Chapter 53
Chapter 53
Translator Wjin
Chapter 53
As usual, he went to work at Sajik Stadium, but today, Ms. Mi-Yeon was with him. Ms. Mi-Yeon had come along, saying that it would be hard to see each other for a while once he left for spring camp.
“You said it’s Japan this year…”
A sense of disappointment dripped from Ms. Mi-Yeon's pouting voice.
“How long will you be gone…?”
“I'll be there until February, then come back to Korea for a bit, and then I'm leaving again for about a month right after two days.”
“Th-that long?”
Ms. Mi-Yeon's mouth dropped open as if in disbelief, and her shoulders slumped. Though she wasn't crying, her eyes were already moist.
I knew I shouldn't, but I felt good whenever I saw her like this. It showed me so clearly how Ms. Mi-Yeon felt about me.
After smiling for a moment, I gently approached and hugged Ms. Mi-Yeon. The Ms. Mi-Yeon who used to be flustered and say, "Tae-Hyun?" was gone. Ms. Mi-Yeon tightened her arms around my waist.
Stroking Ms. Mi-Yeon's hair, I said, “I told you I'd be taking two days off after coming back from spring camp. I'll be with you all day during those two days. So please just wait a little.”
Whether my promise pleased her or not, Ms. Mi-Yeon's head moved up and down against my shirt.
“I'll call you when I arrive.”
“Yes… you have to…. On video call.”
“Of course.”
I entered Sajik Stadium, leaving behind Ms. Mi-Yeon, who was waving at me for a long time.
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“Hey, Cha Tae-Hyun.”
“Oh. Was it Shin Si-Woo?”
“Yeah. You finally remember my name.”
Shin Si-Woo was a rookie catcher like me, drafted in the second round, and he had joined the first-team spring camp. It seemed the manager had decided to get rid of the existing catcher and develop this guy.
“…I saw everything.”
“Saw what?”
“The scene of a very sweet romance…”
It wasn't yet, but honestly, it was hard to deny it now. It felt like either Ms. Mi-Yeon or I would cross the line soon.
“So what.”
“…You bastard. You're not even denying it. Anyway… what was it…”
Shin Si-Woo hesitated for a moment and then said in a small voice, “Teach me how to get a girlfriend.”
He even added, ‘I’m being really serious,’ and pleaded earnestly.
“What am I supposed to do if I don’t know?”
“No, you're dating someone right now. So you can just tell me how you got together.”
If that was the case.
“You just have to be good at baseball. Then they just appear.”
Shin Si-Woo, who had been stunned for a moment, sighed and shook his head.
“Sigh… it's my fault for asking. Forget that. How do you like it here?”
“I don't really have any thoughts about it.”
“Really? I think this is more comfortable than high school. The coaches are a bit boomer-ish, but the training itself is pretty lax, isn't it?”
Well, as Shin Si-Woo said, the Phoenix's schedule was so lax that it made one wonder, ‘Is it okay for a professional team to be like this?’ However… since the manager had changed, you never know.
“I don't know. The comfort might be temporary.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“The new manager is joining from spring camp, isn't he?”
“Ah, Manager Lee Eun-Seok? He's a bit old, so he seems like the type to be tough. But… the seniors said he just came to get some money in his later years. That there's no other reason for him to come here. They said he probably doesn't even care about the Phoenix.”
Shin Si-Woo's words sounded quite plausible. If you thought about why a master manager who had won three consecutive championships would come here, wouldn't that kind of reason come to mind first?
I had thought something similar, but according to Shin Ha-Yoon, a Phoenix fan from birth,
-He was born in Busan, and I looked it up, and he has often spoken as if he's quite a Phoenix fan. From what I see, this man is serious about the Phoenix.
“I heard from someone I know that the manager is quite serious about the Phoenix.”
“Is that so? …Well, we'll see when we get there.”
We'll see when we get there. He was right.
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“This team is hopeless.”
On the first day of spring camp in Miyazaki Prefecture, those were the first words Manager Lee Eun-Seok uttered in front of the Phoenix players. The players tilted their heads in confusion, and the coaches were the same.
“I looked around this team a bit before coming to spring camp… and it's just hopeless. I could see very well why this team is in last place, and I don't think I'm the only one who knows this.”
He's right.
Lee Su-Ho, who was standing among the players, nodded his head repeatedly.
The manager approached the fielders, stopped in front of Lee Sang-Jin, and sighed as he looked at his belly.
“Is this the body of a baseball player? Huh? Is it okay for an athlete to have a belly like this? Isn't this why the fans are always calling you a piece of junk?”
Lee Su-Ho once again nodded his head eagerly.
The manager took out the schedule for last year's Phoenix spring camp from his pocket and held it out.
“Basic physical training for one hour… the rest is all self-training… I don't know who made it, but it's very simple, isn't it? I don't dislike simple things. So…”
Rip.
The schedule, torn in half, slowly fell to the ground.
“From this year on, to make it even simpler, we're getting rid of self-training and focusing that much more on physical training. It's gotten simpler, so everyone must be satisfied, right?”
As they were the words of a manager called a master of the baseball world, no one dared to voice their opposition, but the players who had been around for a while began to show their displeasure openly on their faces.
Shin Tae-Seop… Lee Sang-Jin…
The manager made sure to remember those faces and continued.
“Today, we start with running. Everyone, line up.”
One of the players who was lining up with a displeased expression asked the manager.
“How many laps are we running?”
“What do you mean, how many laps? You run until I say stop. Ah, and just so you know, for those who stop before I say stop, their break time will be cut in half.”
Cut the break time in half?
The coach looked at the manager with wide eyes. Of course, it was true that the existing break time was a little longer compared to other teams' schedules, but cutting it in half didn't make sense, no matter how he thought about it.
“Manager… no matter how you look at it, if you cut it in half, the players might collapse before they even get to the practice games…”
At the coach's words, the manager scoffed. They would collapse just because their overflowing break time was cut in half? Then that meant their basic physical strength was lacking.
“If they don't like it, they can pack their bags and leave for the second-team camp. The same goes for the coaches.”
The manager was firm. He was an age where his passion should have cooled, having passed his sixtieth birthday, but from the moment he became the manager of the Phoenix, he had no intention of doing things half-heartedly. He was truly ‘serious’ about the Phoenix.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and line up!”
As the manager shouted loudly, the players began to form a line hesitantly.
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“Ha… what is this, really.”
“Does he think this is the 80s or something…”
“This is why old managers are no good…”
“He trains so foolishly. Does he think raising physical strength is all there is to it?”
Even before we had started, I could hear annoyed voices from here and there.
Well, I also thought that making us run until he said stop was a bit foolish, but I thought it was a good training method, limited to the team called the Phoenix.
Because even I thought it was right to be tough on this team, even if it was foolishly so.
Anyway, the line began to move, following Lee Su-Ho's lead.
I had thought we would run slowly since the manager hadn't specifically said to maintain a certain speed, but as expected of Su-Ho. He was running at a pace that was not fast, but by no means slow.
And so, one lap, two laps… I thought everyone was following the pace well until the third lap, but,
“Huff… huff…”
Did these people not do any physical training at all? We had only run four laps, but I was already starting to hear panting.
And on the fifth lap.
“They’re already falling! Get up!”
The pot-bellied, or junk cars, as the manager had called them, began to collapse.
I was still fine. I maintained my breathing and continued to run.
Then, the mercenary batter, Andy John, came up next to me and started talking.
“Oh… Tae-Hyun? My head is starting to get dizzy. I'm starting to miss my wife's kimchi pizza tangsuyuk…”
“What? Kimchi pizza tangsuyuk? Is there a dish like that?”
“What? You don't know Kim Pi-Tang, Tae-Hyun? You've wasted half your life until now. Be sure to try it when you go back.”
I had heard he had a Korean wife, so I had thought he would know some Korean culture… But Kim Pi-Tang… his wife had unique tastes.
Andy, who had been continuously talking, went silent around the ninth lap and finally declared that he was giving up.
“Damn it…. If I had eaten kimchi this morning, I could have run more…. Good luck, Tae-Hyun.”
After Andy was gone, there weren't many people left in the line. What was surprising was that Shin Si-Woo, a rookie like me, was still holding on well.
“Si-Woo…! Si-Woo…!”
Or maybe not? Seeing him say something strange, it seemed he had lost his mind a little.
“Why are you suddenly making a strange sound?”
“You… huff… don't know… Si-Woo either? Huff… our hyung… ceremony… strength… gives me… if I do this.”
Shin Si-Woo, who had been saying incomprehensible things about ‘our hyung’ and ‘ceremony’, finally collapsed around the 11th lap, shouting, “Si-Woo!!!”
Now, the only people left were the leader, Lee Su-Ho, Lee Seung-Tae next to him, and me.
“Huu… Su-Ho… I think this is it for me. Huu…”
Before long, Lee Seung-Tae collapsed first.
And only Lee Su-Ho and I were left.
Just as we were running silently.
“Manager… you're amazing…. This is… huu… what a proper manager should be…”
Lee Su-Ho also started to say strange things, as if he had reached his limit.
“Huu… what are you talking about all of a sudden?”
Lee Su-Ho answered with a big smile.
“I can really… huu… feel that things are changing… now that the manager has changed, huu… right?”
That was true. Even I hadn't expected him to be this tough from the first day. Anyway, I was starting to get out of breath too. Was this ever going to end?
To be honest, the fact that he hadn't said to stop until now probably meant that the running was just a pretext, and that he had intended to turn half of the break time into training time.
No way…. My call time with Ms. Mi-Yeon would be cut in half… Let's see who wins.
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Meanwhile, the manager had been away for quite a long time due to a call from the general manager.
“Has it been this long already…?”
It had been 20 minutes since he had left his post. The manager had returned to the field, naturally assuming that everyone would have collapsed.
“What?”
But, surprisingly, there was still one player running.
“This… he's an even crazier bastard than I thought…?”
His eyes were half-closed, and his whole body was drenched in sweat, but Cha Tae-Hyun showed no signs of stopping and ran past the manager's gaze.
Only then did the manager come to his senses and scold the coach.
“Are you guys in your right minds? Why didn't you tell him to stop? What are you going to do if he collapses like that?”
“Pardon…? But you said to do it until you told him to stop…”
The manager put his hand on his forehead and sighed.
“If I told you I got a call from the general manager and that it might take some time… then you should have used your common sense and adjusted accordingly!”
The manager, who had clicked his tongue, left the coach behind and went to the track, shouting.
“Cha Tae-Hyun! Stop! You can stop running now!”
Cha Tae-Hyun, who had stopped in front of the manager, caught his breath for a moment and then said something incomprehensible.
“I think I can run one more lap. I will run more.”
“What…?”
The manager, who had been stunned for a moment, shook his head as he watched Cha Tae-Hyun, who had really started running again.
And the Phoenix TV film crew, who had arrived at some point, was capturing this scene very well on camera. Contrasting it with the junk cars who were sitting on the ground.