The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 33

33. The Great Challenge (2)

Beyond the Glasses.

My father glared at me sharply.

“Say that again, what you just said.”

When was the first time I heard those words? Well, I don’t remember exactly when, but I think I was probably intimidated and stammered back then.

I couldn’t help but be, because even now, my father seemed so big.

Of course, fathers are giants to all children, but my father is physically large. He’s about the same height as me now, but his build is much more imposing. You could say he has a similar physique to my prime before I returned to being a seventeen-year-old youth. And his face is a bit intimidating to match his physique. Every time I see my father’s face, I think I’m very lucky to have inherited my mother’s looks.

“I don’t want to.”

So, if you ask me if I’m still afraid of my father now, the answer is definitely no.

I’ve been in brawls with guys bigger and scarier than my father on the field, and I’m a lot stronger than I thought. Besides, how should I put it? Is it a side effect of living as a thirty-four-year-old and returning to seventeen? My father looks too young compared to what I remember. Well, just as I’ve become seventeen years younger, my father has become that much younger too, so it feels like I’m just looking at older brothers who are only seven or eight years older than me.

“Are you saying you don’t like Coach Choi Gyu-sik, or are you simply saying you want to go to America?”

“Both. I don’t want to learn from Coach Choi Gyu-sik, and I want to go to America.”

“Why? Coach Choi Gyu-sik was a coach in the first team of a professional team until two years ago. He was a pitcher who had 80 wins during his active career. And what are you going to do in America? You can’t even communicate properly.”

In fact, I didn’t know my father well at this time.

Basically, I was afraid of my father, but I also thought he was someone who always thought his words were right and mine were all wrong. But as I got older, I realized that my father was a person who moved in the most rational way according to his own logic.

“Good players don’t make good coaches. Coach Choi Gyu-sik wasn’t a bad pitcher, but he’s incompetent as a coach. Especially as a pitching coach. He doesn’t study.”

“I heard he recently went to America for a year of coaching training.”

“He can’t speak English either. Do you think he learned properly? Besides, he’s a bit old school, so it’s not the style I want to learn.”

“You can’t speak English either. In that case, I’d rather find a coach who has learned advanced baseball in America.”

Of course, unfortunately, there was often something that ignored logic in my father’s logic. When I was young, I thought it was stubbornness. In fact, that didn’t change much even as I got older. In my mind, my father was a big, scary stubborn man. Of course, as those stubbornnesses were broken one by one, my big father also gradually broke down with them.

I became independent, got married, got divorced, lived alone in that distant land, and lost my father. And I spent several years like that.

And finally, I was able to find the common thread in the stubbornness that my father had shown. Or perhaps it was something I already knew but had been ignoring.

My father didn’t want me to go to high school far away. He didn’t even allow me to live in the dormitory, even if it was a nearby high school. When I went pro, he wanted me to be on a team in Seoul. Even though the draft wasn’t something I could control.

Also, when I got the right to be posted [allowed to negotiate with MLB teams], he talked about the lifetime income and risk of failure of the players who had advanced to the United States so far, and strongly argued that it was safer to stay in Korea.

The stubborn father wanted to keep me in his arms.

Even if he kept me by his side like that, he would be too busy with his own work to see me often. When I was young, I couldn’t understand that stubbornness. No, I didn’t even want to understand it.

But now, with my not-so-old father in front of me.

I had a feeling that my father’s stubbornness was a form of distorted love. Of course, that didn’t mean it was right, nor did it mean I would leave it as it was.

It’s just what should I say….

A man who had to raise a son alone after divorcing in his twenties could make mistakes, and even if the son who grew up like that was seventeen, if he was about thirty-four years old, he could at least understand such a father.

The thirty-four-year-old me certainly didn’t like my father very much, but I didn’t dislike him that much either.

“Father, do you hate being apart from me that much?”

“Wh-what?”

My father’s scary face turned red.

He looked like he was angry, but now I could tell. That was just an expression of embarrassment at having his true feelings exposed.

“In a year, I’ll have to go out and live on my own anyway. You know how well your son is doing these days. Whether I go pro or go to America. I can’t keep living in this house. So, just think of it as a rehearsal and let me go.”

“….”

A moment of silence.

My father opened his mouth.

“30% of Korean professional baseball teams are in Seoul. If you expand it to the metropolitan area, half of them are in the metropolitan area.”

“And none of them are likely to be in last place this year. Well, there’s still a lot of season left, but isn’t it one of the two anyway?”

“Yeah…. That’s right….”

“So?”

“No, that’s why it’s even more impossible. Like you said, I’ll have to live apart from you after next year anyway. There’s no reason to do that already. Besides, America. How dangerous is that place? People walking around the streets carry guns. An immature child who can’t even take care of himself should never go there alone.”

An immature child to a healthy young man of 190 centimeters [6’3″] and 87 kilograms [192 lbs] who looks fully grown to anyone. And that strong prejudice against America. In fact, my father probably knows it too. So, this is my father’s stubbornness that goes beyond logic, just like when I went to high school.

And I already knew how to break that stubbornness of my father. I had already broken it several times in my previous life. But this time, I didn’t feel like doing that. I thought it would be okay for my father to be a little bigger for a little longer.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I want to give up on going to America.

Just as it was the warm sunlight, not the north wind, that took off the traveler’s coat, there would be another way to change my father’s mind besides forcibly breaking his stubbornness.

If my prediction is correct.

***

Every year, the front office of a professional baseball team is busiest around this time.

Of course, they are also busy when preparing for FA [Free Agency] and re-signing after the season, or when looking for foreign players, but even though those are events with some leeway, the rookie draft around this time is a ridiculous event where the entire strategy has to be re-planned even with the slightest piece of information.

“Is it real? The Marines have marked Baek Ha-min as the overall number 1? Their problem right now is the catcher, not the starting pitcher. Why Baek Ha-min instead of Jeong Byeong-cheol?”

“It seems they are paying attention to Baek Ha-min’s recent growth. And the Marines are short of all positions, so wouldn’t it be a plan to just pick the best player available?”

“What about the Phoenix?”

“They’ll definitely go with Jo Gyu-chan as is. They’re crazy about big pitchers anyway. And even this time, he’s a left-hander.”

“Then will Jeong Byeong-cheol come to us? Still, the Blazes at 3rd have the MVP catcher.”

“Well, Jo Seung-ri of the Blazes is also thirty-seven now. You never know when he’ll collapse. Looking at what Jo Seung-ri is doing this year, he’ll be fine for 1 or 2 years, but it’s hard to guarantee after that, and Yang Woo-chang, who is being raised as his successor, has a terrible batting record.”

“Ah, I’m going crazy. No, why is Baek Ha-min suddenly getting better? Would it be better if he just waited a bit and got better? He’d rather be in Seoul than go down to Busan. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s right.”

My strategy was changed to match the opponent’s strategy, and countless options had to be put together, considering the opponent’s reaction that would change with the changed strategy. Even the options created in that way were not always correct, so the quick wit of the general manager and front office at the draft site is also very important. They can’t help but get busy.

“Still, it’ll be a little less difficult next year, right?”

“Next year? Why?”

“Anyway, the overall number 1 is fixed. Looking at it now, everyone is saying that the 25th season is a scramble for Choi Soo-won.”

-Thwack!!

“Hey, it’s not like we’ve been working in this industry for a day or two, and there’s no such thing as ‘anyway’ in the world.”

“No, even if there’s no such thing as ‘anyway’, who would pass on a home run king who throws 156 [kilometers per hour, or 97 mph]? Besides, what about the majors? These days, kids all have calculations and don’t go to America right away. Hudson is the one who finished the minors the fastest recently. It took him three and a half years. But in the first place, if you stay in Korea, you don’t have to go through the minors, and since you’re a FA right away without service time, you can earn more money, so who would go straight to the majors?”

“That’s something you don’t know. Look at Ohtani. He could have waited just two more years. He just went to the majors with the minimum salary.”

“That’s because they saw Ohtani do that, so they won’t do that even more. Besides, Ohtani still swept up the Angels’ international prospect slot money that year and received $2.31 million, but Choi Soo-won… Honestly, he’s a home run king who throws 156, but he doesn’t have control, so when the majors look at him, isn’t he just a hitting infielder prospect with bad defense? In Korea, 156 is an all-time pitching prospect, but they sometimes have prospects who throw up to 100 miles per hour since high school.”

-Thwack!!

“Hey, I know all the facts without you saying them in a row like that. But still, there’s no such thing as ‘anyway’ in this industry. Got it?”

“Yes, yes, I understand.”

***

“So, you’re saying he’s a seventeen-year-old prospect who throws 97 miles per hour? His hitting is at a level where he could come to the majors right now? Is that certain?”

“He’s hardly faced a proper pitcher yet, so it’s a bit of an unknown, but he’s faced a prospect who would be in the TOP100 if he was in his home country and hit a home run in every at-bat in a total of six at-bats.”

“Hmm….”

“If you have any doubts, the biggest tournament in Korea in the form of a tournament will be held soon, so it might not be bad to watch that as well.”

The man shook his head firmly at his subordinate’s recommendation.

“No. No. That would be too late. Isn’t it a competition after everyone else knows it’s a treasure? Besides, I trust Mr. Palmer quite a bit. Immediately sound out the player’s intentions and make an offer. Be sure to emphasize that our James Corporation has the ability to help players advance to the United States most efficiently.”

“Yes, I understand.”