The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 98

98. Spring (3)

“I’ve heard you’re rude, but this is beyond imagination?”

“Right? A rookie flying business class? It’s insane no matter how you look at it.”

“Hey, hey, don’t be too harsh. He probably didn’t know. I heard he didn’t play in the Futures League [a minor league system in Korean baseball] at all and just joined after personal training.”

“Oh, come on. Senior Hyuk-joo is such an angel. Not playing in the Futures League in the first place is arrogant, isn’t it? Besides, whether he played in the Futures League or not, he should have learned this much even in school. Baek Ha-min, don’t you think?”

“Haha······, well, his school is Joongang High, and right above him, there’s a senior who couldn’t produce a pro for seven years until he went pro.”

Kwon Hyuk-joo clicked his tongue at Baek Ha-min’s story.

“Wow······. He came to the pros with the first overall pick and a 2 billion won [approximately $1.5 million USD] signing bonus from such a high school? A true prodigy is a prodigy.”

“What’s the point of being a prodigy if his personality is rotten? Anyway, when I go to the States, I’ll have the guys make sure to take care of it. Until it’s possible to upgrade with the mileage from going back and forth to spring camp, the seats are always economy class. That’s basic.”

“Don’t say it too harshly. He’s still young. Besides······. Ah, never mind.”

Thirty-one this year.

Among the players sitting in economy class here, Kwon Hyuk-joo was the oldest. So he knew for sure. No matter how much seniority there is, there is a value in the pro world that far surpasses it. And if he’s a 2 billion-dollar prospect, there’s a very high chance he’ll reach that value······.

‘No, maybe we should already see him in that category······.’

Superstar.

If he establishes a position that goes beyond just being a first-team regular, like an All-Star or Golden Glove winner, what good is that seniority? Right now, Kang Ra-on, who is three years younger than him, and his position aren’t even comparable.

“Don’t worry, senior. I’ll take care of it so that no one talks behind your back.”

***

It was a long, long flight via LA to Tucson, Arizona.

Of course, the comfort was not even comparable to when I went to New York before. In particular, the part I thought I did well was on the flight from LA to Tucson. The connecting flight was an American Airlines flight, and the seat pitch in economy class was only 30 inches.

For reference, the seat pitch in economy class on Korean national airlines is 34 inches, which means it’s more than 10 centimeters narrower. With a seat pitch of 30 inches, even if you’re 180 cm tall with an average leg length, your knees will be right up against the seat in front of you unless you put your butt all the way to the end of the seat. What if you’re over 190 cm? It’s only a 2-hour flight, but it means it’s such a painful flight that it’s more comfortable to stand. In fact, some of the taller players who came in economy class were rubbing their knees.

I got off the plane and picked up my luggage.

For some reason, I still had memories of my major league days when I would take a domestic flight in the United States and go straight from the plane to the bus, so it was a bit of an awkward moment.

Even some of the veterans went straight to the bus and sat down without picking up their luggage, which made it even more so. I guess it’s my job to find that luggage. Well, the big leagues don’t have a senior-junior culture either. No, the big leagues are even worse in some ways. But I was usually on the receiving end of that treatment, not the one doing it.

“Senior, I think I’ve got all the luggage.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to refuse to work here. It’s not like I’m going to be doing this for very long anyway. No matter how strict the hierarchy of seniors and juniors is, it’s all solved if your skills are MVP-level [Most Valuable Player]. Why, even comedians, who are known for their strict senior-junior relationships in the entertainment industry, say that ‘if you get famous, you’re exempt.’ The pro baseball scene isn’t that different.

If you get famous, you’re exempt. Just like Hamin-hyung walking out there with only his luggage.

Anyway, 30 minutes by bus.

I arrived at a place that was full of impressions that the club had invested in with quite a bit of heart.

The Jackie Robinson Training Complex.

Usually, you stay in a motel and go out to the training field, but here, there was an accommodation attached to the training field itself. As many as 10 baseball fields. It was a huge training ground, almost like a major league spring training facility, and the word ‘great’ came out automatically.

Of course, there was something that wasn’t great in the midst of all this, and that was the idiots who called me out, tired from the long flight, and spouted nonsense.

“······I believe you understood that much.”

“Wow, the world has really gotten better. A senior is explaining so kindly to such a rude junior. If it were our time, there would have been no mercy.”

“Don’t be too harsh. He’s a 2 billion-dollar rookie, isn’t he? It could be that he’s just ignorant. I heard his personality was terrible when he was in school, like a lone wolf, so it could be. It is. But Suwon-ah. I’m telling you again, this isn’t high school. Right now, all those seniors over there were flying high like you in high school. Staying in the pros as a first-team player means you’ve gone beyond that and even made it to FA [Free Agent]. That’s what it means. That’s the result you’ll get if you play in the pros for about 10 years. But a rookie is trying to match himself with them as equals? Put yourself in their shoes. How frustrating would that be? Don’t you think?”

Uh······. Um······. I’ve been playing in the pros for about 10 years, and I know that’s not the case······. Honestly, the guys who get big FAs are usually relaxed. They don’t really care if a rookie takes business class or whatever. Rather, the guys who care about that are the ones who have been around for a while but can’t get paid hundreds of millions in salary, so they’re too burdened to upgrade to business class with their own money. Roughly, if you go to the United States once, you’ll accumulate about 12,000 miles. You have to repeat this about seven times to accumulate enough miles to upgrade your seat. So, after seven times, can you always upgrade your seat?

No way.

Even if a player has come to spring camp eight or nine times, there are many cases where their cumulative salary is less than a billion won. Of course, a billion is a lot of money, but being a baseball player is a job that costs more than you think to maintain. Even if you make about 100 million won in salary, there are many cases where you don’t pay a penny in taxes after deducting expenses and so on. Besides, in the case of ordinary people, income usually peaks from the age of forty as their career builds up, but that’s not the case for baseball players. If you get a big FA, then the story changes, but how many players do that? About 5%? By the time you’re thirty, your salary starts to decline.

In the end, not many players can afford to fly business class. In that sense, I understand that you might feel jealous when you see a rookie flying business class. But being jealous and calling someone out like this is another story.

Honestly, I’d be too embarrassed to just pretend I didn’t know······. Typical Marines.

The thought of fighting back didn’t even occur to me.

The guys who come to you and talk to you directly like this are a kind of knife. It just means they’re just being wielded by someone else. If you’re going to get angry, you should get angry at the guy who wielded the knife, there’s no reason to have an emotional fight with these guys one by one.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that was the etiquette······. It’s just that economy class is uncomfortable, and I had to process the expenses anyway, so I did it. I’ll be careful next time.”

‘I didn’t know. I’ll be careful next time.’

In fact, if he was a real madman, he would have developed the story from here in the sense that if he didn’t know, was that all there was to it. For example, like a certain pitcher who is currently throwing curveballs hard in the college league. But fortunately, these guys weren’t that bad.

“Okay, be careful next time. You must be tired from the flight, go in and rest.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Of course, it was moderately crazy to call out a rookie who signed a 2 billion-dollar contract like this at the behest of someone.

Anyway, a full day.

Time passed to adjust to the time difference. A 16-hour time difference. In other words, I left Seoul at 10:30 AM on Monday, but when I arrived in Tucson, Arizona, it was still 10:30 AM on Monday, which was a time difference that was difficult to overcome in just one day. Moreover, it was even more so because I had been crammed into that narrow plane for 16 hours.

But that doesn’t mean we can just wait for our condition to recover. I had a hearty breakfast and moved to the training ground.

There were already players who had come out earlier and were warming up at the training ground. Their eyes were blazing with motivation. It was a common sight around this time of year. And among them were the two guys who were spouting nonsense to me yesterday.

In fact, it is very, very rare to be called up to the first team right away because you stood out in spring camp. Usually, the manager has an idea of which players to use this season from before spring camp starts, and at most one or two cases deviate from that?

After all, baseball is a sport that is played over a long season. If you get your body up to speed too quickly, you’ll burn out quickly. That’s why the starting players who know that get their bodies up to speed at their own pace. That’s why second-team players often stand out in spring camp or exhibition games.

Of course, the second-team players know that much. That’s why they do their best even more. Being in the top 28 out of the 34 players gathered here does not mean that you are included in the 28-man roster. Players who have not yet joined because their FA contract has not ended, foreign players who will join soon. Even players who will return from injury. They grit their teeth and run with the mindset that they are competing with a dozen or so people for really one or two spots.

And among them, I slowly warmed up.

‘2 billion······. He’ll definitely start in the first team, right?’

‘Originally, there was a high probability of that. But he joined without properly training in the Futures League, so the coaches are complaining a lot. If he’s sluggish, they’ll tell him to adapt in the Futures League first, right?’

The glances of the people were fiercely directed at me. It was a familiar sight. And in the meantime, those who could be called veterans began to join one by one.

Still the first day of spring camp.

Rather than dividing pitchers and fielders and going into full-scale training, training to warm up moderately continued. The difference between the players who had prepared their bodies in advance and those who had not was clearly evident even in this moderate warm-up training, and the surprising thing was that about 30% of the players could not even complete the simple 10 sets of pole and pole [a type of running drill] until the end.

“Oh, I’m tired. I’m tired. Today’s training is very tiring.”

“It’s still the first day and I haven’t even adjusted to the time difference, but it’s tough.”

“Hey, what are you going to do if you’re tired? I was almost flying when I was your age.”

“Senior, I’m thirty-four now.”

“What, Kyung-joon, you’re already that old? Wow, time flies.”

Even the coaches didn’t say anything to the veterans who finished about four sets and slipped out. Just a scene that seemed too natural. As the number of sets increased, the number of players who slipped out increased. Only the 1.5-team players gritted their teeth and repeated the pole and pole.

The first few sets were not much different.

But as the sets continued, the number of players following my speed gradually decreased. The coaches looked at me and whispered.

“That 2 billion guy is definitely different. He’s so relaxed.”

“His arms and legs are long and his body is agile, so it would be perfect if he completely switched to being a hitter and became an outfielder this time.”

“Oh, what are you talking about? To make a guy who throws 157 km/h [~98 mph] an outfielder. I’d rather make him a full-time pitcher.”

“Hey, it’s too bad to waste his hitting. I saw the video and his form is so clean that if he bulks up a bit, he’ll have the force of Kyu-man in his prime, right?”

“The force of Kyu-man in his prime? Is it that good?”

“That’s right. He’s a guy you don’t want to make do anything weird.”

“No, what do you mean weird? Even so, he’s 157 with that body. If he bulks up a bit like you said, he might even be able to throw 160 km/h [~99 mph].”

A light bickering between the pitching coach and the hitting coach.

The strategy coach slipped in between them.

“But he didn’t even come to the Futures League training ground, but it looks like he’s made his body strong?”

“That’s right, if a guy who just became an adult received 2 billion, he might have just done it roughly. He’s a bit uncooperative, but it seems like his work ethic is okay?”

“Sigh······. But if it’s like that, he’ll run hard in the beginning and burn out as soon as summer comes?”

“We have to adjust that well now.”

By the time I finished the 10th set, I was out of breath.

Certainly, I had been training hard until December and then took a break for more than a month, only doing conditioning training moderately, so my body was a bit heavy. But rest and proper fat were essential for running a full year.

Sufficient nutrition.

And training.

That’s how three days passed.

“Oh, you’re Swan!! Nice to meet you.”

Blue eyes and yellow hair. A sturdy physique.

The foreign pitcher, who had finally joined, brushed past all the players in the locker room and spoke to me first. He didn’t seem to care about the hierarchy of the locker room at all. But the really important part wasn’t that.

The moment I saw his face, I remembered.

In the original history, why did the Marines finish last again this season? Right now, the answer was right in front of me.

Dilton Doiley.

He was the main player in the Marines’ last place this season, recording an ERA [Earned Run Average, a key pitching statistic] in the 7s and being released after three months as a 1 million-dollar mercenary pitcher.