The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 46

46. Except Him (4)

I don’t really know what good pitching is. Having played baseball for 24 years, I’ve heard a lot about pitching, and I know a lot of sayings related to it. But that’s all just indirect experience. I haven’t ‘directly’ experienced proper pitching.

Of course, when I first started playing baseball at the age of ten until I was seventeen, pitching was everything to me for eight years. But that was just at the student level. I know all too well how wide and deep the gap between professional and amateur is, and how great the difference in level is even within the pros, and further, among Major Leaguers, because I’ve experienced it firsthand.

More than anything, the period I didn’t pitch directly is eighteen years, adding ten years to eight years. That’s enough time to completely lose what I knew.

But even so, I had the experience of getting hits off the guys who throw the worst pitches in the world for nine years. And in that process, I’ve had countless experiences of missing the ball. So I know very well what kind of pitching sucks.

A changeup that suddenly dives when I was sure it was a fastball.

A knuckle curve that suddenly drops without showing any reverse spin when it leaves the hand.

A dirty slider that starts to break after the bat has already started.

A 97-mile sinker that is no different from a four-seam fastball.

Forkballs thrown by perverts from Japan.

And a crazy knuckleball that even the pitcher didn’t know where it would go.

A crazy guy who could control all those pitches with about six different windups.

There were so many.

But unfortunately, as a pitcher right now, I didn’t have any of them.

But it was okay. This wasn’t the Major League, and in fact, there was one more thing that was just as frustrating even in the Major League, and I already had it.

A 107-mile four-seam fastball with terrible location but still decent control.

Of course, my speed isn’t 107 miles right now. So, since the average Major League speed was about 95 miles when I was playing, I think it would give a similar feeling here if it were about 97 miles.

Was it thanks to my teaching in the top of the first inning?

Jung Byeong-cheol’s body was crowding the inside of the plate. Well, I guess that means he’s trying to do that consciously. But his body was stiff. I honestly understood. I also forced myself to stand there when I got into a pride fight, but that’s really scary. Whether the pitcher intended it or not, if a 100-mile ball hits your head properly, you’ll have at least a concussion even if you’re wearing a helmet. What if it hits your face instead of your helmet? You could really meet your maker.

‘Hey, are you really going to be okay?’

I shook my head coolly at Jo Yu-jin’s earnest eyes. It’s a pride fight between men. Bailing to the outside here is something only cowards do. I’m going to go high and inside.

I wound up big. I swung my arm as my body remembered. And at the last moment, I strongly gripped the ball with the feeling of putting all that energy on my fingertips.

Fastball.

Four-seam fastball.

The fastest and most spinning ball left my hand.

The location was a bit ambiguous. It’s inside, but it’s just the right height, neither low nor high. Jung Byeong-cheol’s eyes lit up. A concise movement that doesn’t match his huge size. The speed at which the bat moved was unusual.

-Clang!!

The batted ball soared high.

***

Jung Byeong-cheol, who threw down his bat, ran quickly towards first base.

‘Damn… It was much higher than I thought.’

The time it takes for a ball to leave the pitcher’s hand and hit the catcher’s mitt is about 0.4 seconds based on 144km/h [approximately 89.5 mph]. If it’s a ball close to 156km/h [approximately 97 mph] like Choi Soo-won’s ball, 0.36 seconds is enough. It is naturally impossible to watch and hit such a ball from beginning to end.

You read the trajectory at the starting point of the ball, predict it through experience, and swing the bat. Here, that ‘experience’ is why the spin rate of the ball is important. In the end, what the batter predicts is bound to be the average. And extremely high or low spin rates deviate from the average based on that ‘experience’.

The same was true of Choi Soo-won’s ball. A trajectory quite different from the fastballs Jung Byeong-cheol had experienced. It passed at least 1/4 of a ball higher. You might say, what’s the big deal about being only 2cm [approximately 0.8 inches] off when one ball is 7.23cm [approximately 2.8 inches]? But the thickness of a wooden bat is only 7cm [approximately 2.8 inches] at most. This means that a ball that would have gone over the fence if it had been a little lower could become a clumsy outfield fly ball due to a difference of 2cm.

Outfield fly out.

The right fielder of Joongang High School caught the batted ball without difficulty.

Jung Byeong-cheol, who was running with the thought that high school baseball defense cannot always be successful, stopped.

He trudged over and said to the next batter coming into the plate from the waiting batter’s box.

‘The ball feels like it’s coming in about 1/4 of a ball higher.’

‘Is the quality of the ball pretty good?’

‘Ah, sorry. Sorry. I didn’t add this. The ball comes in 1/4 of a ball higher than *I* thought. It’s not just good. The speed is crazy, but the quality is even crazier. So, prepare thinking that the fastball is more powerful than Cheonnam High School’s Baek Ha-min.’

‘Is it that much?’

Jung Byeong-cheol shrugged his shoulders once and went down to the dugout.

He gave the information to the next batter.

But he had no expectation that something would change dramatically with that one word. In the first place, there were not many batters who could subtly control their bats just by hearing those words.

And as Jung Byeong-cheol thought, Gyeonggo’s batters could not easily attack Choi Soo-won.

First pitch, infield ground ball out.

And three-pitch strikeout.

Choi Soo-won clearly proved his value as a pitcher against the strongest Gyeonggo high school batters.

***

‘Hoo…’

Honestly, my heart dropped the moment the batted ball went up.

The location was a bit off, but it was still a decent pitch, so I thought, would he really hit it over? But fortunately, it didn’t go that far. It seems that Jung Byeong-cheol’s body was a bit stiff, and the fact that my ball was better than I thought worked in combination.

It wasn’t that difficult after Jung Byeong-cheol.

So, it feels like my command, which was either a strike or a ball, has suddenly increased today. To put it in Japanese manga terms, my strike or ball two-way control has now increased to about four-way control?

Even if I divide the zone into four parts and aim for each side and throw the ball, the ball goes inside the strike zone if it’s okay. Of course, it wasn’t always the case that the ball went to the side I wanted. The most probable thing was the center of the zone where the four shot groups intersected, and sometimes the ball went out of the zone.

But still, wouldn’t it be okay for me to be called a four-way pitcher who distinguishes between the inside and outside, top and bottom of the zone?

I could see Pumba’s face in the dugout, chatting with Jo Yu-jin for a while.

‘No, it’s really impossible. I have nothing to say to Jimin either. What kind of ball comes in on the outside, and even if I endure thinking that one mistake will come out, it’s useless. Then suddenly a falling ball swoops!! The speed is the speed, but the control is really crazy. Besides, is it because he’s a left-hander? I honestly think he’s more difficult than Cheonnam High School’s senior Baek Ha-min.’

‘Is it that much?’

Pumba suddenly approached Jo Yu-jin and lowered his voice.

Well, even so, I could hear everything because his voice was so loud.

‘Yeah. Honestly, I don’t know how that bastard Choi Soo-won hit a home run against that kind of ball. He’s a monster.’

‘Then just wait. I’ll go and tell you how to hit it.’

‘Yeah, even if I tell you how to hit that monster Choi Soo-won, it’s just a matter of watching the ball coming and swinging the bat well, but if you, Jo Yu-jin, hit the ball, it’s because there’s a real way to hit it.’

‘Sigh… what is it? I feel a little bad?’

Jo Yu-jin grumbled and headed to the waiting batter’s box with a bat.

-Whoosh!!

The swing he makes in the waiting batter’s box is really cool. It is a truly beautiful swing in which the upper and lower body are organically linked.

And in the meantime, Timon was dismissed with a clean infield ground ball. He also ran towards first base with all his might, but it was an impossible batted ball.

Top of the 3rd inning.

One out, no runners.

Jo Yu-jin stood at the plate.

First ball.

Full inside fastball.

It was a location that was hard to believe was from a high school student. If he could throw all the balls like that, maybe he could aim for the Major League? It means that the ball just went in well rather than aiming for it.

It would be okay to just watch one, but if that were the case, he wouldn’t be Jo Yu-jin.

The bat moved powerfully.

And this time again, before the bat is fully turned, the field of vision turns to first base. Tsk. Since the upper and lower body move separately like that, there’s no way the bat can have power. Still, it’s a talent to bring the ball to the bat with effort.

A weak batted ball.

Jo Yu-jin ran towards first base with all his might. Maybe if the shortstop today was an average high school student, it might have been a hit. But Park Jin-kyung, who is playing shortstop today, was an infielder with no weaknesses except for her girl’s shoulders. Even those shoulders are enough to be average at the high school level, even though they went to 2nd base due to the shortstop impossible ruling at the professional level.

Park Jin-kyung quickly picked up the ball and threw it straight to first base in a neat manner.

-Bang!!

‘Out!!’

A clean first-pitch groundout.

‘Ah… Too bad. If it had 빠졌어도 [slipped through] a little more.’

Looking at Jo Yu-jin, who was coming in muttering that the batted ball, which was not at all regrettable, was regrettable, I felt strangely angry inside.

Yes, before the regression, I couldn’t pay attention to other people’s batting because I was pitching until the 2nd grade, and then hitting as a hitter while rehabilitating in the 3rd grade. Thanks to that, I didn’t really remember how he hit. But looking at that batting now, what should I say? How did he last 10 years in the pros with that kind of batting?

I sincerely have a desire to change his batting form to a human-like appearance, if not to an excellent level, before graduation.

Of course, I’m not completely worried that I might ruin the future of a guy who has managed to last 10 years in the pros by interfering unnecessarily, but I’m sure that no matter what I touch there, the batting form won’t get worse than that.

And while I was having that brief thought

-Whoosh!!

‘Strike!! Out!!!’

A clean swing and a strikeout.

I hadn’t even rested for a few minutes, but it was my turn to throw the ball again.

Yes, it’s better that way. Rather than letting my shoulders cool down unnecessarily, it’s better to throw continuously when my senses are slowly catching up and I have this much strength.

And is it thanks to that positive thought?

Or is it simply that even if it is the strongest Gyeonggo in the country, the lower ranks did not have the power to stop ‘me today’?

A clean three-up, three-down, including two strikeouts.

What was most surprising was that there were only three balls in the process of throwing a total of fourteen balls.

Is it ‘that’ again today?

Our attack in the top of the 4th inning.

My at-bat came around in a one-out situation.

***

‘Hello. My name is Ted Park.’

‘I’m Choi Kyung-ah, a PD [Producer Director] at the educational broadcasting station. You speak Korean well?’

‘Yes, I grew up in Koreatown.’

‘I see. Actually, if it wasn’t for the last name Park, I wouldn’t have known you were Korean-American.’

Choi Kyung-ah’s gaze turned to him.

He looked more like a mestizo [person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry] from South America than a Korean.

‘Well, I hear that often. It’s because I’m a quarter. Only my paternal grandfather is Korean. Anyway, you wanted to interview me about Choi Soo-won?’

‘Yes, I heard that Ted Park works for an agency in the United States. And a very big company at that.’

‘Haha, you can just call me Ted. James Corporation isn’t that big of a company yet. However, it is certain that we are the agency located closest to the best prospects right now. Josh Cooper is also our player.’

‘Josh Cooper?’

‘Yes. That’s right, Josh Cooper, the Rookie of the Year in the American League last year.’

An agency with last year’s American League Rookie of the Year as a client.

The employee of such an agency asserted.

‘We believe that Choi Soo-won has batting talent no less than that of Josh Cooper. And we are confident that we can get him the treatment he deserves.’