The Genius Pitcher Dad Throws for His Daughter - Chapter 86

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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 86
#86.
Spring Training with my older brothers is the best.
‘No! It feels like it’s surpassed the best?’
An indescribable thrill courses through my entire body.
It’s not just mindless drills that push me to exhaustion—it’s Gu Hyun-im’s training that relentlessly drives me to my absolute limits, and my other brothers generously imparting their finest pitching techniques to me.
To be honest, it’s a bit overwhelming.
Se-jin, being on the same team, is one thing, and I understand Myung-hwan—we share a spiritual connection. But Hee-su and Jin-heo are different.
They’re on different teams, and we haven’t really had many conversations.
We crossed paths a few times during the season, but we’ve never shared the Mound together, nor have we met separately.
Yet they look after me like I’m a junior teammate, and they genuinely care for me.
When teaching me pitches, they do so with utmost sincerity, repeating from start to finish countless times without showing a hint of displeasure.
One evening after training, when we all gathered to relax over dinner, I asked about it.
“Oh, that?”
Hee-su chuckles to himself.
Then he nudges the person next to him, and Jin-heo speaks up awkwardly.
“Myung-hwan brought him back to life. I wondered how long that bastard would keep digging in the dirt… but ever since meeting you, he suddenly came alive again, and now he’s the one bringing up Spring Training first.”
It all started with Myung-hwan.
Grieving the loss of his wife and living day by day throwing pitches without clear purpose, Myung-hwan found new vitality through me, and he was the one who first suggested doing Spring Training without regrets, they say.
Since all of this happened because of me, they’re repaying that debt.
“Better I teach you than you learn a slider wrong somewhere and throw garbage.”
Jin-heo throws four different types of sliders.
Vertical and horizontal, high-velocity, and sweepers—he throws them all with perfect control. Though his velocity has dropped from his prime, batters helplessly swing at his unpredictable sliders.
“I’m just helping refine your changeup. Looks like you’ve already got decent stuff.”
Hee-su’s changeup is quite unique.
He’s the only pitcher in the country who throws a kick changeup. With its distinctive movement, he sweeps away opposing batters, and he’s teaching me that technique.
For the record, I know how to throw a kick changeup.
Before returning to the past, I threw it very rarely, but back then my hand wasn’t accustomed to it, so I only used it occasionally to catch batters off-guard. Now I’m learning it properly.
“My curveball training is already done.”
“It seems I’ve surpassed my teacher, though.”
“What are you talking about.”
Myung-hwan just chuckles.
“Do you know anything about forkballs?”
Se-jin taught me the forkball.
When he first mentioned teaching me the forkball, I was hesitant about whether to learn it.
There’s the theory that it carries high injury risk, and I was concerned about the actual grip fatigue it causes. Before that, your physical condition needs to be suitable, but I passed that test.
Still, I decided to learn it just in case.
Even if it’s not my finishing pitch, it’ll be good to use occasionally.
“After a week of theory, we should start throwing it soon.”
That was right.
Over this past week, my hyungs taught me the theory through words, showed me how to grip and throw the ball with their hands, and had me study videos on YouTube.
In other words, I hadn’t yet consumed Points to register it in my Status Window.
“Hyun-im. Let’s start pitching tomorrow.”
“Yeah. But we keep the mornings the same.”
“Okay.”
Changes came to the Pitching Group, who had been running themselves ragged and doing nothing but weight training for two weeks.
And the remaining two weeks of Spring Training passed in a flash.
* * *
“Training’s over. Everyone did great.”
At those words, everyone cheered with joy.
A month since we arrived in Guam.
We spent Christmas and New Year’s here.
Though it wasn’t like we celebrated anything grand.
We just greeted each other when we saw faces, then trained. We ran ourselves ragged from morning to evening, then called our families at night.
Due to the time difference, it was a bit late at night, but everyone’s faces looked bright from talking after so long.
A month of group training with nothing but training, exercise, and studying—no parties or drinking gatherings—had come to an end.
“Come on, let’s go! Let’s demolish a restaurant!”
Jin-heo hyung shouted excitedly, and everyone got up.
And we really did eat with the intention of bankrupting the place. With a month’s worth of alcohol we hadn’t consumed on top of that, my hyungs went wild.
Dong-guk and his two juniors were the same, but only I stopped at a single beer.
Now we planned to rest for about two more days before each going our separate ways.
Four teams, including the Dolphins, had set up Spring Camp here in Guam this year.
Since the Elephants were also here, Jin-heo hyung and Woo-jin stayed behind.
Three people went to the Airport, and the rest of us stayed a few more days until each team arrived.
Training, exercise, and studying continued as usual.
The difference from the training we’d done before was that the number of times we threw the ball increased slightly.
And now I was standing on the Mound, with Jin-heo hyung watching over me.
Toward Myung-su, who was crouched wearing a Catcher’s mitt, I pulled out the slider I’d learned from Jin-heo hyung.
Imagining a right-handed batter, the first pitch was a back-door slider.
Whoosh!
“Nice.”
This time, a horizontal slider boring in toward the batter’s body.
Whoosh!
“Good.”
For the finish, since I’d seen it curve to the side, now it was time to drop it.
I aimed for the lower outer corner and threw, and the ball flew toward Home Plate before dropping.
“Tch, you’ve learned it all by now.”
“Thank you, hyung.”
I consumed Points to learn Jin-heo hyung’s slider.
Unlike when I first learned, my acquisition rate didn’t skyrocket, but because I’d consistently practiced and mastered the theory and form before consuming Points, I learned it better than expected.
– I’ve acquired the Slider.
– The Slider’s rank is C.
I was fortunate to obtain a high grade, just like when I learned the Splitter from Kevin.
Thanks to that, the Slider coming from my hand now shows two variations—one with vertical movement and one with horizontal movement.
Since the high-speed Slider and Sweeper still aren’t fully ingrained in my hands yet, my control gets wild when I throw them, so I’ve been focusing intensively on researching the two variations.
As a result, my pitching style, which until now had been filled only with trajectories that drop, now has one weapon that breaks sideways.
“Phew… those kids are going to suffer.”
“We still have a long way to go.”
To be honest, I’m still lacking quite a bit.
If you ask whether it’ll work on the professional stage, it will. Timing to catch them off-guard, or using it against Batters who don’t have the Slider as an option—it can definitely be a weapon.
But compared to Jin-heo using it as a decisive pitch or main weapon, I’m still far short.
Out of ten throws, the movement breaks down three or four times and becomes a bland fastball, so despite the rank, it’s still not fully ingrained in my hands.
Since Jin-heo was satisfied, Se-jin asked from beside him.
“What about the Forkball?”
“It’s… difficult.”
I told Se-jin with a bitter expression.
I invested the same points and learned Se-jin’s Forkball.
Unfortunately, the Forkball received an E rank evaluation. I can throw it, but the reality is it falls short compared to the Splitter in terms of drop and velocity.
Se-jin, after watching it a few times, concluded that using the Splitter would be far better, and so the Forkball was merely registered in my status window.
“How about you, hyung? Kevin’s Splitter?”
“Hmm… it seems like it should work, but it doesn’t.”
Instead, I taught Se-jin Kevin’s Splitter in return.
Since he’s older, I taught it with his grip strength in mind, but while the velocity comes out, the drop doesn’t curve as sharply as the Forkball, so he’s not satisfied with it.
Originally, the Splitter drops less than the Forkball and drops more than the Fastball, but he doesn’t like that middle ground.
I stepped off the Mound, Se-jin threw a few times, and then Jin-heo had Woo-jin sit down and throw.
“Woo-jin looks decent.”
“Yeah. He lacks experience, but his defensive ability seems better than Myung-su’s?”
It wasn’t for nothing that Jin-heo brought him in at his own expense.
He’s a year younger than me, the same age as Myung-su, and he shows quite decent form. He was originally in the 2nd Team due to weak hitting, but now that Hyun-im has corrected him to some degree, he’s showing quality contact.
If he does well, it looks like I’ll see him often in the 1st Team this year.
As I watched the two of them for a moment, Se-jin spoke with a smile.
“By the way, did you get a call from the Manager?”
“No. He hasn’t contacted me in particular.”
“Really?”
Then the grinning hyung told me.
“He seems to be already looking forward to how much you and I will grow during Spring Training. Apparently, there’s an Intra-squad game right when we arrive in Guam.”
“Wow… right away?”
Usually, an Intra-squad game happens about a week after Spring Camp starts.
But doing it right away means he’s going to properly separate the wheat from the chaff from the start of camp.
Moreover, the Manager even gave a warning beforehand last year.
If you don’t build your body properly, there’s no chance. Thanks to that, the veteran players on the team skipped finishing drills and focused solely on recovery, so it seemed everyone was prepared to some degree.
“And for pitchers, it’s you and me. How about it?”
I found myself grinning along with Se-jin without realizing it.
“We’ll crush them all, right?”
“Think so?”
Myung-su, watching us two conspire beside him, trembled slightly.
Jin-heo asked, perhaps noticing how my grin had turned sinister.
“What is it? Something fun happen?”
And not long after, Jin-heo began wearing a similar smile.
“This is going to be hilarious. Your camp is.”
The two Catchers shuddered at the pitchers’ childish scheming.
* * *
I joined the Spring Camp team.
This year’s camp had more participants than last year, apparently.
It seemed Manager Jang Si-hwan had increased the roster to give standout players from the 2nd Team or those he personally recommended the chance to experience the 1st Team camp instead of the 2nd Team camp.
As a result, there were plenty of seniors and juniors with stiff expressions.
I started to mirror their expressions but shook my head and brushed it off.
If I were the me from before returning to the past, I’d be in the Hospital right now, but now I’m confidently in the 1st Team camp. And more than anything, I’d been through this period several times already—there was no reason to be this nervous.
Most of all, I trusted the sweat I’d shed over the past month.
“Listen up, everyone. We’re doing an intrasquad game tomorrow. Pitchers are Se-jin and Kang Ho. You’ll likely get at least one at-bat, so don’t overeat starting in the morning.”
Spring Camp had begun.

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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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