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 kindly and would only joke from ti to ti about working out a bit more.
Whenever he did, I would quietly take the extra ti to exercise.
Outside of workouts, though, I would often hear him nag .
He kept asking why I wasn't dating anyone.
After hearing it repeatedly, I started to wonder if perhaps his comnts 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 et 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; sotis 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 to start dating right now?"
"Back in my day......"
No matter what, ti 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 retirent.
Jung Si-han retired with staggering stats: 32 gas, 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 investnt as a waste of money, but it didn't really beco a big issue.
Apparently, the new coach and pitching coach would only be announced once the season was completely over.
Sowhere 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 an, 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 rchandise lol.
└ Wasn't Chang-guk cuter than Seo Ye-sung?
└ Chang-guk fans, get out.
└ Chang-guk, please;;;
Supposedly, a lot of people ca both to see Father and to catch a glimpse of from my childhood TV days.
"Dad's not dead yet."
Are you trying to make sound like the chief mourner or sothing...?
"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 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 beco 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 seed like a papa's boy.
"But you better not rely too much on your father's position and ss 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 ti 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 so 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 soone 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 ho in Korean baseball?]
[(PHOTO) Seo Tae-seung entering Korea with forr 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 montum of a second life or sothing?
Honestly, if he keeps doing whatever he says, how am I supposed to joke around?
"You really ca here just to catch my pitches?"
An MLB Gold Glove catcher as my bullpen catcher?
An MLB 40-ho run MVP hitter as my training part-tir?
"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 rember this kid. He's grown a ton."
The giant white man with thick traps and a shaggy beard chatting in English before was none other than the forr MLB MVP catcher.
"Welco 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 equipnt 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 ager salary.
I just pretended not to know and assured him I'd guarantee his retirent.
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 basent's huge."
"The basent?"
"The heating's good, too."
"The heating?"
"Because we're going to train in the bullpen I set up in the basent this winter."
"?"
"Well, would I do it? Or that bottomless pit over there?"
By 'bottomless pit,' Father ant the one eating several tis 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—ant 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 ga 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 appointnt.
At that ti, I was on Geoje Island.
Together with Father, timothy Goldberg, a chef, two housekeepers, and the two Arican engineers who would handle all the equipnt.
"That won't give you big, beautiful muscles, kid! More, more, more!"
Timothy Goldberg sat next to , spitting as he yelled.
Apparently, he'd already been confird as the Miners' battery coach before coming to Korea.
— You do the managing, damn it! Never seen soone 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 Arican engineers would be joining the club as employees.
Coach Song Moon-jung seed furious on the phone, but Father just replied that he'd brought so good liquor from the U. S.
— Hmph, is that so? Maybe I'll co 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 so Arican 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 Arican equipnt, 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 biochanical pitching theory.
They guided on which exercises to do and helped correct my chanics.
"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 argunt.
Back when Timothy was still playing, people often talked about how his muscles just seed 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 ant he combined incredible talent with relentless effort and an overflowing love for his own position.
Maybe people rember 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 ti didn't give 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 sothing 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 beco the new manager for the Gangwon Miners, baseball fans were divided.
So said, "What's the point of bringing in washed-up old tirs," while others argued only soone like Song could whip the rotten-minded Miners into shape.
Reactions were also mixed about Father's appointnt as pitching coach.
So went, "Seo Tae-seung? As pitching coach? No way!" while others said that star players never make good coaches.
There was also so 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 gas 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 counterasures, 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 ti 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...
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】
Reviews
All reviews (0)