The Genius Pitcher Dad Throws for His Daughter - Chapter 4

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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 4
#04.
“Ah, I’m stuffed.”
It was the first team gathering in a long time.
Rather than a place where alcohol flowed freely, it was a casual affair with soft drinks for toasts, yet everyone’s faces were bright with smiles after so long.
Fortunately, the 1st Team had won their game, so the atmosphere was pleasant.
Everyone had eaten their fill, and since cleanup fell to the youngest members, I naturally slipped away from the gathering.
As I strolled around to digest, I pondered how to spend the points I’d earned today.
‘No, the answer is already clear, isn’t it?’
My status window was already displayed in my vision.
Among the information, my gaze fixed not on anything else but on the special conditions section. There I saw two characters representing the injury I was currently suffering from.
Without hesitation, I made my choice.
– Consume points to treat ‘Shoulder Overload’? Y/N
I naturally selected ‘Yes’, and in that instant, tremendous pain surged through my shoulder.
“Ugh….”
Treatment wasn’t something that resolved in one swift motion.
A sensation like someone was tearing at my shoulder overwhelmed me, and cold sweat poured down relentlessly. It was fortunate that no one was around in this desolate place—had anyone seen me, I might have been rushed to the Hospital immediately.
Gritting my teeth and enduring it, I gradually felt the pain in my shoulder transform from agony into a refreshing sensation.
And at the end of that refreshment came a vivid sensation returning to my shoulder. It felt like the sensation from before I changed my pitching form in high school—or rather, from my younger days. My desire to throw a ball immediately was overwhelming, as if to prove that strength had returned.
‘Let’s go.’
I headed straight to the Indoor Training Facility.
Creak—!
The quiet Indoor Training Facility was empty.
I needed nothing else.
Since I was only going to throw one ball and leave, I stepped onto the Mound and gripped the ball.
“Hah….”
I took a deep breath and threw the ball.
Whoosh—!
The ball struck dead center in the target marked for strikes.
Rather than the sharp pain that usually followed a throw, my shoulder burned with the desire to throw more, and I could feel that everything had returned to how it once was.
“So I’ve recovered about 30% now?”
Thinking of my prime years, I could gauge my current physical condition.
If I earned points just one more time and treated my elbow, I could surpass my prime years.
Back then, I had worked with parts worn down by injury, but now I would be built from new material—I could feel that I would be far superior to my prime years.
‘I’m so excited.’
I was genuinely so thrilled that falling asleep easily was difficult.
* * *
The next day.
Since I had started the previous day’s game, the following day typically consisted of recovery training.
I began with light running, followed by stretching and loosening tight muscles. In the afternoon, I used weights to build the muscles I currently lacked, and finished with yoga and Pilates to enhance flexibility, strengthen core muscles, correct posture, and prevent injury.
I lay out a mat and begin Pilates when several senior teammates approach with curiosity.
“Pilates?”
“You’re suddenly doing Pilates too?”
“Weren’t you the one who only obsessed over weightlifting before?”
I answer their questions politely.
“I heard Pilates is excellent for injury prevention, and it strengthens flexibility and core muscles in ways weightlifting can’t. I’ve been looking into it urgently.”
Of course, I hadn’t looked into it in a rush.
I’d already repeated movements tailored to my body countless times and had experience conditioning myself, which is why I can do this now.
Naturally, I had to start with the fundamentals and basic postures, and as I trained core muscles I hadn’t developed before, sweat poured down like rain.
“Oh! Would that be good for me too?”
Kang Do-bin, curious, approaches and asks.
It goes without saying that it helps tremendously. In fact, it’s excellent for injury prevention, and I’d strongly recommend it. As a catcher, your knees and lower back are prone to deterioration.
“Yes, senior. Since I start with the lower body and work up to the lower back first, it would be good if you joined me.”
“Oh, then I’ll give it a try.”
Kang Do-bin lays out a mat in front of me and begins mimicking my movements.
“Ugh! I’m dying!”
The moment he follows my movements, a cry of pain escapes him. His arms and legs tremble like aspen leaves, and sweat pours down like a downpour rather than rain.
The other seniors watching burst out laughing.
“What? You’re that inflexible?”
“I could do that.”
“Haha, that’s hilarious.”
They all take their positions and begin following the movements, and in less than five seconds, groans triple in number.
“Wow! This is no joke!”
“But my body feels kind of refreshed?”
“Huh. This actually seems to work?”
The gymnasium fills with the cheerful chatter of my seniors.
The me from before returning to the past wouldn’t have blended into this atmosphere. I couldn’t focus properly with my Daughter’s terminal diagnosis, and when I stood on the Mound, I only threw pitches mechanically and stiffly.
The seniors who quietly patted my shoulder when my Daughter left this world are the very ones before me now.
‘Well, I was so out of it back then…’
I couldn’t pay attention to what they said and just drifted through each day in a daze. These are the seniors who looked after me bit by bit back then, and they’re among the few good seniors on the team.
I want to repay them, even if it’s now.
“Seniors, I know several movements tailored to your bodies. If you come by tomorrow evening at this time, I’ll teach you. Pilates really is effective. You can see that just by looking at me, right?”
Words alone can’t prove its benefits.
But my improved performance and yesterday’s game have proven it, so my seniors’ faces shift from curiosity to understanding.
“Thank you.”
“If things go well, I’ll buy you all a meal.”
“See you tomorrow.”
Watching my seniors leave the gymnasium, I find myself thinking of my Daughter.
I touch my smartphone.
A photo appears of my Daughter smiling brightly, holding up a V-sign with her fingers toward me.
It’s a photo from before she fell ill, taken excitedly during one of our outings together.
‘Come on… I can do this.’
There’s no time for moments like this if I’m to restore my Daughter to how she was.
I set down my smartphone and moved my body to prepare for the next action.
* * *
From the second day after taking the mound, I began throwing the ball gradually.
Starting with short-distance catch play and progressively increasing the distance into long toss, I also began doing some Bullpen pitching little by little.
Normally, I would be building up my body slowly from this point, but this time was different.
Whoooosh!
“What the—! What kind of ball is that!”
From the very next day, I began throwing at full power in the Bullpen.
Just as the Point expenditure proved the shoulder treatment worked, the recorded velocity itself was different.
147 km/h.
When I first returned to the past, my maximum velocity was only 138 km/h.
But once I corrected my pitching form to match my prime and fixed my shoulder, it jumped up by 9 km/h immediately, and my pitch quality recovered considerably as well.
Kang Do-bin, the senior who caught my pitches, was the most shocked by the sudden change, while Pitching Coach Bae Ki-chan’s face shifted into one of disbelief.
“So Pilates really does work, huh.”
“Huh. I’ve gotta learn that tonight for sure.”
“How am I supposed to just sit with this.”
And I could see the seniors beside me whispering and steeling their resolve.
Watching them, my heart raced even faster.
‘So this is what my vibrant shoulder felt like!’
A shoulder from those vigorous days I myself had forgotten.
Not only was it brimming with power, but because my shoulder didn’t hurt, my arm naturally engaged with more force, and the detail in my fingertip control was different.
Thanks to that, the sensation of gripping the ball with my fingers felt vivid, and I got goosebumps with every pitch I threw.
‘Was my sense really this good?’
It was something I myself hadn’t known.
So I tried adjusting.
Whoosh!
This time I threw with slightly less force.
Even so, my fingertips moved as if insisting this was how it should be thrown, scraping the seams, and even as the velocity decreased, the spin rate remained intact.
Whoooosh!
When I threw at full power again, I myself caught the seams as if it were second nature.
“Really good ball! Seriously great!”
Kang Do-bin kept praising me and returned the caught ball.
I didn’t grow arrogant, but calmly held this racing heart in my chest and threw the ball.
The ball had improved, but my control still wasn’t properly locked in.
My vibrant shoulder was running wild, so it wasn’t something I could make my own in just one day.
“Let’s see your breaking balls.”
At the Coach’s request from beside me, I nodded and gripped the ball differently.
The first pitch I threw was a changeup.
It was also the pitch type designed to catch left-handed batters from the previous Gwangju Elephants lineup.
“Hah!”
The ball emerging from the same pitching form as a fastball begins to dance just before Home Plate. As if someone had grabbed it by the hair, it drops suddenly—that much is expected—and curves sideways as though being pulled into a vortex.
Moving as if it would pass cleanly through the strike zone before veering outside, Kang Do-bin struggles to catch it, his glove driven into the ground and refusing to come free easily.
Yet proving himself a 2nd Team starting catcher, he recovers from his initial shock and begins snagging pitch after pitch with practiced ease, giving me confidence.
“Next. Curveball.”
I gripped the curveball and released it.
In truth, I hadn’t thrown many curveballs even in the previous game. Compared to the changeup, the curveball simply doesn’t sit as naturally in my hand.
Even during my prime, my curveball usage rate never exceeded two percent, making it practically a phantom pitch.
But my body now needs to refine and hone what already feels familiar rather than learning entirely new pitches—that’s the fastest path back to the 1st Team.
Besides, with my elbow injury still nagging me, mixing in different variations would be reckless.
“I won’t need to worry about the next appearance.”
The next game is against the Suwon Wolves.
It’s a trip to Gyeonggi Province, and while I’m heading there, it’s also the day I can see my Daughter.
‘I’ll be there soon, Ye-jin.’
Thinking of meeting my Daughter, I wished for time to pass faster.

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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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