The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 80

80. Turning Point (1)

Lee Jae-cheol, now a sophomore, remembered Choi Soo-won as the very embodiment of overwhelming baseball prowess.

Since childhood, he had always been told that baseball wasn’t a solo game, that he needed to trust the fielders behind him when he threw the ball.

And then there was that no-hitter, no-run game.

It was a first. A pitcher winning without the help of the fielders.

Clearly, it wasn’t Jungeun High School that had won the semi-final match against Gyeong High School that day.

It was Choi Soo-won.

And today.

He was on the mound, throwing again.

-Thwack!!!

“Strike!!! Out!!”

He had felt it strongly during the last National Sports Festival.

‘His form has become wilder, but his control has actually gotten better.’

-Clang!!!

The high fly ball didn’t escape the infield.

“Out!!”

And that hadn’t changed.

The only change was that he seemed more stable. It was a truly bizarre thing. How could someone throwing with such a dynamic form feel so stable?

“Tsk, that kid, ever since he came back from America, he has no tempo control. If he keeps using his lower body like that, he’ll tire out quickly.”

Coach Yang Se-joon clicked his tongue, but honestly, it was hard to agree.

Since they had been roommates in the dorm recently, he knew better than anyone how hard Choi Soo-won was working on his lower body, and how sturdy it had become.

-Whoosh!!

“Strike!! Out!!!!”

How powerful was a ball close to 160 km/h [~99.4 mph]?

Of course, Semin High, their first opponent today, wasn’t a prestigious school. But those guys had also been playing baseball for at least 4-5 years, or even more than 10 years. Frankly speaking, they were probably not much different from Lee Jae-cheol himself.

And against such players, he struck them out in order with just eight pitches.

Choi Soo-won hadn’t changed. He was as strong as ever.

***

“He’s changed a lot.”

Radical transformation, daily renewal, remarkable progress. Whatever you called it, Choi Soo-won’s performance on the mound was fitting for such words.

“Huh? Changed a lot, you say?”

Kim Seong-cheol, the new recruit, tilted his head.

Manager Kim, no, Manager Kim, who had been promoted to section chief in this personnel evaluation, nodded.

“Yeah, he’s changed a lot.”

“But his velocity seems the same. Has his pitch quality improved?”

He thought it was possible.

A rookie is a rookie because they don’t know anything. At least it was a hundred times better to have a rookie who didn’t know anything than a boss who didn’t know anything like the team leader he used to work with until last year. At least a rookie wouldn’t stubbornly insist that their misunderstanding was correct.

“My eyes aren’t a high-speed camera, so I can’t tell if his pitch quality has improved from here. Well, there’s such a thing as intuition, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now.”

“Ah!! Are you talking about his control? It does feel more stable. The ball is consistently coming into the zone. His location isn’t great, but if a ball that’s around 155 km/h [~96.3 mph] comes in like that, no one at the high school level can hit it.”

“That was pretty consistent even during the National Sports Festival last time. Seong-cheol, did we come here today just to watch Choi Soo-won’s pitches?”

“Well… we didn’t just come to see that. We also need to see how Jo Yu-jin has changed, and we need to check out Go Han-gyeol and Park Yu-joon, the freshmen.”

Manager Kim shook his head.

“No, that’s not what I mean. The ball itself is important, of course, but what’s more important is the pitcher who throws it. Don’t you think?”

“Huh?”

Kim Seong-cheol blinked. It was obvious from his face that he didn’t understand at all.

“I told you when you joined the company. A scout is someone who looks at the process, not the results.”

“Yes!! The results of the competition are important, of course, but how they pitched in the process is more important. The final grade is important, but how much they’ve improved from entering to graduating is more important, you said.”

“Pitching is the same. The ball that comes is important, but how the pitcher threw it, that process is more important. Now, look here carefully.”

Choi Soo-won in the tablet connected to the camera threw the ball.

On the left screen was Choi Soo-won from six months ago, and on the right screen was Choi Soo-won from today’s game.

“Ah…”

And Kim Seong-cheol involuntarily exclaimed.

“Choi Soo-won is completely insane. How can a high school student change this much just during winter vacation?”

“He was at a pitching lab in New York, so they must have made him there. Well, even considering that, it’s absurd. Honestly, considering his level last year, he had the completeness to bombard the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization] as a hitter right away, but as a pitcher, he was only good enough for the bullpen. But if it’s like this, if he just equips one proper breaking ball and proves his stamina, it might really be possible.”

“Manager. If that’s the case… could it be?”

“Yes, two-way player.”

***

It was definitely effective.

Of course, at the high school player level, even if I had thrown the same way as before against kids who might or might not go pro, the results wouldn’t have been much different from now.

But regardless of the results, I could definitely tell as the one throwing the ball.

-Whoosh!!

“Strike!! Out!!!”

Even though it was the second time through the batting order, the opposing batters weren’t catching the timing at all. Jo Yu-jin was chatting with the batter at the plate. Now that he was a senior and even the captain, his already good sociability had gotten even better.

-Clang!!!

A low fastball.

The batter barely managed to touch the ball with his bat. But it was a hit that was simply focused on getting the bat on the ball. There was no way any power could be put into the hit.

Im Ji-min, the shortstop, quickly ran out and picked up the ball.

It was a ball he could have easily caught barehanded, but the fact that he didn’t push himself was typical of him.

-Thwack!!!

“Out!!!”

Force out at first base.

The top of the 5th inning for Semin High ended.

And the bottom of the 5th inning.

Jo Yu-jin stepped up to the plate.

His batting order was first. What had changed wasn’t just the batting order.

A wide stance with his weight slightly shifted back.

His upper body leaning forward. His bat raised high.

The scouts who had gathered to see me were whispering among themselves. It must have looked a bit ridiculous to them.

‘No, to compensate for the tendency of his upper body to drift towards first base during his swing, he’s leaning his upper body forward.’

‘It’s not bad. Supersonic had some fun with that in his later years.’

‘But that was something he did after trying everything else and failing. He’s only a high school senior now, and he has decent power potential, but he’s already doing something like that… Besides, that guy isn’t an outfielder, he’s a catcher. Even if he can do that now because he’s still young and his knees are healthy, what’s he going to do when his speed drops in a few years…’

Perhaps they were having conversations like that?

Jo Yu-jin’s problem was that the moment he swung his bat, his body would unknowingly open up quickly towards first base. As a result, he couldn’t put power into the bat until the end, and naturally, a hit without power wouldn’t fly properly.

And now.

The pitcher on the mound threw the ball.

A ball that was slightly off.

Jo Yu-jin’s bat followed.

-Clang!!!

Even now, his body was still trying hard to turn towards first base.

But his upper body, positioned exactly opposite to first base, delayed that time. No, rather, that strong desire to go to first base raised his lowered upper body and properly completed his swing.

A properly powered hit that only came out during practice.

Of course, it wasn’t as exhilarating as it had been then. It would be greedy to expect that much from such an awkward form. But it was enough. A hit that pierced through the gap between first and second base. Jo Yu-jin’s body sprinted towards first base.

“Safe!!!”

The guy’s face, as he stood on first base, removing his protective gear and sticking his batting gloves in his back pocket, was full of confidence. It wasn’t too bad to see him, who had grumbled so much last winter about his awkward stance, looking satisfied. More than anything, it was very encouraging that a hitter who could set the table for me had emerged.

“Nice!!!”

Coach Seo Min-woo clenched his fist.

Come to think of it, it wasn’t just Jjo Yu who had struggled to change his batting form over the past three months. Considering how much the coach had searched for data and worked hard with Jjo Yu, he couldn’t help but be happy to produce such a result in the first actual game today.

Following hit.

And an infield fly.

One out, runners on first and second.

It was my turn.

Familiar gazes flew and landed on me.

In the previous at-bat, I had a walk and a sacrifice fly that flew near the fence.

‘I heard he only trained as a pitcher all winter, so isn’t his batting sense a bit off?’

‘Well, it can’t be helped. That’s why it’s so hard to be a two-way player.’

It’s not like I actually heard those words.

I’m just guessing that the scouts might have had such a conversation. In fact, when I was training at the NBM Center in New York, the Washington brothers had warned me about that.

“As we warned you in advance, the muscles that pitchers use and the muscles that hitters use have many overlapping parts, but they also have many different parts. Just like how decathletes’ records in the high jump decrease when they train for throwing events, you may experience some discomfort when hitting if you only train for pitching.”

Basically, pitchers need ‘more’ pushing power, while hitters need ‘more’ pulling power. In fact, looking at my body since the last world competition, the muscles that assist the shoulder joint, the triceps of the arm, and the forearm have clearly swelled up. On the other hand, the pectoralis major of the chest and the biceps of the arm have decreased a bit, and my lower body has become more solid.

The pitcher on the mound quickly threw the ball from the set position.

-Thwack!!

A ball that’s out of the zone.

-Thwack!!

Another ball that’s out of the zone.

And the third one.

It felt different.

A slightly twisted wrist.

The breaking ball that high school pitchers in our country throw the most.

It was a slider.

The ball thrown by the pitcher tempted me as if it was slightly coming into the zone. The pitcher on the mound was someone I was seeing for the first time today. It was hard to predict how much it would break.

I stepped out strongly with my slightly raised left foot.

The strengthened lower body firmly supported that movement. The upper body didn’t shake much. The solid core safely converted the massive forward energy into rotational energy. I couldn’t say that my hitting had become more powerful compared to five months ago.

But it didn’t matter if I didn’t get any stronger. My hitting was already far beyond the high school level.

-Clang!!!

The end of the bat, slightly off the sweet spot. But the gripped bat didn’t shake. Even after throwing more than 70 pitches, my grip strength was still sufficient.

A towering fly ball.

There was no need to see more.

A three-run home run.

It was the first home run of the tournament.

***

“So, what’s your assessment, Manager Kim?”

“He’s a player we have to get by any means. Especially his rate of development is truly absurd. Judging from last year, his hitting was good enough to be in the upper batting order even if he went to the pro first team right away, but I thought his pitching was a bit lacking. His ball was fast, but his control was so-so, and it felt a bit too honest.”

Yes, that was definitely the case. But today was completely different. Manager Kim continued.

“Of course, it’s too early to judge based on just one game today, but with this rate of development… If he just equips one usable breaking ball, he could be used as a must-win pitcher right away, and if his game management and stamina are verified, he could be used as a lower rotation starter.”

“Is he that good?”

Jeon Sang-ik, the general manager of the Marines, who had hung up the phone, was deep in thought.

The story of a lawyer he had faced every winter for the past three years when negotiating player salaries brushed past his ears.

‘I have a friend who knows a little about James Corporation, and it seems that Choi Soo-won is thinking of going to the United States as is if the posting system is not revised?’

The reason why he was able to get away with less criticism even though he finished last in that grand byeongnip [lit. 병림픽, a portmanteau of “byeongsin” (idiot) and “Olympics,” used to describe a pathetic or ridiculous competition] last year was solely because of the existence of Choi Soo-won. What if he missed him? What if he even went to the United States and flew around in an instant?

It was truly a terrible imagination.

He immediately pressed the phone button on his desk.

-Beep

“Hey, it’s me, connect me to the president right now.”