The Catcher Sees a Submarine in Action
Choi Seungtaek was watching Antonio's pitch closely when a strange sound came from the side.
Shhhiiiiiiiiit
Pop.
From the spot beside Antonio, a pitcher was throwing the ball in an unusual form.
"Oh ho! There was a submarine pitcher here too?"
Choi Seungtaek started paying close attention to that player.
Shiiiiiit
Pop.
"Oh. Look at the angle it's rising."
Choi Seungtaek found the underhand pitcher's strange ball interesting.
Since he had watched Jeong Hyeon-dae's national team underhand pitch during his Busan Seagulls days, this one felt somewhat weaker, but it was quite captivating.
"Clearly not like Song Chang-soo-senim throwing a curve like a slicer. This has a different underhand feel."
Right now it looked like the ending pitch of a slicer, but back in the day every pitcher threw underhand.
The rules clearly specified that they could only throw underhand, and when overhand was allowed later, faster velocity and more variety of pitches became possible. The opinion that the rule should change because of that was passed, and the positions of underhand and overhand were reversed because of it. The remnants of that rule forcing only underhand throws can still be seen in softball, and softball still throws underhand.
Overhand was adopted because of the faster velocity. Therefore, underhand pitchers compete with movement rather than velocity, which makes the visible trajectory bizarre and the batters suffer.
There are players in Korea famous for underhand. First is Yoo Hwi-bal, who led Gwangju Pigeons to the 2009 championship.
He showed a ridiculous 0.52 ERA and took responsibility for the back end of Gwangju Pigeons.
He had some ups and downs after that, but he still became a decent middle reliever who kept his ERA in the late 2s to 3s.
And then there is Jeong Hyeon-dae at Busan Seagulls, whom Choi Seungtaek knows well.
Jeong Hyeon-dae, who closed the Beijing Olympics in 2008, was the core of Incheon Cranes' dynasty building and the most important bullpen. Even when he failed to keep his ERA in the 1s, he consistently showed 2s.
In his Busan Seagulls days he was only great for about 2 to 3 years, but even so he showed ERAs that oscillated between 0s and 1s, making him truly dominant among Seagulls bullpen pitchers.
Finally, the most famous pitcher is Kim Gyu-beom, who won the World Series twice in Major League Baseball.
If an underhand pitcher throws a fastball, it should be relatively slow, but Kim Gyu-beom threw 150 km/h even underhand, and every pitch's movement was too fantastic, showing an insane strikeout rate.
Because of those balls, even fans could say that a pitcher who threw such trash balls at Kim Gyu-beom should be kicked out of Major League Baseball.
With those achievements, Kim Gyu-beom was called "the man born to strike out batters" in the United States, and Choi Seungtaek, who had studied baseball in the U.S., really liked that story.
While thinking a long time about underhand pitchers, Choi Seungtaek kept staring at that underhand pitcher.
[ Jeong Suham: C+ Grade Middle Reliever ]
[ Velocity: C+ Control: B Movement: C+ Stamina: C ]
[ Pitches: four-seam fastball, slider, upshoot Preferred pitch: upshoot ]
"Hmm... this one is pretty usable?"
Since underhand pitchers have the advantage of being a style he doesn't face often, Choi Seungtaek was satisfied with Jeong Suham's new appearance.
"Choi Seungtaek."
"Yes."
"What are you staring at so intently?"
"I'm just watching a submarine."
"You little punk. Even though Jeong Suham is ten years older than you, calling him by name like that is appropriate?"
"Haha... I'm sorry!"
Choi Seungtaek let out a small laugh at the second team's director's playful remark.
"But aren't you going to bring him up to the first team? You aren't, right?"
"Why not? Ah! So you were on the second team back then?"
"Huh?"
When Choi Seungtaek was on the second team, Jeong Suham had been brought up to the first team once.
"Ah? I see. Then why? Did he get sent down again?"
"Why would I? Chicken-hearted, of course."
"Ah..."
[ Jeong Suham: C+ Grade Middle Reliever ]
[ Velocity: C+ Control: B Movement: C+ Stamina: C ]
[ Pitches: four-seam fastball, slider, upshoot Preferred pitch: upshoot ]
[ Weakness: chicken-hearted ]
Right at that moment, the System's message added a new entry for Jeong Suham.
Chicken-hearted.
One of the most painful things for a professional player.
On the contrary, there are people who are like a strong heart and never waver no matter what, but many fail to endure the pressure of stepping onto the big stage like chicken-hearted and end up wavering.
Baseball is a sport of records, but it is also human-made, and it deals with psychological issues even more than physical ones in terms of concentration.
"Ah, there's no answer for chicken-hearted... In the end, you learn by getting hit up there. But would Manager Han give me that time? Hmmm."
An underhand pitcher is not bad at inducing ground balls.
Unfortunately, it happened when Choi Seungtaek was down there, so Choi Seungtaek showed a sorry face.
"Why? Still seems okay?"
"I'm the one who's good? Will it suit the direction I'm pursuing?"
"You'll bring him up next week?"
"Will that work?"
"You're the starting catcher. You can give some opinion. Besides, the manager has been saying he wants to bring up good pitchers continuously... bring them up and send them down. Bring them up and they come down. And bring them up again."
"Ahaha... I see."
"If three are brought up, three come down. If five are brought up, another five stay down. Well, putting one of them in won't change much, right?"
Choi Seungtaek nodded.
"Then won't you train for anything else? Is there a training you want? Do whatever you want. If you don't, Manager Han will scold you for not doing it."
"Ah! Of course he'll ask. I should definitely ask."
The second-team director knew Manager Han's tendencies well, so he said that to Choi Seungtaek, and Choi Seungtaek agreed with the opinion.
"Then let me use the indoor training field. That's where the training I was doing is."
"Really?"
"Yes, it's one of the two trainings the manager assigned."
"Got it. Later if the manager asks, say you did the trainings the manager assigned."
"Yes! Understood. Thank you!"
Choi Seungtaek headed straight to the indoor training field at the second-team practice ground.
"Hmm... no one's here? Did everyone go out to train?"
Choi Seungtaek started framing training preparations again in the empty indoor training field.
"Alright, now let's push framing training hard. I've only done blocking for too long."
Choi Seungtaek adjusted the training intensity.
Playing games uses up a lot of stamina, but doing blocking training all day depletes even more stamina.
Choi Seungtaek felt the side effects when his weight dropped, and when he was close to his limit, he was glad he had been sent down to the second team; it was truly fortunate.
Moreover, when he returned to the first team, there might be less time for framing training, so he decided to focus on framing training during these two days on the second team.
"Alright, now speed is at 140."
Choi Seungtaek raised the pitching machine's speed.
He had been raising it from 120 km/h to 130 km/h all along, and now he was challenging the 140 km/h that pitchers who throw relatively fast were throwing.
"Hoo... I need to raise it fast. Do it all day and I'll adapt to 140. Tomorrow I'll adapt to 150."
Practice and actual game are different.
Even if he catches 140 freely during practice, the atmosphere in the game is different, and a mistake causes big problems, so Choi Seungtaek needed a higher speed.
Only after getting used to 150 km/h could he relatively freely frame and catch the 140 km/h pitch.
Pfft!
Tick!
"Huaa... even though I raised 10 km, this is the reaction?"
Because it suddenly jumped 10 km unlike before, Choi Seungtaek grumbled in his heart and reset his posture.
"Concentrate."
A strike zone appeared in front of Choi Seungtaek's eyes.
Pfft!
The ball flew, and slowly he reached out from the opposite side of the trajectory.
Tatat!
"Shh... again."
Pfft!
The ball flew again, and Choi Seungtaek moved the mitt toward the direction the ball was coming from at the point ahead of the trajectory.
Pat!
At the same time the ball was about to enter the mitt, Choi Seungtaek gently pushed his hand into the strike zone.
"Good."
When he repeated this successful framing, something new appeared in Choi Seungtaek's eyes.
It was the hand movement of Benjamin, who when he gets used to speed is the most ideal framing method, and Choi Seungtaek followed it.
Pfft
Pat
And while practicing following Benjamin's hand, at some point when Benjamin's hand was no longer visible, Choi Seungtaek judged he had mastered it properly and raised the speed.
Pfft!
Pat
Crunch crunch
After several hours of practice, Choi Seungtaek felt commotion outside.
"What's happening? First, I should check what's going on."
Since the training was interrupted because of the commotion outside, Choi Seungtaek stopped and went outside.
"Hello, seniors!"
"Hello!"
Many second-team players of the Magpies were lining up to greet one person in a row, and Choi Seungtaek headed there.
"Eh! Who's this?"
Choi Seungtaek saw a familiar face.
"Hey, everyone, welcome! Ah! Who is this? It's Choi Seungtaek, right?"
"Long time no see, seniors."
The person receiving the greeting recognized Choi Seungtaek, and Choi Seungtaek greeted the other second-team players with a cheerful voice like them.
In front of Choi Seungtaek stood Jeon Seol.
---
[New Status Added for Jeong Suham: Chicken-heartedness — psychological weakness that prevents composure under pressure despite strong mechanics in practice]
"Son Seol-hyung!"
"Son Seol-hyung!"
The second-team players of the Magpies were lining up one after another to greet the person in front, and Choi Seungtaek went toward that spot.
"Ah! Who is this?"
Choi Seungtaek saw a familiar face.
"Hey, everyone, welcome! Ah! Who is this? It's Choi Seungtaek, right?"
"Long time no see, seniors."
The person receiving the greeting recognized Choi Seungtaek, and Choi Seungtaek greeted the other second-team players with a cheerful voice like them.
In front of Choi Seungtaek stood Jeon Seol.
---
[New Status Added for Jeong Suham: Chicken-heartedness — psychological weakness that prevents composure under pressure despite strong mechanics in practice]