The Genius Pitcher Dad Throws for His Daughter - Chapter 29

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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 29
#29.
“Strike!”
A single word thunders through Sajik Baseball Stadium.
The reverberations are so powerful that the Pitcher on the Mound, the batter in the Batter’s Box, and even the umpire calling the game all flinch.
‘Sigh, still the same.’
This is both the advantage and disadvantage of Sajik Baseball Stadium.
The fans’ roars shake everyone equally—ally and opponent alike—without discrimination.
If you can thrive in this atmosphere, you’re an exceptional player beyond the professional level. But if you can’t overcome it, you’ll never truly play baseball at Sajik Baseball Stadium.
So what about me?
‘Honestly… I didn’t hear it.’
I can say that with certainty.
Before I returned to the past, I never properly heard this roar.
There were only a few things I saw, heard, and felt.
My Daughter’s words from her dreams, the pitch types coming through the pitchcom from the Catcher, and the umpire’s voice as I threw the ball and watched his reaction—those were all I heard.
The fans’ cheers and roars never properly reached my ears.
‘Only for my Daughter….’
I simply strived to become the greatest player.
“Strike!”
Another harsh cry echoes out.
This isn’t directed at the batter or the runner.
As the Pitcher on the Mound throws a ball outside the Strike Zone, the crowd’s rebuke is aimed at a Pitcher who hasn’t thrown a single strike to either of the two batters he’s faced.
‘Still the same… that Senior Pitcher….’
It’s truly unfortunate, but there’s nothing to be done.
From what I remember, that Senior Pitcher gets sent down to the 2nd Team around the latter half of this year and eventually retires from baseball without lasting even one full year.
The cause is poor control, and another factor is that he happened to be the Pitcher who suffered a crushing defeat on the day the parent company’s Chairman visited the stadium after a long absence.
‘Maybe… 0 and 1/3 innings, 7 hits, 6 runs allowed?’
The reason I remember this despite being preoccupied with my Daughter is because the team owner’s fury was immense, and as a result, Pitchers with control issues were brought to the guillotine for execution.
Because of that, Pitchers from the 1st Team, 2nd Team, and development squad—anyone showing control problems—were purged en masse, naturally resulting in a reduction in personnel.
That’s why I suffered my injury more quickly, and that’s how I remember it.
‘Now that I think about it… that Senior Pitcher came back after turning thirty, didn’t he?’
That Senior Pitcher is two years older than me.
And I know he returned to the KBO stage four years later with improved control, becoming a winning Pitcher whenever he faced the Dolphins—throwing with everything he had. And from what I know, the first perfect game in KBO history came from that Senior Pitcher’s hand. Naturally, it was a record against the Dolphins.
Even if I wanted to help, by that time I would have already advanced to the Big League, so I wouldn’t know. Besides, when I was throwing for my Daughter, I didn’t take much interest in others.
‘I’ve heard rumors that there’s something special about him….’
But it’s just hearsay I let pass by, so I can’t easily bring it up.
My only hope is that he finishes the inning safely with minimal runs allowed.
Especially since he has a passive personality and always moves from behind others—I don’t understand how he even throws on the Mound.
‘Well, everyone has their own story.’
That Senior Pitcher must have his reasons for taking the Mound.
And so the game continued to unfold.
Choi Jin-ha gave up two runs in the first inning, but he gutted his way through the innings.
Five innings, five runs allowed, 102 pitches, 2 strikeouts, 9 walks.
My senior came down from the Mound looking like he might collapse from exhaustion.
Ah, but what about the score, you ask?
We’re winning 5 to 6, so we’re maintaining the conditions for victory.
If we win today’s game, Choi Jin-ha will have the chance to record his first win since the season opened.
I hope we can give my anxious, impatient, and exhausted senior that first victory.
* * *
After the top of the fifth inning ended, Changwon Griffins Manager Kim Eung-bin smacked his lips.
“Tsk… we could have scored more….”
Against a starting pitcher who’d been shaky since the first inning, the Changwon Griffins’ batting lineup had extracted five runs.
The pitcher made it so they could reach base naturally without even swinging the bat, and they’d scored by conserving their swings and striking when it mattered.
Five runs would normally be enough to win a game, but the problem was the Busan Dolphins’ batting lineup.
As if proving they were on a winning streak, not only did batters reach base every inning, but they kept churning out scattered hits unlike their usual style, grinding out runs.
The team’s identity was a power-hitting squad, but it was as if they’d sold off their cannons elsewhere and instead had a rifle battalion show up to tear the Ground apart—leaving Manager Kim Eung-bin utterly bewildered.
‘No, did the power hitters appear somewhere else?’
The sound of a cannon shell exploding—the ball leaving the pitcher’s hand bursts as it embeds itself in the Catcher’s glove.
The pitches from Ho-jin and the Clutch Team’s four hitters packed that much force.
Since they all threw aggressive pitches backed by heavy fastballs, calling them cannons wasn’t an exaggeration.
‘But that will become your grave.’
Manager Kim Eung-bin’s eyes gleamed.
After finishing the defense in the bottom of the fifth, he gave instructions to the batters during the cleaning time.
“Alright! You’ve rested well through five innings? Attack aggressively just like we planned!”
“Yes, sir!”
The Changwon Griffins, when you think about it, also had the team identity of an assault unit.
They were a team that charged at the pitcher with rifles blazing, capable of infiltrating and shaking up enemy territory anytime, anywhere with their base-running and stealing abilities.
Hit, run, shake things up, run.
They answered energetically as if ready to show the true might of an assault unit, stepping into the Batter’s Box.
The lineup happened to start with the number-one left-handed batter.
It was typical to bring in a left-handed pitcher against a left-handed batter.
Naturally, I expected Kim Da-hu to take the mound from the Busan Dolphins’ Bullpen to match up.
As a left-handed pitcher with a record of 2 holds and 4 losses, he was a player with enough stamina to comfortably handle two innings as the first setup man.
“What?! Jo Sang-hyuk?!”
But Jo Sang-hyuk took the mound, defying Manager Kim Eung-bin’s expectations.
A right-handed pitcher came up against left-handed batters, throwing a knucklecurve on the first pitch and striking out the number-one batter in an instant, then against the number-two right-handed batter, he threw fastballs consecutively and struck him out again with a knucklecurve on a full count.
The number-three left-handed batter swung at the first pitch—he’d thrown a fastball first, and the batter, thinking fastball or curve, didn’t connect properly and flew out to the infield.
“Heh. This time Kim Da-hu or Baek Ji-ha will probably come up.”
It was the sixth inning, after all.
I thought one of the Clutch Team members would appear. Since yesterday was Monday and they’d had a rest day, I figured a different pitcher came up because they weren’t fully warmed up.
“What? Jung Ji-hoon?!”
But defying Kim Eung-bin’s expectations, it was Jung Ji-hoon who took the mound this time.
Though his fastball sat in the low 140s, his razor-sharp control allowed his slider to dance through the corners of the Strike Zone.
Especially against right-handed batters—when a pitch came bearing down as if it would hit him, he flinched as if to dodge, only for the ball to curve miraculously through the Strike Zone. The moment the ABS chimed, the cleanup hitter struck out, and even the Manager couldn’t help but voice his frustration.
“No, you idiots! When he throws aggressively, you attack aggressively!”
He hammered home the instruction he’d already given once before.
The pitchers who’d come up in the sixth and seventh innings were throwing strikes right down the middle—he was telling them to capitalize on that.
But regrettably, the sliders dancing vertically and horizontally, combined with the heavy fastballs, resulted in weak contact that produced only two fly balls before the seventh inning ended.
“Ugh… now the Clutch Team is definitely coming up, right?”
The game continued with only a one-run margin.
Thinking back to the start of the season and the recent Busan Dolphins, the Bullpen should have been collapsing in a chain reaction of meltdowns, yet they were calmly shutting it down—Kim Eung-bin found himself growing uneasy.
And in the bottom of the seventh.
The Busan Dolphins’ offense ignited once more.
Crack!
Starting with foreign mercenary Rodrick’s three-run homer, they began pounding the Griffins’ Bullpen pitchers, and in a flash, they’d racked up eight runs, transforming the score to 5-14.
“Tsk! Gave them their timing right from the first game…”
Kim Eung-bin clicked his tongue in regret.
Since spilled water couldn’t be recovered, he simply moved on, thinking all he needed to do was finish the remaining innings cleanly.
Due to the large deficit, the pitcher changed on the Mound, and Kim Da-hu, whom Kim Eung-bin had been waiting for, took the ball.
Crack!
And then the Busan Dolphins’ Bullpen meltdown began in earnest.
* * *
I’d been warming up in the Bullpen when I returned to the Dugout.
It made sense—we’d suddenly built a commanding lead, so there was no reason for me, the closer, to take the mound.
Still, I kept my jacket draped lightly over my shoulders so my arm wouldn’t cool down completely.
‘Never thought this would be a game-changer.’
Remarkably, the Senior Pitchers who’d been the original Clutch Team came up one after another and began imploding.
Senior Pitcher Kim Da-hu gave up five hits on five singles with two runs.
With the bases still loaded, Senior Pitcher Baek Ji-ha allowed three hits and three runs.
Senior Pitcher Ahn Byung-ho, who’d been the closer, gave up one hit and one run, and suddenly it was a one-run game.
You could see just how terrifying the Changwon Griffins’ assault unit’s firepower was.
“Damn it…”
The Three Hitters, who’d been called the original Clutch Team, all disappeared behind the Dugout with sour expressions.
Naturally, the team’s momentum collapsed, and the bases-loaded, no-outs situation continued.
“Ho-jin, get ready.”
“Yes.”
It looked like my turn would come after all, so I headed back to the Bullpen, and Senior Pitcher Choi Sung-hyuk took the Mound with the bases loaded and no outs.
Senior Pitcher Choi Sung-hyuk had been warming up in the Bullpen just in case, so he could take the mound immediately—truly a reliable senior.
“Out!”
He fired consecutive 150km fastballs at the first batter he faced, securing the first out count.
The Pitching Coach, Baek Sa-jun, watching the scene unfold, leaned over and spoke to me quietly.
“If Ho-jin moves out of the starting rotation, we can use him as a closer.”
“He’s definitely improved a lot lately.”
“Right? For now, we’ll get him some experience as a setup man.”
The Pitching Coach, who already knew I’d be transitioning to the starting rotation in the second half, was laying out the plan for my future.
And proving my nerve, against the second batter, a changeup thrown on the first pitch caught the bat off-balance, resulting in a 6-4-3 double play that got us out of the bases-loaded jam with one out.
The fielders, their concentration scattered from the long defensive stretch, made quick work of the bottom of the eighth, and now it was time for me to take the field for the top of the ninth.
“Let’s finish this.”
“Yes, Coach.”
Now it was my turn to take the mound for the save.

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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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