The Genius Pitcher Dad Throws for His Daughter - Chapter 13

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

Chapter 13
#13.
The Busan Dolphins had plummeted to last place.
At this news, even the air at Sangdong Baseball Stadium seemed to freeze in a suffocating silence.
With the 1st Team relegated to the basement, the atmosphere felt too heavy for anyone to speak freely.
Because of this, the morning training proceeded with only physical conditioning—neither the Manager nor the coaching staff participated.
After morning training ended, only in a place where one could barely catch their breath, and where silence felt impossible to maintain, did human voices finally emerge.
“Ugh, this is suffocating.”
“Really… look at how grim the atmosphere is.”
“Hey, at least we have seniority, so we’re just being cautious. Look at those guys.”
“Wow… their faces have gone completely pale. I don’t know if they can even swallow their food.”
“We need to keep our heads down for a while.”
The entire Dolphins organization was suffocating under a heavy atmosphere.
If even the 2nd Team felt this oppressive, the 1st Team’s situation hardly needed explanation. On top of that, front office staff occasionally appeared, and their faces looked half-dead.
The restaurant, usually bustling with chatter, was unusually quiet today.
And I too observed the mood silently.
‘I think this happened during this period before too….’
Actually, I don’t remember well.
Before I returned to the past, during this period, I was on the verge of collapse after my daughter received a terminal diagnosis.
I spent most of my time in a daze. I trained as instructed, and I ate because everyone else was eating.
The words “my daughter is terminal” had carved so deeply into my chest that there was no room for anything else.
But there was one thing.
The only thing that moved me.
Finding Ye-jin’s mother, Han Ye-ji.
She was my age, and she was the woman I loved—I still remembered the apartment address where she last lived and even her university major.
We dated in high school, and people often called us the “talented couple”—the school’s top student and the best pitcher in baseball.
I worked toward my goal until the rookie draft ended, while Ye-ji worked toward hers until the college entrance exam finished. We postponed dating and kept our eyes forward.
After the exam ended, we whispered about finally enjoying dates we’d missed and spending our entire lives together.
And on January 1st.
For the first time as adults, we took a trip alone. Our destination was a pension with a beautiful view of the East Sea sunrise, and when the time came to drink, we had alcohol for the first time.
Ye-ji sipped hesitantly, saying it was her first time, while I didn’t drink much because it didn’t suit my palate. But caught up in the atmosphere of adulthood and the moment, we made a grave mistake.
And eleven months later, Ye-ji placed Ye-jin in my arms and left.
At first, I was too busy raising Ye-jin to even think about her mother.
Only after I finally adjusted to Ye-jin did I desperately search for Ye-ji.
First, I went to the house where she lived, and then to her school.
But all I could learn was that she’d packed up and left, and that she’d attended school for only one semester before withdrawing.
That was the extent of my investigation, and after that, I hired a private detective, but even they concluded she couldn’t be found anywhere in Korea.
‘And I failed overseas too.’
After I made it to Major League Baseball and received a substantial contract, I used that money to hire people in the United States to search for Ye-ji.
Starting with areas where many Koreans lived, I checked every place with Korean residents to see if her mother was there.
It was all for nothing.
Even when Daughter eventually died, I never heard a single word about Ye-ji until I returned to the past.
‘How am I supposed to find her….’
This was another task separate from reviving Daughter.
Ye-jin will wake up if I just play baseball well.
But Ye-ji is someone I need to find, and she’s still the woman I love. Of course I have to find her, and ideally I’d like her to be by my side when Ye-jin wakes up.
‘Sigh… if it’s not Korea or the United States, where could it be….’
I don’t remember the details clearly, but Ye-ji once told me she wanted to go somewhere and live there.
It was probably something she said while watching the sunrise over the East Sea, and I promised her we’d do exactly that.
The memory hovers in my mind, neither clear nor forgotten, but I can’t quite bring the place to my lips.
“Finish your meal and let’s go.”
It was Kang Do-bin, my senior, tapping me on the shoulder as he passed.
“Ah, fielding practice?”
“Yeah. Just throw me a few. Catching your pitches has made me realize something—my concentration and the things I need to think about have improved, so I’ve found some things to work on.”
“Understood.”
It was time for afternoon practice, so I stopped thinking about Ye-ji.
It might not come to me right now, but it will eventually.
No—I have to remember it.
Because it’s for Ye-jin and me.
Our family will definitely be together again.
* * *
A week had passed since the team plummeted to tenth place.
If you ask what changed in that time, I’ll tell you this.
‘Ugh. Now I have to watch my breath.’
Sangdong Baseball Stadium had become even more oppressive.
The 1st Team had fallen into a ten-game losing streak. Naturally, they were still in last place, and as a result, fans were cursing them daily as the “Pathetic Dolphins.”
The few fans who came to cheer had stopped coming altogether—you didn’t need words to understand how dire the atmosphere had become.
The problem was that the word “pathetic” had infected the 2nd Team as well.
In the span of a week, they’d played four games and lost every single one—and by wide margins. It wasn’t just a pitching problem; the fielders’ concentration had visibly deteriorated too.
It was as if the 1st Team’s losing atmosphere had spread to the 2nd Team, and now both were trapped in losing streaks.
Naturally, the Dolphins Community online was in an uproar.
– What a pathetic team. Or am I pathetic for supporting this team?!
└ Can’t argue with that lol.
└ Sigh… I can’t deny it.
└ At the start of the season they said this year would be different, and it is—differently bad.
└ Disband the team! That’s the wisest choice for us fans.
You don’t need to look at anything else.
Just reading the single best post at the very top tells you everything about the community’s mood. The fans are furious.
To calm this down, we need to break out of this losing streak as soon as possible.
‘At least there’s one silver lining—I’m pitching tomorrow, right?’
Tomorrow, I’m scheduled to start as the pitcher against the Daegu Salamanders.
There was originally another pitcher slated for the start, but his recent inconsistency had been so severe that we decided to skip his turn and deploy me instead.
Nearly ten days had passed since my match against the Sangmu Team.
This was because of what the Manager had demanded of me.
“If you want to be a starting pitcher, stamina is essential. Build your stamina first.”
Since it was obvious advice, I’d been structuring my schedule around stamina training ever since the Sangmu Team match.
Was it thanks to a week of intense training? Or perhaps because my stamina had been so depleted that even modest exercise showed rapid gains—either way, my stamina had improved considerably.
[Kang Ho-jin]
– Maximum Stamina: 65
– Top Velocity: 149km
– Pitch Arsenal: Four-Seam Fastball (B), Changeup (D), Curveball (B)
– Skills: Healing (S)
– Special Notes: None
– Remaining Points: 0
It had risen by a full six points, and as a result, I could now properly control more pitches with my own hands.
Oh, and I’d actually thrown some pitches to compare what the system displayed as stamina with what I could actually throw.
And the system’s judgment was accurate.
I could execute whatever pitch type, location, and control I wanted up to the stamina number shown. Beyond that, however, the pitches became rather pathetic.
‘It’s not like I completely can’t throw them….’
But the fastball loses velocity, the curveball’s drop diminishes, and the changeup becomes nothing more than an easy batting practice pitch.
Of course, I could still face batters with those three degraded pitches, but honestly, it would be wiser to bring up a relief pitcher instead.
‘Or would it? Our team’s bullpen….’
A sigh escaped from deep within my chest.
Even just looking at the 1st Team, the bullpen is the weakest in the league.
After promoting a left-handed specialist, he’s been handing out walks, and not only has he single-handedly reversed games we were comfortably controlling with a large lead, but the Clutch Team hasn’t been particularly strong either, frequently giving up runs.
The most pressing issue for the team isn’t just that the 4th and 5th starters haven’t solidified their positions, but that we lack a reliable closer to firmly shut the back door.
‘Those seniors seem like they’d be more than capable….’
While other pitchers have recently been getting hit around repeatedly, the Three Hitters—Jo Sang-hyuk, Jung Ji-hoon, and Choi Sung-hyuk—are the only ones holding the line in the bullpen without allowing runs.
Since I’ve been doing Pilates with them and my core muscles have stabilized properly, my pitch quality has definitely improved. Combined with the lower body strength I’ve been developing, my velocity has been gradually increasing, so I feel solid whenever I take the mound.
However, since I haven’t completely made it my own yet, I occasionally give up hits or walks. But I’ve been preventing consecutive hits and not allowing runners to reach base, holding things together well.
If I were to receive a call-up to the 1st Team right now, those seniors would probably get called up first.
Me?
Unless I raise my still-insufficient stamina further, the Manager and Coach won’t send me up. It seems they’re looking beyond just this year, toward a more distant future.
‘That can’t be right.’
What I need urgently right now isn’t stamina—it’s points.
I need points for my Daughter’s recovery, and to earn them, I need to play in games. Rather than the 2nd Team with its inconsistent starting rotation, I need to move to the 1st Team where I can eat a stable rotation.
So today, I run.
“Huff! Huff!”
For tomorrow’s game.
Ah, I wonder if the Daegu Salamanders know. That my fastball has gotten even more devastating.
* * *
Daegu Salamanders.
One of the six founding teams when the KBO League was established in 1982, the Daegu Salamanders had maintained their home city, parent company, and team name continuously since their inception, alongside the Busan Dolphins.
They were a powerhouse that achieved four consecutive Korean Series championships and confidently built the Salamanders dynasty.
In particular, they boasted a formidable batting lineup, utilizing Salamanders Park—a batter-friendly stadium—as their home field.
The 2nd Team supporting such a dominant 1st Team trained at Gyeongsan Ball Park, located in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province.
Being the most renowned facility among 2nd Team stadiums, the Salamanders players’ training and rehabilitation standards surpassed those of other organizations.
Thanks to this advantage, they were a strong team capable of competing for first and second place in the Futures League.
It was only natural that they held such confidence against the Busan Dolphins.
“Kang Ho-jin? He finally got his control down?”
They had faced this team not long after the Futures League began.
He was a pitcher they remembered fondly—one they’d pulled early after giving up seven walks in three innings.
Noh Ji-hwan, who’d been hit by a pitch on the ribs that day, still seemed to be in pain, clutching his side with one hand and gritting his teeth.
“A pitcher who can’t even control his fastball. Let’s finish this from the start.”
A pitcher who couldn’t even command his fastball.
Since Kang Ho-jin was the pitcher they remembered, they believed this victory would come easily.

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