Countryside Ace

Chapter 6 : Miners (3)

Miners (3)

Father was renowned as one of the hardest-working trainees even in the MLB.

Looking back now, I think he must have pushed himself so much because he didn't want to miss his second chance—just like I am now.

Anyway, father taught me kindly and would only joke from time to time about working out a bit more.

Whenever he did, I would quietly take the extra time to exercise.

Outside of workouts, though, I would often hear him nag me.

He kept asking why I wasn't dating anyone.

After hearing it repeatedly, I started to wonder if perhaps his comments were related to his own trauma.

"If you can't concentrate because you're dating, then you wouldn't be able to focus anyway."

"......."

"Is it that you think you shouldn't meet people your age right now, so you're not seeing anyone?"

It's not that I dislike dating. Before returning to the past, I never deliberately avoided it.

When I was younger, I had crushes; sometimes things ended because of my fault or the other person's.

But that's not the current issue.

"Father."

"What?"

"I work out sixteen hours a day—do you really think there's any chance for me to start dating right now?"

"Back in my day......"

No matter what, time continued on through routines like that.

After the coach's voluntary resignation, the Gangwon Miners remained dead last for the fourth straight season since joining the first league.

Jung Si-han, who was expected to be the team's first free agent signing on a four-year, 8.6-billion won contract, announced his retirement.

Jung Si-han retired with staggering stats: 32 games, 95.2 innings over four years, a 6.21 ERA, 4 wins, 12 losses, and 3 holds. He had been the very symbol of Miners' baseball.

Reporters criticized the Miners' poor investment as a waste of money, but it didn't really become a big issue.

Apparently, the new coach and pitching coach would only be announced once the season was completely over.

Somewhere along the way, I even got to do a ceremonial first pitch.

Despite the Gangwon Miners' poor ticket-selling reputation and despite the season already being over, the stadium was packed.

[Why would anyone go all the way to Gangwon just to watch Seo Tae-seung's son throw the first pitch?]

└ Seo Tae-seung will do the batting.

└ Watching Seo Tae-seung was my dad's lifelong wish.

└ If it's for dad's wish, I get it.

└ Quickest acceptance ever.

└ I mean, it's his dad's wish.

└ For real lolol.

└ I'm actually a fan of Ye-sung, going to see Seo Ye-sung.

└ I still have Seo Ye-sung's merchandise lol.

└ Wasn't Chang-guk cuter than Seo Ye-sung?

└ Chang-guk fans, get out.

└ Chang-guk, please;;;

Supposedly, a lot of people came both to see Father and to catch a glimpse of me from my childhood TV days.

"Dad's not dead yet."

Are you trying to make me sound like the chief mourner or something...?

"You look a little annoyed."

"I'm not."

"Are you sulking?"

"No."

Father always lived for his own pride. And these days, that side of him was showing more and more.

"Did you just cuss me out with your eyes?"

"No."

The team asked if I'd like to participate in the closing training camp.

However, since Father was set to become the pitching coach next season, he told the club himself that he'd take charge of my training.

Seeing it like this, I kind of seemed like a papa's boy.

"But you better not rely too much on your father's position and mess around, okay?"

Once it's announced Father is becoming pitching coach, people will definitely talk.

Can't be helped.

But so what.

So what if a son spends time with his dad!

"Do you always make faces like that, zoning out and changing expressions?"

"No."

"Pretty sure that's a yes?"

"I don't have that habit."

"Be careful. It's a bad habit for pitchers."

"Ah, sure......"

Did I pick up some weird habits after coming back to the past?

Father said he'd head to the U. S. briefly with Mother to finalize the business shares.

"I'll bring someone who can catch your pitches, too."

Well...... He wouldn't actually bring Timothy Goldberg, would he?

* * *

But it really happened.

[MLB legend Seo Tae-seung finalizes U. S. business and heads for Korea: Looking for a new home in Korean baseball?]

[(PHOTO) Seo Tae-seung entering Korea with former Major League teammate Timothy Goldberg]

[Seo Tae-seung: "This guy? I brought him over to catch for my son's training."]

I thought it was a joke.

Is this what they call the momentum of a second life or something?

Honestly, if he keeps doing whatever he says, how am I supposed to joke around?

"You really came here just to catch my pitches?"

An MLB Gold Glove catcher as my bullpen catcher?

An MLB 40-home run MVP hitter as my training part-timer?

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"He's been retired and just hanging around doing nothing. Said he had nothing to do, so I brought him."

"You're kidding......"

"And I'm planning to have him serve as the Miners' battery coach as well."

"Will he?"

"He wants to."

Well, then......

"My son, didn't you miss your mom?"

When I was younger, I found Mother's tone a bit overwhelming.

It felt patronizing, like I was being treated like a kid even after I'd grown up.

But thinking about it, if I were in my forties seeing a 19-year-old, I'd probably still see them as a child.

"I missed you a lot."

"Hmm?"

In fact, my reply even flustered her.

"Hey. I remember this kid. He's grown a ton."

The giant white man with thick traps and a shaggy beard chatting in English before me was none other than the former MLB MVP catcher.

"Welcome to Korea."

Since I had lived in the U. S. up until middle school, I'd often seen Timothy Goldberg growing up.

He grinned, wriggling his beard, and shook my hand.

And Father brought over Major League equipment by air freight—plus two engineers to operate it.

Father never said how much he made selling off the business shares, but he bought a huge villa on a large plot of land in Geoje Island and made a show about being broke.

"I've got no money now."

He joked that if he got fired as coach, he'd have to live off my meager salary.

I just pretended not to know and assured him I'd guarantee his retirement.

I wondered how he could say such nonsense with a straight face.

Even regular baseball fans have a rough idea how much he set aside during his playing days.

Besides, unless he bought an entire island and not just a villa, it's not like the money's all gone.

"So why Geoje Island?"

"The basement's huge."

"The basement?"

"The heating's good, too."

"The heating?"

"Because we're going to train in the bullpen I set up in the basement this winter."

"Me?"

"Well, would I do it? Or that bottomless pit over there?"

By 'bottomless pit,' Father meant the one eating several times a normal person, clearing out our fridge.

Anyway.

This year's postseason ended as well.

The two-league system—East Sea League and West Sea League—meant the top three teams from each league would compete for postseason baseball.

The third and second place teams from each league would first face off, and the winner of that game would challenge the first place team.

Then, that winner would face the champion from the other league in the Korea Series.

The Seoul Archers of the West Sea League defeated the Suwon Castlers of the East Sea League to win this year's title.

Archers took their fourth victory trophy, making it their second of the 2020s.

The Miners' commander packed up and left as the contract expired.

The club quickly announced the hiring of a new commander, but as far as I know, it's just a puppet appointment.

At that time, I was on Geoje Island.

Together with Father, timothy Goldberg, a chef, two housekeepers, and the two American engineers who would handle all the equipment.

"That won't give you big, beautiful muscles, kid! More, more, more!"

Timothy Goldberg sat next to me, spitting as he yelled.

Apparently, he'd already been confirmed as the Miners' battery coach before coming to Korea.

— You do the managing, damn it! Never seen someone assembling their own crew before even becoming a coach!

It's a bit much to call that a crew with just one coach, but after my training ended, even the two American engineers would be joining the club as employees.

Coach Song Moon-jung seemed furious on the phone, but Father just replied that he'd brought some good liquor from the U. S.

— Hmph, is that so? Maybe I'll come down to Geoje.

And that was that.

And Timothy Goldberg kept insisting I needed more muscle.

"Can't you do just one job, battery coach or physical coach?"

"There's no other catcher here."

"To be honest, you seem more like a physical coach than a battery coach."

Frankly, he just looks like some American muscle-head.

Timothy scoffed and started expounding on muscle theory.

"The wimpy ones are always getting hurt and bawling like kids because they lack muscle."

I might say that, but I actually agreed with the importance of physical and weight training, so I did as told without complaint.

With the imported American equipment, my physical condition was precisely checked, and my pitching form analyzed.

I'm still only nineteen, and since I'd only been training since arriving here, my balance had started to shift a bit with all the changes to my body.

The two engineers were experts in biomechanical pitching theory.

They guided me on which exercises to do and helped correct my mechanics.

"So in the end, you're saying I should bulk up more, right, geniuses?"

"No, absolutely not!"

"Please stop thinking everything can be solved with muscle!"

The engineers asked if Timothy's brain was just another muscle, and Timothy demanded to be taught brain-training for muscle instead.

And so, the engineers lost the argument.

Back when Timothy was still playing, people often talked about how his muscles just seemed to keep growing as he aged.

They'd wonder how a guy that big and heavy could possibly play catcher.

But he explained, the muscle was armor to protect his back and knees.

It meant he combined incredible talent with relentless effort and an overflowing love for his own position.

Maybe people remember Timothy most for flipping off rival teams or climbing the fence after being hit by stuff thrown from the stands.

Even though going back in time didn't give me any special power, compared to my last nineteen-year-old self, my mindset was definitely different.

Thinking back to when I was nineteen, practice had just been something I did because I was told to.

But now—whatever I do, I think it over again and approach it much more seriously.

I focused on training like that.

When news broke that Song Moon-jung would become the new manager for the Gangwon Miners, baseball fans were divided.

Some said, "What's the point of bringing in washed-up old timers," while others argued only someone like Song could whip the rotten-minded Miners into shape.

Reactions were also mixed about Father's appointment as pitching coach.

Some went, "Seo Tae-seung? As pitching coach? No way!" while others said that star players never make good coaches.

There was also some sneering, asking if Miners were out to revolutionize Korean baseball by bringing authentic son-father ball rather than 'adopted son' ball.

The news that Timothy Goldberg would join the Miners' coaching staff also made a splash.

The Miners might not play good baseball, but at least they sell a decent jersey, so people joked they must have sold their soul just to move more uniforms.

On the outside, father and Timothy's images hardly fit those of typical coaches.

Anyway.

"Four-seam, two-seam, slider, changeup."

"For now, focus mainly on those four pitches. If you hit a wall... you can throw other stuff too, right?"

"I've got a few."

We decided I'd mainly use these pitches in actual games and hone them.

Even though my body wasn't at its peak, those pitches had decent power now, and I was comfortable using them.

If I needed countermeasures, just as Father suggested, I could add another pitch as needed.

Father nodded and grinned broadly as he spoke.

"Ye-sung."

"Yes."

"Then it's time to really get rolling, don't you think?"

Even now, I was working out so much that my mouth tasted bitter.

But for real?

"I've been waiting for us to really get started."

Sounds good.

There's nothing else to do here but play baseball anyway.

"All talker."

Father chuckled, so I replied with a grin.

"Like father, like son—"

"Stop. That's enough."

"If you want, I can do just that."

"Hee...."

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

Talk about being diamond spoon in baseball...

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