“No.”

The day in Boston passed quickly.

And the next day.

“Uh…”

Did I throw too excitedly yesterday?

My right arm was a little stiff. Ah, of course, it wasn’t like I was injured. It was just the stiffness you feel the day after doing 13 sets of exercises when you’re supposed to do 10 sets because you’re in good condition?

The second game against Boston.

[Ah!!! Fly ball out to the outfield!! What a pity.]

[Now, Choi Su-won, who was retired with a disappointing fly ball out to the outfield in his first at-bat. But still, his slash line is 0.541/0.595/1.378.]

[I saw someone calculating this on my way to work today, and even if this player strikes out in every remaining game this month, his OPS will still be 1.298.]

[Wow, that’s a really unrealistic number. Changeup on the outside, slightly missing!! Pulled hit!! Can’t break through the infield.]

[He’s a bit unlucky overall today. But he still has at least two more chances. And saying his batting average is 50% means that he’s a hitter who will definitely hit at least once if he has two chances left.]

-따아악!!!

***

“Hey, Jesse. Good morning.”

“Good morning.”

“It was hotter today, but you still biked to work?”

“Yes, it’s still okay to bike to work. Oh, did you watch the game yesterday?”

“Of course, I did. Swan got a hit yesterday too.”

“He’ll hit today too, right?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

Time flew by quickly, and it was already the end of May.

Choi Su-won was still getting hits in every game he stepped up to the plate, just like he had been doing so far.