Villain On The Mound [EN]: Chapter 2

Villain on the Mound – Episode 2

Villain on the Mound 2

It felt deeply unfair.

“My name isn’t even mentioned?”

I dedicated myself to the team.

I endured the pain and pitched for the fans.

Retirement due to a failed surgery.

And the promised coaching position fell through.

Still, I didn’t resent the club.

I blamed myself.

I was happy with the congratulatory wreaths that arrived when I opened a chicken restaurant with my signing bonus.

That’s how I’ve lived my life.

“Not a single article about me……”

A sense of emptiness washed over me.

“What have I been living for?”

Just as I was sinking into a maddening sense of futility,

“Oh, this friend has quite the talent.”

An old man appeared.

“Who……?”

“The god of baseball. A friend who had quite the talent. Tsk! Retired early due to injury. That’s why I didn’t know.”

“……Why are you poking at someone else’s sore spot?”

“Haha! A wild horse. I like that you’re rude.”

“I’m already in a bad mood, so just go away.”

“I could send you back to the past. Are you really going to let me go?”

Send me to the past?

What is he talking about?

“Didn’t I tell you? I’m a god. It’s not difficult for me to send you to the past.”

“Really?”

The old man nodded.

There was no reason to refuse.

“Send me to the past.”

“Haha! That’s refreshing. But you need to consider the conditions carefully. You haven’t learned your lesson after a failed surgery due to a management contract and a medical accident.”

“How did you…….”

The other party is a god.

It would be strange if he didn’t know.

“So, what do I have to do?”

“Go and play baseball.”

“Baseball?”

“Yes. Play baseball with a healthy body. It’ll be quite fun to watch you.”

“……Can’t I just go back and invest in Bitcoin?”

“Enough with the get-rich-quick schemes. No. I’m the god of baseball, not the god of finance. If you use future knowledge to make money instead of playing baseball, you will be punished.”

“What kind of punishment?”

“Well, maybe your arm will break again, and you won’t be able to throw, and every business you start will fail?”

Damn it.

The easiest way is blocked.

“More than anything, I want to see you play baseball, so I’m sending you back. A friend with your talent retiring without even playing. Tsk, tsk.”

“Do you think I wanted to retire? You already know everything, why are you bringing it up again?”

“Haha! Your personality has changed a lot.”

Of course, it had to change.

I felt betrayed by everything.

“So, you want two things. First, I play baseball, and second, I don’t make money from other things.”

“To be exact, you shouldn’t make money with future knowledge. And I’ll add one more condition.”

“Tell me.”

“Go to the Major League.”

“The Major League?”

“Yes. The KBO [Korean Baseball Organization] is too low-level for me to watch. So, show me you playing in the Major League.”

Could he really go to the Major League?

Doubt arose, but he didn’t voice it.

What’s important now is going back to the past.

“I understand.”

The old man smiled.

“Good. Then make me happy.”

Ha-sung’s consciousness was cut off there.

* * *

Clang-!!

A cheerful sound spread across the ground.

“Run! Run!!”

“It’s through!!”

The young-faced players cheered all at once.

Among them was Jung Ha-sung.

‘I’ve returned to high school.’

Ha-sung looked at the glove in his hand.

Seeing the old glove brought back new feelings.

‘I really came back.’

I thought it was a dream.

A futile dream before death.

But it was real.

‘And I’ve returned to the tournament where I got injured.’

A player’s body doesn’t break down all at once.

It breaks down as damage accumulates.

The period when the most significant damage occurs is right now.

‘This is when my shoulder started to feel strange.’

Before signing with a professional club.

A shoulder injury discovered during a medical test.

Thanks to that, I had surgery and enlisted in the military.

Two years were lost.

After debuting as a professional, I never had a hard time because of injuries.

The problem was that I put a strain on my elbow to protect my injured shoulder.

That’s how I ended up having Tommy John surgery [ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction].

‘In the end, the shoulder injury was the beginning of everything. I have to root it out.’

That’s when it happened.

“Wow!!”

“It’s a comeback!!”

My teammates cheered.

Looking at the ground, I saw a runner sliding into home.

It was a comeback.

An opportunity to get past the round of 16 in the Golden Lion Flag, one of the prestigious national high school baseball tournaments, had arisen.

The coach immediately prepared for the next situation.

“Ha-sung! You’re going up from the bottom of the 6th.”

Baek Woo-shik, the coach of Taeil High School’s baseball team, said, looking at Ha-sung.

Ha-sung had thrown 161 pitches over 9 innings the day before, but the word rest was not in Baek Woo-shik’s vocabulary.

The reason was simple.

‘If we get past the round of 16 for the first time, my reputation will also increase.’

Taeil High School had never made it past the round of 16 in a national tournament.

They were eliminated in the round of 32 every time.

If he could get such a school to the round of 16, his value as a leader would increase.

To that end, it was natural to put Ha-sung up.

But something unexpected happened.

“I want to rest today.”

“Huh?”

It was an impossible answer.

So, I asked again.

In fact, I wasn’t expecting a different answer when I asked again.

But.

“My arm hurts. I can’t pitch today.”

Baek Woo-shik’s widened eyes were filled with anger.

“What the hell is this bastard saying? If I tell you to go up and pitch, you have to pitch!”

“I threw 160 pitches yesterday. If you were still playing, would you be able to pitch like that and then pitch again?”

“You, you little punk! Did you eat something wrong? If I, the coach, tell you to go up, just go and pitch!!”

“I am not your tool.”

“You still!!”

Baek Woo-shik raised his hand.

And unable to contain his anger, he struck.

It’s a telegraphed move.

I could have avoided it.

But I didn’t.

Slap-!!

The moment I was slapped on the cheek.

Ha-sung’s body flew to the side.

Thud!

Baek Woo-shik’s eyes widened as he watched Ha-sung fall to the ground with a loud noise.

“Wh…… What are you doing?!”

No matter how much it’s an adult and a student, it wasn’t enough force to make a person fly.

But such an overreaction?

The problem wasn’t just that.

“What are you doing?”

The referee, sensing something was wrong, approached.

When Baek Woo-shik was startled and turned his head.

He saw the crowd buzzing in his eyes.

‘Damn it!’

Only then did he realize.

Who was in the audience.

It’s the Golden Lion Flag finals, a national tournament.

The players’ parents were there to cheer them on.

There were even cameras.

‘H…… How do I handle this?’

How should I resolve this situation?

Just as I was worrying.

The fallen Ha-sung got up.

And said to Baek Woo-shik in a quiet voice.

“Coach.”

“Ar…… Are you okay? You just slipped when you fell, right? Huh? You have to say that. Got it?”

“Still don’t understand?”

“What…… did you say?”

“You’re screwed.”

And Ha-sung collapsed.

“Student!”

The referee hurriedly checked Ha-sung’s condition.

And.

“Ha-sung!!”

“You little punk!!”

Ha-sung’s parents ran over.

Baek Woo-shik realized.

That he was screwed.

* * *

[Baseball coach assaults student at national tournament.]

The coach’s assault case decorated the sports front page.

The article didn’t end there.

[Circumstances have been captured that Taeil High School coach Baek, who assaulted a student, received kickbacks from parents.]

The fact that he received bribes was revealed.

Of course, Ha-sung was the one who informed him of that fact.

‘Everyone knows that this human is taking money.’

I secretly leaked it to a reporter.

The reporter gladly bit at it.

Now, articles will pour out like Vienna sausages [a common Korean expression for a flood of similar articles].

‘They’ll find out about the connection with the vice principal and the connection with the professional club on their own. There’s also the assault on students who didn’t listen to him and the underage prostitution case.’

Most of the facts were learned after debuting as a professional.

Ah, of course, underage prostitution was different.

Five years later.

He gets caught in a sting operation and is revealed to the world.

What was the title back then?

‘Is professional baseball an animal kingdom? Former professional player caught for underage prostitution! Was it?’

I sent such trash away early, so there was nothing to be sorry about.

Of course, Ha-sung will also receive disadvantages from this incident.

‘At best, they won’t let me play in the game.’

If it were the past, I would have been anxious.

But not this time.

‘Throwing in high school doesn’t help me at all. If I’m going to aim for the big leagues anyway, there’s no point in throwing in national tournaments.’

Throwing in national tournaments is about promoting myself.

It can help to go to the big leagues.

Anyway, I have to catch the eye of the big league scouts to sign a contract.

But Ha-sung also knew another way.

‘I can participate in the tryout directly.’

Major League clubs recruit players in various ways.

One of them is the tryout.

Teams hold tryouts every year in the same season to test and recruit players.

To participate in this tryout, you have to pay a certain participation fee.

They didn’t block the participation of foreigners as well as Americans.

It means that anyone can participate freely.

Ha-sung was aiming for this.

‘There’s nothing to gain from throwing so hard that my body breaks down in high school. Memories? Give them to the dogs. I don’t need that to live in the future.’

It can be said to be a cold sound.

But Ha-sung had experienced it once.

Above all, I had tasted a big failure, so now I was only thinking about my success.

‘First, I have to build my body.’

What do amateur players do first when they enter a professional club?

There are slight differences depending on the player, but the most common case was building the body.

‘I didn’t receive systematic training in high school. The facilities are poor, and the knowledge is lacking.’

Ha-sung stood in front of the mirror in his room.

Then he took off his T-shirt and looked at his body.

‘The muscles have settled to some extent, but they are too weak. I have to gain weight and increase muscle mass.’

It’s not easy.

If you gain weight recklessly, your body may become sluggish.

Baseball is a sport that requires a combination of agility, power, and stamina.

In particular, the Major League was a place where those who were overwhelmingly dominant in physicality gathered.

To succeed there, talent alone was not enough.

‘First, I’ll train so that I don’t fall behind in physicality.’

Jung Ha-sung, who had made a plan, immediately put it into practice.

* * *

The failure of Tommy John surgery took away Ha-sung’s velocity.

Ha-sung, who had thrown up to 162 km/h at his highest, was unable to throw even 130 km/h after the surgery.

The only option left was retirement.

At the time, the club suggested a path as a leader, so I was able to choose retirement.

‘But that story fell through as the club’s executives changed.’

Still, what I gained was not zero.

At that time, I studied in the United States for a year to take leadership classes.

The club supported all the expenses, so I was able to focus on my studies comfortably.

‘The opportunity to use that has come.’

The first thing they emphasize to players in the United States is proper nutrition.

Growth varies depending on how you get your nutrition.

That’s why Ha-sung started with eating.

‘I have to increase the proportion of protein and increase the overall amount I eat.’

Eighteen years old.

It’s an age when you can digest even chewing iron.

The nutrients absorbed in that way soon lead to growth.

Ha-sung ate food without discrimination.

“Mom! Please give me another bowl.”

Ha-sung’s mother’s eyes widened at his request.

“Son, this is your fifth bowl already. Aren’t you full?”

“Yes. And please give me more spicy pork stir-fry.”

“O…… Okay…….”

As Ha-sung’s stomach increased, so did his mother’s workload.