The Genius Pitcher Dad Throws for His Daughter - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 16
#16.
The Sangdong Stadium buzzed with activity from the early morning hours.
The younger players had risen before dawn to organize the training facilities, meticulously cleaning areas that normally went untouched. Meanwhile, the veterans had washed up thoroughly in the early morning light, dressed in their cleanest uniforms, and stood waiting with visible anticipation.
It resembled the kind of preparation one might make for a division commander’s inspection, and the players’ faces reflected that same tension.
A visit from the 1st Team Manager.
Though he visited regularly, this time felt different.
The Busan Dolphins currently sat in 10th place. The reason was clear—a decimated starting rotation, a struggling Bullpen, and the urgent need to bolster both infield and outfield talent.
Which meant that for every player here, this represented the opportunity of a lifetime.
Knowing this, the gymnasium radiated intense heat from the early morning onward, and throughout the morning, players moved with purposeful energy to achieve peak condition.
“Damn… I’m more nervous than I should be.”
“Tch, I just came back from the Restroom—should I go again?”
“Where did I put that… the last bottle of ginseng extract….”
“Heaven and earth, spirits and deities, I beseech you, grant me favor, grant me favor.”
“Huff! Just like always! Huff!”
Some players had gone pale with anxiety, others retrieved their own legal performance supplements, and still others sought out gods they normally ignored.
Though such behavior was typical of less experienced players, those with more seniority focused instead on achieving their optimal physical and mental state.
Then, at last, Manager Bong Jun-sik and his coaching staff arrived.
Gulp.
Someone audibly swallowed.
The tension was palpable—everyone understood this was the chance they’d been waiting for.
“Then… let’s begin training.”
With those words from Manager Jang Si-hwan, the entire 2nd Team’s training commenced.
“Let’s go!”
“Fighting!”
For the first time in a while, the Sangdong Baseball Stadium erupted with genuine cheers as the serious training began in earnest.
* * *
Manager Bong Jun-sik.
As a player, his career had been unremarkable.
He’d played a handful of games in the Bullpen before settling into the 2nd Team, eventually choosing the path of a coach early on. Fortunate enough to receive overseas training, he’d returned with renewed dedication to his studies and pursued coaching with determination.
Having progressed through middle school, high school, university, and finally into professional baseball, Manager Bong Jun-sik’s first professional team was none other than the Busan Dolphins.
‘A poisoned chalice, it was….’
When first offered the position, he’d naturally refused.
But the General Manager’s relentless persuasion, combined with the unfortunate reality that in South Korea the most critical connections were academic ties, regional ties, blood relations, and smoking connections—and he happened to share academic and smoking connections—made refusal difficult.
After he’d passionately pointed out the Busan Dolphins’ shortcomings in the School Smoking Area, the General Manager began visiting that very spot daily, pestering him until he finally relented.
Those shortcomings were straightforward enough.
A Catcher who could frame pitches, a shortstop and center fielder to anchor the centerline, a power hitter for the designated hitter slot, a starting pitcher capable of eating innings, and a closer who could deliver certain victory.
‘At this rate, the entire team needs to be rebuilt….’
Naturally, he’d only accepted because the General Manager had promised a rebuild and guaranteed him a two-year window to prove himself. Otherwise, he would never have taken the position.
But the problem emerged during that year’s stove league.
[Busan Dolphins Acquire Power Hitter Han Seok-do at First Base, 6-Year, 12 Billion Won Deal!]
[Following First Base, Left Fielder Ham Ji-ha Acquired, 4+2 Years, 10 Billion Won!]
[Busan Dolphins Land Two Power Hitters! Adding Firepower to an Already Potent Offense!]
The team, which had lacked anything but hitting, finally acquired batters who could bolster their firepower.
From the fans’ perspective, the acquisitions of Han Seok-do, a Golden Glove-caliber first baseman, and Ham Ji-ha, who represented the National Team in left field, were met with enthusiasm.
– Now that’s some serious offensive power!
– No more games where we stumble because we can’t score.
– Let’s go with explosive offense!
They weren’t wrong.
The team had always been aggressive, but the trap was the absence of a power hitter to anchor the lineup—acquiring them was undoubtedly beneficial.
The problem was that the team’s first base, designated hitter slot, and left field position occupied a significant portion of the payroll. Most of these were high-salary earners and team veterans who served as the core pillars, which was the real issue.
Moreover, now that the General Manager had secured two of the best power hitters, Manager Bong Jun-sik was at his wit’s end, having executed nonsensical trades driven by a mad General Manager shouting “win now” instead of rebuilding.
This was the result we were seeing now.
42 games, 13 wins, 29 losses. Winning percentage of .310
10th place.
Dead last by a landslide.
That was the reality of the Busan Dolphins right now.
And this was after only 42 games since opening day.
Eventually, Manager Bong Jun-sik, unable to endure any longer, contacted the owner directly and raised his voice in protest, saying he couldn’t work with a front office that had come with a rebuilding mandate but then sold off all the players while shouting “win now.”
He could have been fired on the spot without anyone blinking. But the owner fired the General Manager instead, not Manager Bong Jun-sik.
The reason was simple.
Despite investing money every year, the team couldn’t climb into contention; combined with the General Manager’s shameless manipulation of the team, contrary to his previous pleas and promises to do better, it warranted dismissal.
All of this had happened just yesterday, and now, truly committed to rebuilding and restructuring the team, I had come to Sangdong Baseball Stadium.
‘Just do your job as a player, just that much….’
I didn’t ask much from my pitchers.
They just needed to be capable of throwing strikes within the Strike Zone, and the Catcher only needed to catch falling balls to pass. Fielders had defense as their foundation, and hitting was a bonus.
You might ask what kind of professional standard this was, but considering the current state of the Busan Dolphins, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say the team was in such dire condition that even this much would be a blessing.
That’s why today’s evaluation was taking place.
‘Not bad at all.’
The Busan Dolphins 2nd Team and developmental squad certainly had plenty of talented players.
Manager Jang Si-hwan had developed them well, and I could see their fundamentals were solidly built, and their effort was palpable.
I visually confirmed the infielders and outfielders, checked them off in my notebook, then headed toward the Bullpen.
The infielders weren’t the priority right now.
The pitchers were the most urgent, so I couldn’t spend much time observing, but the moment Manager Bong Jun-sik disappeared, the infielders’ expressions shifted—disappointed and sorrowful.
Unaware of this, Manager Bong Jun-sik arrived at the Bullpen and met Manager Jang Si-hwan.
“You look quite tired, Manager Bong.”
“Ha ha…. Manager Jang, your face is glowing.”
“The kids have developed well. You’ll see once you watch them.”
At Manager Jang Si-hwan’s words, Manager Bong Jun-sik nodded and gazed out at the Bullpen.
They’d already warmed up, so they started with the junior players first.
Starting with the rookies who had joined this year and proceeding in order of seniority, I had them throw pitches, and Manager Bong nodded in approval as he watched.
“With a bit more refinement, I can see some usable prospects here.”
“We still have a long way to go.”
“That’s right. We still have a long way to go.”
Following Manager Jang Si-hwan’s words, Pitching Coach Bae Ki-chan provided detailed explanations.
He went through each player one by one—what this one was capable of, what problems that one had, what adjustments another needed to make—and as the explanations continued, Manager Bong Jun-sik could see both the strengths and weaknesses of each prospect.
After checking each one off, when it came time for the next pitcher, Pitching Coach Bae Ki-chan suddenly became unusually animated, his excitement evident from the start.
“This one, you can have high expectations for.”
Caught off guard by the sudden enthusiasm, I looked forward and was slightly startled.
‘Kang Ho-jin? I heard he’d recovered from his shoulder and elbow injuries, and that his daughter was sick, but….’
The story of Kang Ho-jin and his Daughter was something most people in the 1st Team, 2nd Team, and front office knew about.
In fact, some front office staff had even subtly suggested to me that it would be good to promote him to the 1st Team, saying they could use it as publicity.
“Are you insane?! What are you trying to do with that?!”
At my outburst, the front office staff member shrank back like a scolded child, and after that, no such talk came up again.
But what was this?
I could see that Kang Ho-jin’s pitching had changed from before.
“What, what is this?!”
The fastball he’d just thrown clocked in at 149 km/h. After spring training ended this year and rehabilitation training was complete, when he returned to the Mound, his velocity hadn’t even reached 138 km/h.
Sure, velocity could be restored through rehabilitation training. But the change in his pitching form wasn’t something that could be created in just a day or two—I could feel that.
‘From an extreme overhand to something lower… and because of that, he’s reducing the overload on his shoulder and elbow while extending so smoothly!’
Just looking at his pitching form alone, it was the cleanest and simplest compared to the current Busan Dolphins 1st Team pitchers.
And look at that RPM in the meantime.
– 2,323 RPM.
If you asked me to name KBO League pitchers with higher RPM than that, I’d struggle to fill ten fingers. Especially considering the KBO League average was around 2,100 RPM, this was well above average.
“The last report said 1,847 RPM, so less than 1,900 RPM….”
Pitching Coach Bae Ki-chan answered with a laugh to my bewildered expression.
“That crazy bastard. His stuff improved the moment he changed his pitching form. And it happened overnight.”
Though crude language was mixed in, it didn’t register with me.
I could only be amazed by the numbers right before my eyes.
“Throwing a curveball next.”
Kang Ho-jin said that and began throwing curveballs.
The disadvantage of a curveball is that anyone watching can tell it’s a curveball the moment it leaves the hand. But the advantage of a curveball is that it steals timing, and the sharp drop makes it impossible to make solid contact.
Moreover, the curveball Kang Ho-jin just threw dropped right in front of Home Plate with such a sharp hook that it was almost beyond a forkball in its movement, making it impossible not to be amazed.
“Ugh… it’s like yesterday’s stock chart….”
At Pitching Coach Bae Ki-chan’s words, a chill ran down my spine.
Because I had actually seen my own stocks yesterday with that blue line heading straight to the bottom. Thanks to that, the stocks I’d sold yesterday caused my stomach to ache without my realizing it.
“Ahem! Hmm!”
At my clearing of the throat, Pitching Coach Bae Ki-chan closed his mouth again, and afterward, I marveled internally at the trajectory of the curveballs that followed.
‘That can be used in the 1st Team right now!’
The first fastball and curveball thrown.
Even if it’s just a two-pitch arsenal, for a batter seeing it for the first time to make contact and get a hit? That player should be sent to Major League Baseball or Japan, not kept in the domestic league.
“For the final pitch, I’ll throw a changeup.”
At the mention of throwing a changeup, Manager Bong’s heart began racing wildly.
A four-seam fastball, a curveball, and a changeup all at a respectable level meant I should be prioritized for immediate promotion to the 1st Team.
And as the changeup was released, Manager Bong let out an admiring gasp.
“Ah….”
Thus, Kang Ho-jin’s test came to an end.

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