Chapter 129 – Episode 127. Losing Streak. (2)

“Coach, aren’t you rolling the players too much from the beginning of the season?”

“[Hitting coach, you know, it’s no wonder that players get worse as the season goes on. So if you don’t build up your stamina from the beginning of the season like this, isn’t it natural that you will lose strength in the second half of the season like last year?]”

‘It’s because the training intensity these days has gone up compared to the previous year.’

The hitting coach couldn’t bring out the inner feeling. Because director Sands had a venom in his eyes.

‘There wouldn’t be anything good with an overface like this.’

The veteran players were already getting exhausted from morning training alone. It was obvious that the players would not be able to endure if they trained at this intensity every home game, but it was not something that the hitting coach himself could be involved in, so AT Thunders hitting coach Kim Byeong-cheol spared his words.

However, he did not feel the dissatisfaction of the players just because he was sparing.

Since spring camp this season, such dissatisfaction has been slowly emerging. It was because the amount of training in spring camp was much higher than in previous years. This kind of training intensity was the way he trained when he was a player, that is, in some teams in the early 2000s.

In fact, Kim Byeong-cheol thought that this type of training was not a skill. The physical training that rolled the players to the point of being ignorant rather made the players lose their motivation and pace, and the effect was insignificant. As they are professional players, it was clear that they would know their own stamina best, except for some rookie players.

In addition, considering the fact that the training intensity increased after the losing streak, the pressure in the game inevitably increased.

‘Well…. I can understand why the director was impatient….’

Director Sands’ contract expires this year. Here, if he didn’t achieve results, it was obvious that his renewal of the contract would have been skipped, and since he hadn’t had fun with free baseball for the past two years, it was understandable, but it wasn’t.

“[So, has the power analysis team finished their analysis?]”

It was Sands’ words that broke Coach Kim Byung-chul’s thoughts. Director Sands’ words were transmitted through an interpreter, and the power analysis team played the prepared data.

“Yes. Analysis of the last five matches confirms that most teams use signs similar to exhibition matches. The teams whose signs have been changed are UG and Volcano.”

“Because the UG director is sensitive to that.”

“Yes, we should be careful too.”

“By the way, why did the volcano kids changehaha, isn’t it the same even if you change it?”

“Well, it is. Anyway, I was able to find out that Shindo uses 6 patterns just like the demonstration game, and I was able to confirm that they change by day of the week. Excluding the patterns used in the weekday series, the patterns to be used today can be narrowed down to a total of three, and I think I will probably use this pattern.”

The head of the power analysis team finished talking and played the video. Although it was shot from a distance, the quality was so clear that even the manicure on the catcher’s fingers could be seen.

“[Hmm…. It’s a similar pattern to the demonstration game.]”

“Yes, that’s right. And the pattern with the runner on second is this.”

The topic that AT’s coaches and power analysis teams are meeting is sign stealing.

In fact, there is no club that does not steal autographs.

Any club analyzes the opponent’s sign and always changes the sign to ensure that the team’s sign is not stolen. When the catcher, who served as the head of the team, left, it was natural for the sign to change, and baseball was to put a beanball right away if you felt that the other side was stealing the sign even a little bit.

In fact, there was a saying in the baseball world that autographs are the fault of the team that gets stolen, and some teams in the major leagues even mobilized electronic devices to steal autographs to win the World Series. In addition, the effort of each club to steal the sign was considerable because there was nothing to get caught unless the person involved did not say anything, unless they did the stupid thing of putting the stolen sign openly on the dugout.

Of course, not all clubs could steal autographs if they tried. First of all, many fake signs came and went before the strategy or ball mixing, and the signs were changed for each inning, each batting order, each date, each catcher, and each pitcher.

That’s why stealing autographs wasn’t an easy task. It is a difficult task where clubs, players, and coaches have to become one mind and move with one will.

However, the AT Thunders were one of the clubs that did the tough job.

Until now, it was impossible because the data was not accumulated, but now that we have played 5 games, it is time to get a rough idea of ​​which club uses which sign. And the power analysis team of AT Thunders was a team using the most cutting-edge equipment in Korea.

“[This is enough. Then, I think we can share the data with the players during this power analysis time.]”

All the coaches nodded at Sands’ words.

“[Tsk, but how can our autographs not be complemented? It doesn’t make sense to lose three times in a row.]”

“Still, if you change it too often, you might confuse the players, so I think it’s better to keep an eye on it this week.”

“[Tsk, I feel like I want to change it every inning.]”

“Maybe then the players won’t be able to memorize it?”

“[I guess so. It’s unfortunate. To think that professional players can’t memorize a single sign and thus get in the way of their strategy. Tsk.]”

Sign stealing is part of baseball. As long as you didn’t cheat through an electronic device like a wiretapping device or an outsider, there was nothing you couldn’t do to win.

With that thought in mind, the AT Thunders’ manager, coaches, and power analysis teams worked harder than usual in the meeting to break the losing streak.

*

“Do I have to memorize all of this?”

Damn, it’s not some kind of high school and you have to memorize this dense piece of paper?

The papers handed out by the club’s analysts were filled with signatures that were scheduled to be used by Shilla today.

Memorize all of this? It was a crowd. If I had the brain to memorize this, when I got injured, I would have quit playing baseball and gone to study.

It was too much for me just to memorize the signatures of our strategy and the defensive positions of each player. I memorized it because I practiced every day, and it was clear that I would not have been able to memorize it if I had been given a piece of paper and told to memorize it like now.

But stealing autographs, is this common in the pro scene?

‘Did Mr. Rossby steal the sign too?’

‘Isn’t that obvious? Even if I stole it, I saw it, and I also saw the stolen baby Ajak. Do you know the feeling of breaking your shins?’

‘… Don’t you want to know?’

You mean he smashed his shin with a spike?

Hehe, you poor bastard. Anyway, back then you had to be prepared to break your shin to steal an autograph, but baseball has become so girly these days. There’s no romance in baseball these days.’

Rossby’s eyes were somehow wet with memories.

‘When I was supervising, it was fun to leak fake autographs and fool stupid bastards. When, I…….’

In addition, seeing how he brought up unsolicited stories, it was obvious that he was wrong. As I listened to Rosby’s heroic story with one ear and let it flow through the other, the staff looked at the players and opened their mouth.

“All you have to do is look at the players and do what you practiced in spring camp.”

“… What did you practice during spring camp?”

“Ah, you don’t know because you’re in the national team. When I got into scoring position, I practiced putting my right hand on my knee for inside balls and my left hand on my knee for outside balls. And three fingers on a breaking ball and two on a fastball.”

You trained like this when I wasn’t there? Just hearing Seongtae’s words made his head throb.

“So when you memorize this and go into scoring position, you have to let me know, right?”

I looked at the papers handed out by club analysts again. White is paper and black is text.

“Um, did you get them all? Now we will see it as a video, so everyone please pay attention. Shinra’s starting catcher today is Kim Dong-hyun, so there is a high possibility that he will use the signature from the third chapter.”

And the video goes wrong. I don’t know where it was taken, but the picture quality was very clear.

‘Ah, I don’t know, I don’t know.’

Shinra Triggers’ cause of death was too complex. It was clear that my head would explode if I memorized this for our team’s autograph.

‘Could it be that I’m the only one who can’t memorize?’

But I felt a little uneasy and looked around. And he was able to find peace. It was because most of the players also had cryptic expressions.

Hehe, even a genius like me can’t memorize it, so can’t other players memorize it at once?’

‘… Genius?’

‘That’s genius. Baseball genius. The batting average for the season is 5% off.’

‘I played five games. You’re not good.’

‘Even if it’s five games, 50% is 50%hehe.’

Rosby boasted to me that he was a .400 hitter, but since he was hitting a .500 that even Rosby hadn’t risen to, it was only natural that he was jealous. Ignoring my jealous feelings of inferiority, I looked around at the players again.

It was clear that the other players couldn’t memorize it either. In particular, the meteorologist with the best career here was not even looking at the paper in the first place. After such a passionate lecture, when the staff of the analysis team went outside, several players threw away the papers the analysts had handed out.

“Senior, but didn’t you do something like autograph analysis in the national university?”

As soon as the analyst left, I approached the meteorologist and asked what I was curious about.

“Hey, in the national team, the signature changes every game, so how do you steal it? Didn’t we change every day too? There is no point in analyzing it.”

It was.

“By the way, senior, don’t you memorize?”

“Hey, just memorizing it makes my head hurt. Don’t you think it’s easy to see the runner and hit? You have to get the timing right with the pitcher. And what are you going to do if another ball comes after seeing the sign? Won’t you regret it? Just swing it I didn’t even do it when I was in the majors.”

“Okay? Do some in the majors. Then you wouldn’t have come here.”

If I had stolen the sign there and hit it well, I would not have returned to Korea, but it was a pity.

“This bastard. Are you still climbing these days? Come on, you son of a bitch.”

Empty!

“Ah! The meteorologist is a fan of people!”

Haha, Sangju. I will catch him.”

“Hey, the maknae’s hair is well cooked. But what is the sound of hitting an empty can?”

“Ah, don’t laugh and report it!”

… The night of the weather warning was spicy.