Countryside Ace

Chapter 10 : Spring Ghost (3)

Spring Ghost (3)

"Seo Tae-seung really raised his son strong, huh?"

During the morning meeting, at head coach Song Moon-jung's words, Seo Tae-seung grinned and replied.

"He grew up all by himself."

"I get that you love your son, but aren't you coating him with too much gold?"

"I only looked after him a bit since I came back from the US. At most, just a few months."

"Yeah? Really?"

"It's true. Since he and my wife started living together in Korea, I haven't even trained with him."

head coach Song Moon-jung's gaze sharpened. But soon he returned to his usual crafty look and scoffed.

"I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Then again, that kind of velocity isn't something you can teach."

The conversation shifted to things like how veteran pitcher Jung Han-seung wasn't getting back in shape, how sidearm bullpen pitcher Yuk Kang-oh's knee was worse than expected, and how second baseman Woo Hyun-geun was well-prepared.

"What about the injured players?"

Last year, Miners started the season off pretty well.

Some experts were cautiously talking about escaping last place.

But around midseason, the bullpen collapsed all at once.

The domestic starting rotation built from three FA pitchers – Jung Han-seung, Jo Sung-gyu, Bang Min-soo – couldn't eat up enough innings, and as a result, the entire middle reliever crew was wiped out.

Closer Kim Hyung-seok, whose rotator cuff was blown, was even considering retirement, and reports said set-up man Lee Seok-jun, who'd had Tommy John surgery midseason, was nowhere close to returning.

The director smacked his lips and spoke again.

"Pitching coach, do you have a bullpen plan?"

"I'm thinking of moving Han-seung, Sung-gyu, and Min-soo all to the bullpen."

Some of the coaches gathered in the meeting room froze.

Jung Han-seung, Jo Sung-gyu, Bang Min-soo.

None were brought in by the current director or commander, but all were veteran FA acquisitions.

"Anyone else's opinion?"

As the director's gaze swept the room, strategy analyst coach Jeon Eun-su cautiously began to speak.

"It might be ideal to have those three as relievers. However..."

"However?"

"Then the starting rotation would..."

The two foreign pitchers were locked in as starters.

But in the domestic starting rotation, there wasn't a single stable pick.

The director wondered if he should've smacked Seo Tae-seung's mouth back when he suggested bringing in Hwang Seung-tae instead of Yoon Dae-yoon.

"Pitching coach, any thoughts?"

"I brought in Hwang Seung-tae to start."

"And?"

"The rest will compete."

"Compete?"

"Yes."

"You know that 'competition' is just a pretty word, right?"

Head Coach Song Moon-jung looked dissatisfied.

In the pros, competition is a given. But the competition only works if there are actually guys worth battling for a spot.

"You call it competition, but if no one's up to scratch, it turns into a circus all year long. You end up pulling in this guy and that guy, bringing in some guy from the farm team with five errors just to scrape by for a day."

Seo Tae-seung grinned at the director's fair point.

His memories of the KBO were so old now they were getting hazy, but he had something he believed in.

"What are you splitting up?"

* * *

My father didn't just ask me about the FA players.

He asked about the Miners' roster overall.

Especially, we talked a lot about the pitchers.

"Kim Joon-seo learned a cutter and finished as a 30-save closer, and Lee In-gi loaded up on breaking balls as a bullpen workhorse."

"Yeah. Kim Joon-seo blew up with another team, though."

Both joined the Miners at 23, and were textbook examples of prospects who never broke out.

What I said was about their futures.

"With Lee In-gi, we need to find a way to help him get better..."

My father took notes seriously. We also discussed the other young pitchers.

"Is Gu Hyun-im really hopeless?"

I said he was.

He'd been drafted two years before me as the top pick. His max velocity was 156km.

The problem was with his severe control issues.

Still, thanks to his 190cm height and fireballing right arm, he'd gotten steady chances.

Once, his nickname was 'Righty Gu Hyun-im.' Mine was 'Lefty Seo Ye-sung.'

Unlike him, I did eventually prove my worth.

He only kept up with the sport for a year or two after I joined, but soon caught the 'celebrity disease' and stopped showing up at the training center.

"Lee In-gi needs more time..."

He needed hellish weight training and a full pitching mechanics overhaul.

"And Park Tae-ki, hmm, just needs to add a decent breaking ball, right? Why didn't the previous pitching coach manage that?"

"Neither the coach who was supposed to come in place of you nor the one after him succeeded at that."

He needed a plunging off-speed pitch for his third pitch, but his feel for the ball was weak.

"And Song Tae-guk... how come the best available guy is the one who's in the army?"

He could contribute in the first team right away, but he was serving in the military.

"Ha."

My father scowled and muttered.

"Should I just pitch myself?"

Maybe that'd be better...?

* * *

Training volume kept increasing.

I was fine since I'd prepped in advance, but it was completely different from the usual Miners spring camp.

"I get that veterans need more time to build up their bodies. But."

Wearing his pitcher coach face, my father gathered the pitchers and put his foot down.

"If someone is in worse shape than retired me, isn't that a problem?"

He looked very displeased. He was angry since hardly any amongst the pitchers were prepared.

From my experience, players who came in ready did well in the regular season.

The phrase 'getting better as camp goes on' was mostly wishful thinking.

"Bang Min-soo."

"... Yes."

"Pack your bags."

At my father's words, the whole pitcher group froze. The drastic measure was aimed at Bang Min-soo.

He'd been brought in from the Gwangju Vipers as a free agent. Seven billion won.

Once, he'd been a staple lefty fireballer for the national team, but now?

Just a 120kg left-handed thrower who'd let himself go despite his massive contract.

It was pretty effective for changing the mood.

My father chased Bang Min-soo back to Korea, saying unless he shed weight, he could forget about standing on the first team mound.

I'd even heard the funny story behind it.

"He said he'd rather just go to the army, right?"

"Really?"

"He begged me to go easier, but I said I don't know what the army's like, so just go back to Korea instead."

Anyway, since then, the pitchers' training load ramped up and it seemed to be working.

Especially Jo Sung-gyu, another FA pitcher, suddenly got desperate and started working much harder.

Rumor had it Bang Min-soo volunteered as the scapegoat and Jo Sung-gyu was supposed to follow, but the truth is out there.

And two position players got cut from the field group too.

"If you're going to sneak around, don't get caught. Don't get caught, period."

Two guys who came back after sneaking out for drinks post-training got caught.

Normally, some leniency is shown for mild indiscretions, but of all people, they got caught by the head coach, the strictest around—and it was 3 a.m.

"You need to take a million more grounders, you know."

Every time one infielder lost focus during defense drills, the head coach told him the next day to pack up.

"Going to second team camp isn't the end. For those who think so and give up, it is, though."

With four guys gone—an FA big-name pitcher, last season's starting left fielder, a backup utility infielder who'd reliably contributed in the first team, and a young infielder just back from the military—the entire atmosphere shifted.

"Damn. Didn't think both Min-soo hyung and Byeong-chan would get canned."

The veteran players sensed danger.

"This means there's an open spot in the outfield, right? If you work hard, maybe you can grab a starting spot?"

The rookies started thinking they actually had a shot now.

In truth, on this team, no matter how hard you worked, outside FA signings made it nearly impossible for young guys to snag starting jobs—so defeatism was rampant among the less-experienced players.

But things like this didn't just fix that instantly.

"Hey, Ye-sung."

Byeong-ju, who'd lost 5kg and looked scruffier since camp began, came up to me.

"What?"

"Have you heard any rumors?"

He spoke in a lower voice, perhaps wanting to share a secret.

Unlike me, Byeong-ju was outgoing and got along well with everyone, so he was always picking up stories to tell me.

"Nothing for me. How about you?"

"Hmm. Just keep this between us, okay?"

If I said I would, Byeong-ju always spilled every last word—true or not.

Things like a veteran brought his girlfriend to the dorm and got caught by the head coach; a young pitcher from last year's second team was addicted to online gambling...

"You know Terry hyung? It's so sad what happened to him."

Terry hyung was the tall pitcher with only a good four-seamer.

Byeong-ju started rambling.

"Can you believe some seniors seriously cared so much about 'seniority rules' even in the pros? Because he didn't properly act like a junior, a few seniors openly gave him crap."

Truth be told, Byeong-ju himself is the best at acting like a proper junior.

"On top of that, apparently last year the second team pitching coach didn't bother with him at all."

Not that I'm trying to cover for anyone, but the communication really didn't work.

"But I heard he went nuts training all alone to make it to camp anyway, and—man, that makes me want to cry."

Byeong-ju kept glancing at me as he chattered.

I let out a deep sigh and replied.

"Don't worry."

"Really?"

That short reply meant "My father likes that pitcher," and Byeong-ju got it instantly.

"He's a lefty fireballer. The previous head coach's the real problem for leaving him out like that."

"Right?"

As far as I knew, the previous head coach not only failed to keep control of the squad, but also had almost no influence.

There was no effective communication with the second team.

"So stop worrying about others and focus on your own situation."

"Just one favor."

"Favor?"

Byeong-ju would someday become not just a KBO star but Korea's top catcher.

Yet his attitude had never changed.

He'd always gone out of his way to help me when I was a mess, both materially and emotionally.

If it was possible, I'd do it.

Well, not things like giving him a free pass to the battery coach's unlimited muscle parties.

"Teach me some English."

"English? Out of nowhere?"

"I saw you talking to the foreign players in English. I forgot you lived in America."

"Why, though?"

Byeong-ju answered confidently.

"If I get a bit better at English, it'll be so much easier to sync with the foreign pitchers!"

He's not wrong.

The Miners' backup catchers weren't great, so being able to communicate with foreign pitchers would be a huge plus.

"And I could talk smoothly with Terry hyung too."

What a good-hearted guy.

"Okay."

"Really?"

"I can't really picture you speaking English, though."

"Wow."

"What?"

"I didn't think you'd actually say yes."

"You're the one asking, so what else should I say?"

Byeong-ju mumbled with a puzzled look.

"I mean, Seo Ye-sung, actually doing someone else a favor..."

Just what kind of person did he think I was?

"Anyway, thanks. I'm heading first!"

"Where to?"

Byeong-ju, looking sad but now starting to show a muscular outline—especially in his lower body.

"The battery coach is obsessed with muscle workouts..."

"Ah."

"Gotta go do my lower body..."

I know that all too well.

Stick with it.

It'll help, even if you feel like you're dying.