Chapter 433 – Episode 425. Competition for Home Run King. (2)
“Maengho, Joo Seung-cheol hit a home run.”
“Yes? Already?”
Just before the top of the 7th inning begins, the manager approaches and informs him of Joo Seung-cheol’s home run. This makes two more.
‘Sseuup, didn’t you really take medicine? Why are you playing so well? Ugh, I need to open it up a bit here…’
Moreover, the team is losing 5:3. I needed a home run to kill two birds with one stone: my home run king title and the team’s championship competition.
‘Mr Rossby… ?’
I quietly called Mr. Rossby, but Mr. Rossby remained silent. He must be looking at women somewhere else.
‘It’s really useless.’
After swearing at Mr. Rossby in his mind, he packed up his bat and walked to the plate. On the mound was Yoon Jung-hwan, the UG Overlords’ sure-to-be winner.
‘Sweet, Yoon Joong-hwan is a bit tough…’
Yoon Jung-hwan, who had good results after striking me out last year, was a pitcher with an ERA in the low 2-run range. Perhaps because of the poor starting lineup this season, the innings were almost overworked, so entering the second half of the season, it was as if a lot of stamina had been lost. At the beginning of the season, the guy’s earned run average, which was at 1 point, rose to 2 points.
The only ball you need to watch out for is the fastball. Although he had a record of throwing several other breaking balls, he was not good enough to be effective in the first team.
However, it was quite difficult to get the timing right because he throws two types of pitches with one grip, a ball with movement that bends toward the right-handed hitter like a two-seam, and a ball with a movement that seems to come straight like a four-seamer.
In the second half of last year, he almost abandoned the four-seam movement ball as he gained control of the pitch, but coming into this season, throwing a mix of those two types again was one of the reasons for his continued success. UG, whose starting lineup has collapsed, is the key to not being in contention for last place.
After the guy winds up, he throws the first pitch.
“Strike!”
“Did this come in?”
The first pitch is a four-seam movement ball. The trajectory went outside, but the referee called a strike.
“What? Are you dissatisfied?”
“Not really…”
‘Fuck you, you old bastard.’
If Rossby had been around, he would have asked if he really came in and thrown a bat, but I thought it was too vague, so I held back.
And the second ball.
“Ball.”
‘… ‘Huh?’
The two-seam seems to be rolled towards the body and bent… I felt something strange. A different feeling of discomfort than when throwing a ball with a four-seam movement… Something felt strange.
‘Shall we watch for a moment more?’
To be honest, when he was with Rossby, he rarely looked closely at the pitcher’s pitching form. Because Rossby told him his pitch type, he just focused on the ball. However, in the past few days when Rossby was away, he had developed a habit of looking at the pitcher’s pitching form because he wanted to know the type of pitch, and he felt a strange sense of discomfort in the pitcher’s pitching form.
And the third ball.
“Ball.”
This time it was a two-seamer. However, I did not feel the sense of discomfort I saw earlier.
‘What? Did you not see it clearly?’
Am I tired because I couldn’t rest on Monday? I think I saw something wrong…
‘Should I reduce sex?’ ? Hey, I fucking don’t know.’
Since I had to find out what I was curious about, I spoke to Baek Kyung-ho, who had remained silent until now.
“Guyungho hyung.”
“… Huh?”
Baek Kyung-ho flinches and is surprised when I call him brother.
“I’m not some kind of criminal, why are you so scared?”
“I’m scared. “Don’t talk to me.”
“That’s not it, I’m just curious about the two-seam and four-seam. Are you throwing them separately?”
“Huh? What bullshit? Of course, we throw them separately.”
“But the grip is the same.”
“… How do you know that?”
‘Uh? Is this a secret?’
I quickly opened my mouth to see if he might have any strange suspicions.
“It really looks the same.”
“Oh my… “Don’t talk to me.”
Yoon Jung-hwan’s windup begins again.
“Strike!”
Four-seam movement. It was strange again this time. An inexplicable feeling of discomfort… What? What’s the problem?
But the curiosity ends here. Now I had to hit the ball. Because it was two strikes.
Perfect!
“Foul!”
I tried to hit the ball with the bat, but the ball went outside the foul line. … And the same feeling of discomfort as before.
‘What? When you feel out of place, is it a two-centered feeling? But I didn’t feel this way when I threw the two-seamer twice in a row…’
My head hurts. If only I had time to think a little more…
“Time!”
To gather my thoughts, I called time out and got out of the batter’s box. And I began to organize in my head what I had felt so far.
‘The first pitch is a fastball. It wasn’t strange. The second ball was a two-seam ball, and I felt a sense of discomfort. The third ball is also two-seam. It wasn’t that strange at this time. The fourth ball is a four-seam. At this time, I felt a sense of discomfort. The last ball was also a two-seam throw. Because it was strange this time too…’
“Come in quickly.”
“Wait a minute. Wait for a sec. Oh, the bat is slippery. I’ll spray some spray and come back. Because you can’t miss the bat.”
“… “Go quickly and come back.”
Baek Kyung-ho answers before the referee. In response to the catcher’s response, the umpire also allows the spray to be sprayed. I walked to the waiting box as slowly as possible and gathered my thoughts.
The number of times I felt uncomfortable was a total of three times. I feel like I know something… At that time, Kim Su-ho, who was standing in the waiting box, handed me a spray and spoke to me.
“Spray?”
‘Wait a minute, if you ask a veteran…’
“Yes, senior. Senior, didn’t you feel anything strange when dealing with him?”
“Him? Yoon Jung-hwan?”
“Yes.”
Kim Su-ho was the player with the best vision in Korea. Having a good vision means having a good eye. I think Kim Su-ho, who has good eyesight, would be able to figure out the identity of the discomfort I felt.
“Can you see it?”
“Yes? “What is it?”
Surely this doesn’t mean you can see ghosts?
“Can you see how he throws?”
Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case.
“You can see the throwing.”
“Under… That’s not the story… Done. I’ll come back and explain in detail. Just remember one thing. If the wrist is bent a little more, it is a two-seamer. Well, I don’t know if you can tell them apart.”
*
When Ji Maeng-ho said that he felt something strange, Kim Soo-ho was a little embarrassed inside. When he thought about Ji Menghao’s performance, it was not surprising that Ji Menghao could see that. It was common for hitters with good eyesight to look at pitchers’ moves and guess the pitch.
Kim Su-ho was also that type of hitter. However, the reason this point was not emphasized during power analysis time was because most batters could not tell the difference anyway. And hitters who can tell the difference can tell the difference as long as they have a good quality video even if they don’t have to listen to it during power analysis class.
What surprised Kim Soo-ho was that he wondered how a guy who had never been able to distinguish between such things could achieve such results.
‘What? Are you really hitting the ball just by guess hitting? What? Are you really genius? When I looked at the dugout or what I was doing on a daily basis, I thought he was a guy who never thought about such things.’
Of course, I knew that Ji Maeng-ho was serious about baseball. When he was in scoring position and needed to concentrate, he would look at Ji Meng-ho’s eyes on base and give him a creepy look that would make him feel dizzy.
However, just because he was serious about baseball, he didn’t have to be serious about everything, so I could understand Ji Maeng-ho’s behavior of always withdrawing his brain.
However, considering Ji Meng-ho’s usual behavior, I did not believe that he targeted the pitch with a guess hit.
Because Ji Maeng-ho’s personality likes to show off, it would have been more correct to think that he was saying that he would hit the ball he could see and hit using a guess hit. Moreover, there were benefits to saying that you were a Geth hitter.
The battery will throw a lot of balls that deviate from the norm in order to distort the ball mix, and deviating from the norm means throwing balls that are not efficient, so hitting becomes easier. In addition, it had the effect of preventing pitchers from checking their pitching form, so the strategy of calling it a “Guess hitter” Was a pretty good strategy for a Ji-maengho.
It made me wonder why Ji Meng Hao was using his head.
Therefore, Kim Soo-ho until now thought that Ji Maeng-ho was a similar type of hitter to himself. Through his innate eye, he can detect subtle differences in his pitching form and use that to hit.
‘But was it really just a guess hitter?’
It was absurd. To achieve such results with just guest hits…
‘Genius…’
He was a genius. It’s a cliché word, but Ji Maeng-ho was a genius who can’t be described in other words. A guy like that could even read the pitcher’s comments.
Ta – Aak!
And Ji Maeng-ho’s home run.
‘Did you just apply that little bit of advice?’
5:4 with this. Normally, it would have been good to keep up with the score, but right now, my emotions were more complicated than happy.
As a baseball player, the joy of watching a genius grow, the relief of being on the same team as this guy, and the feeling of inferiority that it will be difficult to catch up with this guy even if you try your whole life…
“Senior, like you said, it’s really a little more bent, isn’t it? But, I don’t know yet, so please explain later.”
“… Yes.”
Because of those feelings, Kim Soo-ho had no choice but to give a short answer to Ji Maeng-ho, who hit a home run and returned with a bright smile.
“Yes! Senior, please hit a home run too. “I’ll start with a tie.”
However, the Kim Su-ho that Ji Maeng-ho sees is usually blunt and not the type to talk at length, so Kim Su-ho’s appearance did not seem that strange.
And Kim Soo-ho’s at-bat.
‘… Two-seam.’
Even though all batters can tell the pitch type through the pitcher’s form, it does not mean that they achieve the same performance as Ji Maeng-ho. The pitcher’s ball is thrown in less than 0.1 seconds. Distinguishing between pitches and hitting them were two different things.
Even though he is a top-class batsman in the country, enough to be selected for the national team. Moreover, Yoon Jung-hwan’s pitch is a fastball that hovers around the mid-150s.
“Ball.”
That’s why Kim Su-ho threw out the first pitch. The ball you are aiming for is a four-seam. A few balls go back and forth, and before you know it, the count is full. And the seventh ball thrown.
The four-seam that Kim Su-ho was aiming for was thrown. However, a fast ball over 150 was not an easy ball to make a true hit even if you knew that fact. Watching and judging meant that it took time to look and judge, and to shorten that time, you needed overwhelming bat speed and strength like Ji Maeng-ho.
Perfect!
With the sound of a miss, the ball headed toward the second baseman.
“Out!”
‘Under…’
Kim Soo-ho sighs deeply and returns to the dugout.
“Kabiyo. But, senior, what do you mean by explaining in detail?”
Ji Maeng-ho welcomes me with a smile when he returns from an out. Seeing that, I felt like the small inferiority complex I had in my heart disappeared.
‘Yes, Ji Maeng-ho is Ji Maeng-ho. I am me Because I have my own way. Well, if Meng Hao does well, I’m good too.’
A genius who goes beyond standards. If you compare yourself to that person, all that remains is depression. Kim Soo-ho quickly erased all his negative thoughts and began to explain his method to his beloved junior.