The Genius Hitter Who Conquered America - Chapter 67

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 67
Only one week remained until the Fall Stars Game.
The objectives I needed to accomplish within that timeframe were crystal clear.
First, maintain my current strong performance.
Second, cultivate public interest and buzz.
The statistics would take care of themselves if I continued as I had been….
The real challenge was the latter.
Public buzz.
It meant garnering public attention and popularity that couldn’t be achieved through baseball alone.
So how could I create that?
‘I need information.’
The ancient strategists said: know your enemy and know yourself, and you will never be defeated.
I needed to understand how the players here were making themselves known to the world, starting with their methods.
Four in the morning.
While others were deep in sleep, I had already woken, completed a run around the lodging, and finished my weight training.
After a refreshing shower, I sat on the edge of my bed and opened my phone.
Then I went into the app store and began downloading the social media apps that were popular in the United States, one by one.
StarGram, TokTok, Y….
Social media was uncharted territory for me.
Even in Korea, modern players now use social media as a necessity for communicating with fans.
Or for their own self-promotion.
But I had never even created an account.
‘Because I couldn’t.’
The reason was simple.
I was an unknown player bouncing between the Minor League, not a Major League star.
If a Minor League player posted pictures of restaurants or places they’d visited on social media?
I could easily predict what would be said on the team’s bulletin board or in online communities.
-This guy can’t even play baseball but he’s all about looking cool with social media.
-Focus on training instead. Does a Minor League bench player have that much free time?
I feared such judgment.
Or more precisely, I had censored myself, unwilling to give anyone ammunition to criticize me for anything outside of baseball.
But this was America.
Baseball here was a jungle of spectacle and business—if you didn’t make yourself known, no one would acknowledge you.
‘Silence isn’t a virtue here.’
I awkwardly created an account and immediately began my reconnaissance.
The players I’d faced over the past two weeks in the Arizona Fall League.
Their names and faces were stored in my mind like a database.
If I searched for these players, I could at least get a sense of what they were doing.
I entered a familiar name into the search bar first.
[Mark_Williams_1B]
I started by checking out my roommate Mark’s profile.
His profile picture showed a face with an adorably bright smile that didn’t match his build.
And his bio caught my attention.
High School Invitational MVP.
Future Dodgers.
Never give up.
Mark had clearly put in considerable effort to promote himself.
I scrolled through his feed.
There were easily hundreds of posts.
Starting with videos of him hitting home runs in high school, followed by photos of him sweating through workouts.
Occasionally, there were even massive amounts of food photos.
He consistently appealed to how serious he was about baseball and how likable he was as a person.
His follower count was also quite impressive at 10,000.
While not a massive star, he had built a genuine fanbase for a Minor League prospect.
Impressive dedication.
This consistency would be Mark’s greatest asset.
So what about the others?
[Cash_Meyer]
The moment the search results appeared, I let out a hollow laugh.
“What… is this?”
Posts: 1.
And that single post was just a brief photo of him doing batting practice.
No description, no hashtags.
Yet.
Followers: 154K.
Tens of times more than Mark’s count.
How was that possible?
My curiosity was answered the moment I opened the comments.
└OMG marry me please.
└Too Hot.
└Prince of Baseball.
└Your face is a blessing.
└When are you debuting? I’m getting dizzy.
Ninety percent of the comments were from women.
Praise for his baseball skills was overwhelmingly outnumbered by worship of his appearance.
Of course, Casey was genuinely skilled at baseball, but his influence on social media stemmed not from his abilities but from his star quality.
In other words, it came from his looks.
So this is why people say you need to be handsome to get ahead in the world?
I felt the world’s unfairness anew.
Though truthfully, it wasn’t an emotion I should have been feeling.
Soo-ho certainly stood out in terms of appearance alone.
Soo-ho searched for the other players as well.
Liam Henricks, and first-round draft picks from other teams.
They were all packaging themselves like brands.
Some posted their impressive batting or pitching in slow motion, others flaunted flashy casual fashion.
‘They’re all acting like they’re already stars.’
The fans were cheering at their confident displays.
Soo-ho turned off his phone and stared at the ceiling.
He had a rough understanding now.
‘Their methods differ, but the goal is always the same.’
Look at me, they were saying.
They constantly proclaimed how valuable a player they were.
But Soo-ho was different.
Unlike Mark, he didn’t have a fanbase built since high school.
He didn’t think he could attract hundreds of thousands of followers on looks alone like Casey.
‘So what do I sell?’
Among their feeds that looked like luxury department store displays.
What could make him stand out without any packaging?
‘Ugh. I have no idea.’
Unfortunately, Soo-ho was a complete novice in this field.
But Soo-ho didn’t give up.
‘Let me try a different platform.’
Soo-ho closed StarGram and opened TokTok, the app that had American teenagers obsessed.
On a whim, he typed the same player names into the search bar. Then.
“…Huh?”
Soo-ho’s eyes widened at the results flooding the screen.
It was different from the previous app, which focused on photos.
Here, everything was videos.
‘Is it because of the nature of baseball?’
There was far more demand for dynamic videos than static photos.
Soo-ho went ahead and checked YouTube, the strongest video platform.
And at that moment, his eyes widened.
“This….”
The recent videos didn’t even need their dates checked.
The uniforms proved it.
Arizona Fall League. There were even videos from yesterday’s game.
What was particularly surprising was the view count.
Mark’s home run had 580,000 views.
Casey’s home run had a whopping 1.2 million views.
“The, the view counts are insane….”
The baseline videos garnered hundreds of thousands of views, while footage of renowned prospects easily surpassed a million.
These were all Minor League players who hadn’t even debuted yet.
And they commanded this level of attention.
I swallowed hard.
The market was substantial.
No—it was overflowing.
‘But how do I break in?’
The problem was the method.
‘If I start social media now, there’s no way I can accumulate followers like Mark or Casey.’
It was a realistic assessment.
Only one week remained until the Fall Stars Game.
No matter what I tried, there was no way to gather tens of thousands of followers in a week starting from absolute zero.
‘YouTube would be even more impossible.’
Of course, it wasn’t as though there were no methods at all.
There was one surefire way to raise awareness in a short timeframe.
‘Begging.’
Pleading for people to notice me.
I could go to Korean Community forums or American Baseball Forum and post, “I’m Oh Soo-ho, please pay attention to me.”
Or I could email Korean Media directly saying I’m still alive.
Come interview me.
I could make that request.
But I shook my head firmly.
‘That would be the worst.’
It wasn’t simply a matter of pride.
It would be actively destroying my brand value.
Think about it.
The difference the public perceives between gaining attention through skill and confidence versus gaining it by begging for coverage.
In other words, it’s a matter of class.
‘And besides, later on….’
If it became known that I’d been begging around to become famous?
Whether in Korea or America, it would look equally pathetic.
It would be a negative mark—something I absolutely could not do.
‘Begging is out. Absolutely not.’
Then only one path remained.
I turned my attention back to the phone screen.
My eyes narrowed as I examined the videos carefully.
‘These videos on YouTube and TokTok… the players didn’t upload them directly.’
Checking the channel names, they were professional channels like Baseball Prospects and Future Stars.
In other words, it wasn’t the players themselves uploading—it was baseball-focused YouTubers and TokTok creators filming and posting them.
‘Now that I think about it….’
Every game, the stands came to mind.
Not behind home plate where the scouts sat, but the stands along first and third base.
‘There were unusually many young people there.’
They weren’t watching baseball with their eyes.
Without exception, they all held phones or professional cameras, filming the ground.
‘Could they be team staff?’
No. There was no reason for team staff to squeeze into the stands and film.
‘It has to be them.’
I was certain.
‘Those people uploading videos with these incredible view counts… they’re the ones.’
So I needed to catch their attention.
I even searched for my own name.
‘Nothing, as expected.’
Zero search results.
Americans currently had no interest in me.
Of course, that was natural.
‘Why would they care about a mere foreign Minor League player who isn’t even a Major Leaguer?’
Americans only took interest in foreigners after they became Major Leaguers.
‘But I need attention right now.’
What could I do?
I let out a small laugh.
The answer was….
Far too simple.
‘Show them what others don’t have.’
The Arizona Fall League.
A place where the top prospects from thirty organizations gathered.
They were all flashy.
Beautiful swings, hundred-mile fastballs, physiques like models.
But they all shared one common deficiency.
Or rather, one thing they deliberately avoided having.
‘Desperation.’
Because they couldn’t afford to get injured.
Because they had to preserve their bodies for the regular season.
But I had it.
No—this was my very essence, my unique playing style.
‘Hustle.’
The drive to spare nothing of myself.
In truth, I had never unleashed my signature weapon—hustle—since arriving in the Arizona Fall League.
The reason was simple.
My objective in the Arizona Fall League was crystal clear.
Extra-base hits and on-base percentage. I was transforming into an OPS-type hitter.
So I focused solely on that aspect.
But the situation had changed.
‘Then just do it. Hustle.’
Play to my greatest strength. Do what I do best, and that was enough.
More than anything, I now had room to breathe.
I’d grasped the feel for power hitting.
With composure at the Batter’s Box, it was time to unleash that energy across the entire Ground.
On this stage of elegant swans, what if I became a dog running wild, kicking up clouds of dirt?
‘I’d be impossible to ignore.’
I gazed once more at the videos on my phone screen—clips that had racked up tens to hundreds of millions of views.
I imagined my dirt-covered face becoming the thumbnail of one of these videos.
‘There’s no way I could be overlooked.’
I closed my phone.
The cameramen in the Stands today would have their hands quite full.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————